Greetings SM Network,
My name is Matthew Brooks and I'm a freshman stage management major pursing a BFA at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. I have lived in the area since I was two and that works out well because central Illinois has a surprisingly dedicated theatre scene. My high school theatre department was very good (the featured show at our high school theatre festival both times that we were eligible while I was a student there), and the University of Illinois has been all that I had hoped for and so much more.
I mainly love doing musicals and I've done several (my favorite is Urinetown and since I've done it twice now I pretty much have the show memorized line by line), but I also love the literary prowess of plays (Proof by David Auburn being my favorite play). I'm studying stage management, but I also love writing, directing, and set building. I kind of just love doing everything around a theatre and I figure that stage managing is the best way to be in touch with everyone.
I learned of your website from a fellow student here at the U of I who is another ASM with me on our production of O Beautiful by Theresa Rebeck which will start rehearsals in a couple of weeks and go through the performances in April.
As to little tips, I find that getting to know everyone working on a production (especially the people that generally won't talk to as much, such as assistant to assistants, etc) really helps cement your place as an essential aid to the production. This might seem pretty obvious, but I think people are a lot more willing to listen and try to help you if you've talked to them when you haven't needed something.
As to a story, my favorite one is during a production of Beauty and the Beast that I stage manged, we had a wagon where a wheel broke off entirely (our stage had a divot and the wheel got stuck in it), and we had to fix it in about four minutes before it needed to go out again. So we basically had two big guys our crew lift it up, had my asm sprawl across the floor, and we all tried to fix it as silently as we can. It ended up working out perfectly and we made it without anyone in the audience realizing that a major disaster was fixed. It was definitely my proudest moment.
Trivia time! I love trivia, so I have a lot of it. Some movie trivia: The Lion King was considered the "B" movie that the Disney Animation Studios were working on. It got the less experienced designers, animators, and other creative personnel. The movie that got the "A" list creative team? Pocahontas.
So I hope you learned a little about me (I feel like I just talked a lot) and I hope to get to know you guys in the future!
