Throwback Thursday A Theater Life for Me

I spend almost 20 years as a Stage Manger.

I fell into theater after a bad break up with a boyfriend and my friend Terri decided that I moped around enough and needed to do something.

So I came to a meeting for the new Theater at Emory called Theatre Emory. The play on the table was “Everyman” and it was being done in various buildings all over campus like the morality plays use to be done. I signed up for crew and ended up running lights at the Nursing School for the play. Through that play I met a group of people that I am still friends with to this day.

I discovered that I like stage managing but I learned to run lights and sound. I was really good at running the very old lighting board and the sound board. I learned costuming and props and box office.

I stage managed at the Academy Theater, Theatrical Outfit, Horizon Theater, the Alliance, and others while I was in Atlanta. I had a lot of fun and a lot of adventures.

Then I went to the Yale School of Drama and got my MFA in stage management and direction.

The summer after I graduated I worked at the Williamstown Theater Festival and then the Barter Theater.

Various theaters over the years became my temporary home as I went from show to show.

I moved up to New York and stage managed Tony and Tina’s Wedding for a while including the traveling show.

I was asked recently if I wanted to get back into theater full-time as I am watching a tech rehearsal for Little Mermaid JR. I thought about it and said ‘Not Really’.

I enjoyed my time as a stage manager and I wouldn’t trade any of it for anything as these were the stepping stones to where I am today. I could do the job in a heartbeat because those skills haven’t gone away. Would I? Depends on the circumstance. I have done some workshops/reading in NYC for friends but that’s the limit of my patience these days.

I am grateful for all the people I met through theater.