After looking through the forums lately, it's so interesting to see how many people (with all different types of backgrounds and environments) are interested in Theatre, especially Stage Management.
I'd just like to know how everyone made the ultimate decision to become a stage manager. Was it by choice, or did it just fall into your lap? I'd especially like to know how the student/novice stage managers got into Stage Managing, but I'd love to hear everyone's experiences.
I'll tell you my personal experience to get things started. My high school was brand new my freshman year, and I had played softball all my life and thought I was just going to continue that. I then saw an audition poster for Sleeping Beauty, the first show that my school was putting on. I decided to audition, and didn't get in. However, I was in a drama class and my teacher came up to me and asked me had I ever stage managed. I didn't even know what a stage manager was, so obviously I hadn't. I agreed to Stage Mange that show and fell in love with it, and stage managed every show at my high school all four years that I attended. Now here I am 7 years later, and have gone on to bigger and better things without stopping! It definitely fell into my lap, and I just realized that it was fate and it was what I was put on this Earth to do. I guess when you know what you want to do, you just feel it and it all falls into place!