A L U M N I M A G A Z I N E - Colby-Sawyer College

Out to Sea
and into the Mountains
Andrea Melville ’79 moves from acting and dancing
to producing artful television
Star Island, the second largest of the Isles of Shoals
Sitting in the living room of her comfortable old
house in Vermont, Andrea Melville ’79 doesn’t mind
struggling a bit to travel back in time. It’s been three
decades since she had her own key to the Sawyer Fine Arts
Center and spent many of her days and
nights there. In some ways her experiences
there set the stage for her current work.
“I was into theater and dance in
high school and couldn’t imagine doing
anything else,” she says. “Even at summer
camp I did plays and danced.” Her
mother converted the barn of their home
in Hampton Falls, N.H., into a studio,
where she taught painting to children
and adults. Melville says, “I had that
visual interest, too—painting, water colors,
oils.”
When it was time for college, Melville
wasn’t drawn to the large public “factory”
kind of education that most of her
peers were interested in. “I wanted something
small and close to the mountains,
so when I was accepted at Colby-Sawyer,
it was like, whoa, a three-year B.F.A.
program with professional connections
to summer stock (theater); I should go.”
On a campus with 800 mostly female
students, Melville worked one-on-one
with actors, choreographers and dancers
who were also her professors, people
such as Joel Conrad, Sally Draper and
Eugene Youngken. She was involved in
nearly every theater and dance production
from 1976 to 1979, including “Three
Penny Opera” in the role of a young
32 COLBY-SAWYER ALUMNI MAGAZINE
Andrea Melville, at the top of the ladder on right,
poses with other cast members from a production of
“The Fantasticks” in a photograph that appeared in
the college’s 1977 yearbook.
by Kimberly Swick Slover
courtesan, “The Fantasticks” as The Mute and Luisa, and as the
maid in “Blithe Spirit,” and she designed costumes and sets for
many more.
“The most important thing I learned is to be versatile—acting,
singing and dancing in many different
styles is important,” she says, “but I
was also very involved with the technical
aspects of mounting a show: stage management,
design, lighting and sound.
Even if you don’t physically do all of
those jobs in a production, it really helps
to understand the entire package, what
goes into putting together a production.
You learn to appreciate the importance
of every job and the meaning of working
together. When it all works together, it’s
amazing.”
The summer after graduation,
Melville was cast in “Fiddler on the
Roof” and “Brigadoon” at Prescott Park in
Portsmouth, N.H., and that fall she joined
The Looking Glass Theater Company
in Providence, R.I., which performed in
schools around New England. But like
many talented and ambitious actors, she
soon gravitated to the brightest lights,
the biggest city.
“I met a couple of actors from New
York City, so at the time I said, okay,
this is what you’re supposed to do,” she
says. She moved to the city and waited
tables while auditioning for roles, the
local custom for aspiring actors, and she
picked up extra work in soap operas and
films. While she enjoyed acting, she grew