Glad to meet you!

[PennSM]

Hello, smnetwork!

I just found this board by furiously searching Google to make sure I'm not messing up my new, stage management specific, resume. I love it already!

A little about myself is called for, I guess. I've spent the past two years studying at the University of Pennsylvania and now I've decided to take a year away. In that year, I want to take what I've learned from my theater experience at school and find jobs/internships in theater and, hopefully, stage managing. But, to be honest, I'll take what I can get.

I'm excited to peruse the forums and learn and contribute what I can! Now, a funny tale.

I'm not sure how funny this is without the visual, but I was stage managing a production of Assassins and it was the first time I didn't have a co-SM with me. I had a freshman assistant, who I loved, but she was new to the backstage areas of SMing, having only called shows before. Our only headset communication required her to be tethered to a wall backstage, so she was rarely on it, and I can be the tiniest bit of a control freak, so I was constantly running back to check on her. Also important is that our theater's seating was raked. Our show opened Thursday, and Tuesday I had a bit of an accident where I tripped on some stairs and couldn't walk. (Do you see where this is going?) I almost waited to see a doctor because I couldn't get an appointment before rehearsal started. But I went in and they wrapped my foot up and put me on crutches. I had just enough time to copy the drummer's score and oversee the movement of the drums from their storage space to our building before rehearsal started. I really planned to just stay in my box with the God mic and not move. But people downstairs needed me. And my crutches just slowed me down. So I spent the next three days hopping up and down the stairs as fast as I could with either my Tech Director, ASM, or boyfriend trailing behind me waving my crutches and trying to get me to use them. At least I'd worked on a convincing limp by opening night so I didn't embarrass myself in front of audience members!

[Maribeth]

Hello and welcome aboard! We seem to have a number of Philly-based SMs posting these days, so I'm trying to get a thread going about people's favorite places in Philly. Here's the link- I hope you have some great places to share!

Maribeth

[loebtmc]

It's amazing to me that you are a Penn SM, because we had none when I was there (in the dinosaur days, of course) - but I am fascinated to learn there is a real theater program now! I look forward to meeting you when i come back to visit my sister and her family -

[PennSM]

I'll be sure to check that out, Maribeth! I didn't explore much out of Penn's campus except to go to the Arden once or twice, but I might have something to add.

There is a real Theater Arts Department now, but I've never had the chance to work with them. I'll probably major in Anthropology, actually. We do have a thriving non-department theater scene, though. There are over 10 groups on campus that are completely run and organized by students separate from the department. About half are funded by the university, but quite a few function without it. I was on the Board of Governors of the Pennsylvania Players. Our gimmick was hiring professional directors to work with us on our season. I can PM you with more info if you're interested!

[loebtmc]

yes, we can take this off the main board - but we always had lots of student groups, from Penn Players to Mask & Wig and PennSingers along with dozens of others - just nothing was official and graded, all extra curricular.

However, I was there when Ken Olin and Patricia Wettig were on campus, along with a bunch of other folks now in production - and when Bernie Gerstein worked for Joe Papp as a stage manager, Hal Prince came down to dedicate his theater space, all the artists came to dinner as part of their deal with the theater, and people like Twyla Tharp and Jerzy Gratowski did a workshop in the lobby. It was quite a time.