Student Blog: Mainstage SM Debut

As an underclassman, it’s scary trying to fight for opportunities in the theatre, even within one's own school. I recently finished my mainstage debut at my university as a stage manager, and despite my stress, I had a great time and learned a ton. In addition to getting my name out there, I was able to develop a new social group of incredibly talented performers and designers, while also getting 1-on-1 support and guidance from an equity stage management mentor. 

This particular show was unlike anything I had done before. Not only did the show include graduate student designers and principal actors, but the whole show was done in a concert-style format. The directors had the traditional blocking and text work days, but the whole company had to figure out how to incorporate minimal choreography and a live on-stage orchestra into the world of the show. Additionally, since “Merrily We Roll Along” is a nontraditional show by nature (taking place in reverse chronological order over 20 years), it was a challenge to comprehend the story in both directions, as well as consistently know where in the trio’s journey they are. Mix that with around 500 light cues, projections, and a relatively inexperienced stage manager, and it was a trip. 

Yet, I greatly enjoyed the whole process. Our music director had the cast learn the show in chronological order, which is technically backwards in the sense of the show. However, this allowed the characters to figure out who they are and helped determine internal breaking points, especially for our leads. This made it fun – almost like a puzzle to figure out how everyone fit together into the story. The crew was even finding new references during shows that no one had noticed before. 

Plus, I have to admit, the cast and crews were really awesome to work with. I was terrified going into tech. I was younger than many of the people I was technically in charge of, and was overall incredibly worried about messing up. I didn’t want to mess up a cue, resulting in the grad students losing points on the qualifier project, or forget some important information, causing things to go wrong. But everyone was kind and understanding. Yes, there were arguments during stressful times of tech, but between TikToks before call time, company birthday parties, and even pizza dinners, I felt welcomed and accepted into the team. Yes, I was often running around frantically searching for crew, and spent many nights lying on the floor of our rehearsal room, half dead, but my team showered me with compliments and even seemed to want to hang out with me socially.

Overall, I’m glad for the opportunity. I was thrown into it way too late in the process, and I felt very insecure the entire time, but I now have my name in an official collegiate playbill. My ASM and I are close as always, my cast reaches out constantly to say hello, and the directors have thanked me numerous times.