I love being in the room…
For me, there is no part of the theatrical process that isn’t creative, that isn’t in some way part of the conversation surrounding the synthesis of putting a play on its feet. What I love about stage management is that I’m able to use my practical skills as an organizer and a problem solver to serve what the directors, designers, and actors are doing. I, in no way, see myself as divorced from their process, merely a button pusher or note taker. As a stage manager, I have to understand what it is we’re all trying to do yet think about it differently than everyone else, because only when I’m functioning as the practical retainer of their creative output can they be free to express without limitation.
Every project is a little different. Even if working with a lot of the same people, the chemistry of all the parts is never quite the same. It’s important to me to learn each time how I can best serve the ecosystem of that particular project, how I can best serve the needs of that particular cohort of personalities. That’s the thrill of stage management, for me. There is an intense excitement in being an organized person, prepared as much as possible, but never quite knowing what I’m preparing for; in watching it come together day by day and my own process shift and ebb to fit the mold that is in the same instant being formed.
Moreover, there is such a reward in experiencing other artists’ processes. I love being in the room watching a deft director join with a willing actor to quest for the truth at the heart of a moment, which can then reshape our entire understanding of the play as a whole. There is nothing like it. Absolutely nothing like it. And then to witness their work from its infancy and nurture it as it dons its costumes and plays with its props, amassing itself into a tactile thing which is given a home in a set and brought to life with lights and sound until it breathes out through the actors and into an audience. And me up in the booth, the one constant night after night, tickled by all the little things that differ from performance to performance — which the audience will never know to appreciate — and counting myself truly blessed to have been a part of it.