Take 5

Due to the Music Theatre Senior Showcase in New York City, there has been a bit of a hiatus for Saturday Night Fever. I spent the last five days in New York, where I was stage managing the showcase, and boy was it an experience. 

The biggest change I noticed in this experience was that of working where you do not own the space. All of the theatre companies I’ve worked for (BW, Millbrook, Huron) have their space that you rehearse, build, and perform in. So it was a new experience for me to not be working in that environment. If I needed something, like extension cords, I couldn’t just go grab it myself from the cabinet like I would do at BW. Instead, I had to go and talk to the Gary or Nate, the house crew guys, who would then go get it.

It made it clear how much more of a people person job stage management really is in the professional world, where you really aren’t able to jump in and do things yourself. Just like the actors are the directors tools for shaping the play, people are the stage manager’s tools for getting things accomplished.

Stage managing showcase has also made me start reevaluating my goals for the future. Initially I thought I didn’t want to go to New York, but now I am wondering. I’ve learned that perhaps I do have what it takes to be successful there. I’ve always said that my career goal is simply to work on the highest quality of theatre I can with people I respect. So maybe I should shoot for the moon…