Theatre Blogs
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2019 Stage Manager Survey Results!
David J. McGraw | Stage Manager’s KitTheatre Blogs | April 22, 2020The 2019 Stage Manager Survey Report has just been released! Begun in 2006 by Stage Directions’ Contributing Writer David McGraw, the SM Survey is the largest study of stage managers in the world. The 7th edition of the survey includes responses from 1,746 American stage managers. Comparisons are made with previous editions of the survey: more stage managers […] Read More... -
Illuminations Blog: Dina El-Aziz: Costume Design is Not for the Undecided
Porsche McGovern | Illuminations | March 11, 2020I met Dina El-Aziz through a mutual friend online. Dina El-Aziz is a British-Egyptian Costume Designer, currently residing in New York. A graduate of the Design for Stage and Film MFA program at NYU Tisch School for the Arts, Dina has worked on theatre productions in NYC, and regionally in the US. Her most recent […] Read More... -
SM Test Kitchen: CallQ
David J. McGraw | Stage Manager’s Kit | March 4, 2020What better timing than the Year of the Stage Manager to bring back an old feature of this blog: the SM Test Kitchen! We are seeing a new wave of tools and technologies for stage managers—sometimes co-opted from other fields—so let’s run them through some tests and see which types of stage managers are best […] Read More... -
Announcing the SM2030 Project Survey
David J. McGraw | Industry NewsStage Manager’s Kit | February 7, 2020In connection with 2020 as the Year of the Stage Manager, a new study of American stage managers has launched. The SM2030 Project is a ten-year research project designed to better understand how stage managers begin their careers and their initial challenges. It is a longitudinal study that will follow a group of individuals from […] Read More... -
YSM2020: February – Advocacy & Community
Jennifer Leigh Sears Scheier | Stage Management History | February 5, 2020With 2020 heralded as the Year of the Stage Manager (see YSM2020: 100 Years of Being Explicit for more details), each month has been given a theme to encourage the generation of new stage management content. February’s theme is Advocacy & Community and we are going to take a step back into history to see why advocacy was […] Read More... -
Vianey Salazar: Navigating POC Politics in Production
Porsche McGovern | Illuminations | January 13, 2020When I designed for The Last Five Years at Portland Stage last spring, I met Vianey Salazar who programmed lights for me. Vianey Salazar (vya-NAY sah-lah-ZARR) is a Mexican lighting designer and electrician who was born in Chicago and raised in Texas. She received a BFA in Theatre Design & Technology from Illinois Wesleyan University and has worked […] Read More... -
Defining Stage Management
Jennifer Leigh Sears Scheier | Stage Management History | January 13, 2020With 2020 heralded as the Year of the Stage Manager (see YSM2020: 100 Years of Being Explicit for more details), each month has been given a theme to encourage the generation of new stage management content. January’s subject for YSM2020 is “What is Stage Management?” and contemporary stage managers have wonderfully flocked to social media […] Read More... -
YSM2020 – 100 Years of Being Explicit
Jennifer Leigh Sears Scheier | Stage Management History | January 2, 2020Happy New Year! In case you haven’t heard, 2020 is the year of the stage manager with the intent to celebrate and educate! Why 2020? Because 100 years ago, on February 16, 1920, the executive council of Actor’s Equity Association carried a motion that changed the contractual language to include Stage Managers and Assistant Stage […] Read More... -
The Hand Off
David J. McGraw | Stage Manager’s Kit | December 21, 2019Today I wrap up a one-week gig where I took over the SM position due to schedule conflicts for the original stage manager. I joined the company on Tuesday and the original SM departed Thursday night. I used my experiences as both a sub and as the SM receiving a co-production to plan for this […] Read More... -
The Art of Blackness: Sound Design for the Culture
Porsche McGovern | Illuminations | November 13, 2019I met Derek Graham when he was the resident sound designer/engineer at PlayMakers Repertory Company on Skeleton Crew, for which I designed lights. Derek Graham is a sound designer, composer, and audio engineer based in North Carolina. A native of Queens, NY, Derek holds a MFA in Sound Design from Ohio University. His sound design and composition works include: Redwood (Portland Center Stage at the Armory), Your Healing is Killing Me and Bewilderness (PlayMakers Repertory Company: PRC2 Series); The Passion of Teresa Rae King, A Raisin in the Sun, and Beautiful Star (Triad Stage); Believe in Cleveland (Karamu House); and Wakey Wakey, An Octoroon (Dobama Theatre). Derek has recently co-founded a multi-media design company with his wife, Jessica called Life by Design Media & Productions, recently launching the first episode of the new podcast series What’s the Law? Ask John Eluwa. Read More... -
Let Your Voice Be Heard
David J. McGraw | Stage Manager’s Kit | November 12, 2019This year marks the 7th edition of the Stage Manager Survey. If you have not taken the survey yet and you have served in a stage management role in at least 3 American productions, please visit http://smsurvey.info. The 2019 survey runs through Monday, November 25th, but don’t wait to share your thoughts on the profession. Read More... -
Cause for Celebration + Exciting Announcement
David J. McGraw | Stage Manager’s Kit | October 7, 2019 Perfect scores for Stage Managers On October 10th we celebrate International Stage Management Day. We can thank our fellow SMs in the UK for starting this holiday* and festivities are planned quite literally around the world (please free feel to share yours in the Comments). The Stage Managers’ Association of the United States is hosting parties, sharing punny telegrams, and asking folks to post photos of SM teams with the tag #Internationalstagemanagementday2019. Read More...
