Recent Posts

1

Introductions / Moving and Grooving

« Last post by Kjennings45 on Sep 10, 2024, 12:53 pm »

Hi! My name is Kendall Jennings.... I am new here! I just want to say I love this site already. Just reading a few posts and it's exciting to hear advice from experience stage managers. I would say I am experienced as well, but I just graduated college. So, all my experience is university productions and a few productions with a professional theatre down in Bowling Green, KY.
I know we just "met," but I have some exciting news! I moving to New York City in October! Yeah, I know, big change from Louisville, KY. I am thrilled, excited...... nervous. Every day, I am either about to vomit or jumping up and down screaming with joy. I guess it's the unknown that is killing me. The good thing is I have a great connection with a female director from New York, who has taken me in as a mentee. She has been very helpful, and I have been reading a ton of books on stage managing.
I actually found this site through one of the books I am reading.
Anywho! I am an excited, positive, dedicated SM who is waiting for her next chapter and ready to learn more.
I'm very happy to find this site and I can't wait to learn all the knowledge you all have about the backstage life!
I am a very open person and love people, so if you want to chat - send me a message. Or if you have any advice on moving to the Big Apple, I am all ears.

Thank you and have a blessed week 

2

Introductions / Re: Stage Manager as a second act

« Last post by Maribeth on Aug 26, 2024, 06:35 pm »

Hi and welcome!

3

Introductions / Re: Stage Managing in CT & NY

« Last post by Maribeth on Aug 26, 2024, 06:34 pm »

Welcome aboard, Geo!

4

Introductions / Re: Stage Management Teacher and Opera SM

« Last post by Maribeth on Aug 26, 2024, 06:34 pm »

Welcome from another DC-er! 

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Introductions / Stage Managing in CT & NY

« Last post by georosario_ on Aug 26, 2024, 11:24 am »

Hello everyone!

My name is Geo Colon, I just graduated last year with my bachelors in Stage Management. Excited to be part of this community and eager to learn more! This past year I've had the opportunity to PSM/ASM several shows after graduating in the CT and NY area, my main goal though is to teach Stage Management in the future. My next step is to apply for my M.F.A in Stage Management, would love any advice on that!

I hope to live in a world where all production crews authentically mirror the diversity across the globe, encouraging an environment where people from various cultural backgrounds not only find representation but are also deeply valued. This vision is a big part of why I'm pursuing my MFA in Stage Management, as I believe education and leadership are key to fostering this change.

I am excited to be apart of this group and be able to gain new wisdom!

-Geo Colon

6

Introductions / Stage Manager as a second act

« Last post by SalishStageMangler on Aug 26, 2024, 01:42 am »

Greetings to all of you here. I ran across this forum almost by accident while researching resources to aid me with tutoring a shiny new SM novice. This community is a delightful find.

As the subject implies, I am a stage manager/stagecraft technician as a second life act. I retired in 2019 from a 38 year career as a computer and network systems administrator with a focus on information security. Some people are supposedly left brained and some are supposedly right brained, but I've always felt that I am "both brained" and have engaged both my creative and my analytical brain parts together most of the time. I spent my first two years of college training as a professional musician (trombone mostly) at a small private university in St. Paul, Minnesota, and played semi-professionally part-time for several years in a large swing band. I became disillusioned with my potential career path as well as being unable to afford further time at the private school, and I switched to attending the University of Minnesota and majored in Geology and Computer Science. I was fortunate in my IT career to be able to work in many interesting companies and industries, but when my two children were in middle school I realized that I was craving an outlet for myself as a Creative and I found it in theater (and later in choral and a cappella singing, but that's another story).

I was the SM for my first show Rabbit Hole in 2009 and as of summer 2024 I can now count 15 shows as SM and two shows as ASM. I've been SM for small shows and one-acts all the way up to large-scale musicals such as Oliver! (after which I told the Executive Artistic director that I was NEVER going to work with small children EVER again). In the early stages being an SM was a largely unpaid side gig and a significant time investment for me while working in IT full time, and I was drawn to it quite simply because I love being part of making theater happen. Prior to starting my path as an SM I was a founding board member of a children's theater nonprofit (theater performed by children, not theater performed for children). During my five years as a board member there I acted as the volunteer Technical Director as well as co-producing several of the larger children's theater shows such as Les Misérables and The Pirates of Penzance. After that I acted in community theater productions a number of times, but felt more of a draw toward the offstage skills such as stage management, set construction, lighting, and sound. In additional to my work at my local theater, I recently finished up eight years on the board of a summer Shakespeare festival company and served as the Board President for the last three years during the Covidian Era. I earned a lot more gray hairs trying to keep a small theater group alive during Covid quarantine and the subsequent cultural fallout, but that's also many more other stories for another day. All of the volunteer time as theater tech and stage manager as well as the board work that I have done comes from a deep personal place of loving the power of theater as an art form and believing that theater is important in our culture, and that it doesn't happen unless people show up to make it happen. I may be slightly masochistic because I just keep showing up, but nonetheless here I am.

I have had some mentoring in the fifteen years that I've been doing SM work at my local 240-seat community theater, but primarily my skills have developed through self-study of some of the traditional textbooks/industry guides as well as doing a lot of on-the-job training with technical directors and other local stage managers. I treat the work and continued self improvement of my SM skills very seriously, and now have a skill set that has been appraised as being professional level by some noteworthy visiting directors and professional actors whom I have had the good fortune to meet as our theater strives to move into recognized regional theater territory. I hope that I can both learn things from and contribute to this community.

I feel like now it's my turn to start seriously mentoring some of the next generation of stage managers as I have been mentored. In part, doing so is a bit selfish because most of the cadre of local stage managers that rotated through my theater are aging out and there needs to be fresh faces rotating in and being competent. I'm still working at my local community theater as it moves up in the world and am receiving a small stipend now for my work, I'm still learning with every show that that I work on, but I am in a place where I don't want to work every show because I'm also trying to be just a little bit retired after becoming very tired and earning most of my gray hair during the latter years of my IT career. I will be volunteering this school year to do some basic theatercraft training for students at a local high school with a very meager theater program, and I'm starting to develop a formal "How to" manual and training curriculum to train up additional stage managers at my local theater. I still also volunteer my time and technical skills to the local Shakespeare Festival but now all of the board work is Someone Else's Problem™ and I just get to do the fun things that I like to do to put the shows on.

7

Introductions / Stage Management Teacher and Opera SM

« Last post by JPHSM on Aug 19, 2024, 05:23 pm »

Greetings! My name is John Patrick Hunter and I have been a freelance opera Stage Manager since 2011. While I love working on the road and interacting with performers and musicians and technicians all over, I have just recently been hired to tech Stage Management full-time to high school students at the Duke Ellington School of the Arts in Georgetown, DC.

I can be a resource for those looking for information about Opera Stage Management and specifically, Stage Management within academic settings. I have previously worked at Juilliard, Jacobs School of Music, Manhattan School of Music, and the Peabody Institute. I also have experience working with the old New York City Opera and the new New York City Opera. I am also a graduate of the MFA Stage Management program at the Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers University.

I look forward to meeting new Stage Managers and students.
-John

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Students and Novice Stage Managers / Re: High School Musical props

« Last post by rabenold on May 28, 2024, 04:52 am »

Thanks for the information!

9

Introductions / Re: Hiya!

« Last post by VSM on May 15, 2024, 10:51 am »

Welcome Aboard Clara!

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Introductions / Hiya!

« Last post by clara.w on May 14, 2024, 06:52 pm »

Hi! My name is Clara! I got into stage management in high school, and I'm in college now. Most of the stage management I've been doing for the past few years has been community theater, which has been really fun! I'm super interested in learning more about how to make a career out of stage management!