Memoir By Broadway Stage Manager Richard Hester 'Hold, Please' is Available for Pre-Sale

Veteran Broadway Stage Manager Richard Hester (Jersey Boys) releases "Hold, Please: Stage Managing A Pandemic," a memoir of the year Broadway went dark.

 

When COVID struck and the lights went out on Broadway at the start of 2020, Richard Hester went from stage managing Jersey Boys to sitting at home watching the news. In his habitual way, he organized his thoughts, and began sharing them on social media. At once artists from his four decades of Broadway and international theatre began to do what they had always done: listen to their Stage Manager for guidance.

 

Weeks turned into months. The virus spread, the death-count rose, and 2020 became a year unlike any other, filled with incomprehensible events: an election underway, millions out of work, racial divides exposed, economies shut down, all culminating in an attack on American democracy itself.

 

Through it all Hester maintained a daily run-down of events, both global and personal. He contextualized what was happening, providing perspective from both historical and theatrical perspectives. Recounting tales from fabled Broadway stars and directors to his own family and friends, Richard became a clarion of clarity for those in his broad social circle.

 

One year later, Richard has collected his daily posts into a memoir from March 2020 to April 2021. With a Foreword by Jersey Boys scribe Rick Elice, this gripping real-time unfolding of events, with running observations and the looming sense of discovery, dread, despair, eventually turns to cautious optimism. Written with humor and compassion, this book will be essential reading for both theatre enthusiasts and those still grappling to make sense of the events of that tumultuous time. With Hold, Please: Stage Managing A Pandemic, Hester provides a unique perspective, culminating in the most important message of all-Hope.

 

Hester's career as a stage manager and production supervisor spans forty years, with credits spanning the off-Broadway premiere of Harold Pinter's Mountain Language to the hit Broadway musical Jersey Boys, for which he spent sixteen years staging and maintaining productions all over the world. He continues to tour with both Patti LuPone and Mandy Patinkin for their concerts, both nationally and internationally. With Bernadette Peters and Mary Tyler Moore, Hester helped found and produce Broadway Barks! an annual animal adoption event that has helped thousands of dogs and cats find forever homes. This is his first book.

 

Hold, Please: Stage Managing A Pandemic will be published by Sordelet Ink, the independent press founded by Broadway fight director Rick Sordelet (Lion King, Beauty & The Beast, Misery) and bestselling author David Blixt (What Girls Are Good For, The Master Of Verona). The book will be available March 29th, 2022, in hardcover, paperback, ebook, and audiobook formats. It is available for pre-order now at Amazon.com. 516 pages (hardcover). 27 hours (audio).

The book is now available for pre-sale on Amazon. 
For more information check the Sordelet Ink website: www.sordeletink.com.