What Happens In the Booth: A Stage Manager\u27s Experience

What Happens in the Booth: A Stage Manager\u27s Experience is an internship thesis project. I was initially curious about what it would be like to experience all that occurs off stage. I had experienced work as a deck hand, but I really had no clue what the other crewmembers\u27 roles consisted of. I wanted to experience first hand what it would be like to work as a stage manager under the direction of a production manager, lighting designer, and director. My title combines my curiosity with the eager anticipation of partaking in what is initially unknown. During my internship, I began sitting in on a production meeting at the very start of the semester to running the show by the end of the semester. It was a very accelerated learning environment where the only option was to push forward. It wildly expanded my knowledge of what a production team and crew accomplishes. It forced me to engage in a new role as a leadership figure in the theatre. Granted the audience and the cast aren\u27t largely aware of this, but without that leadership the show couldn\u27t function. I now have a greater respect and awe for professionals who devote their mastery of this craft, into the essential and often unacknowledged role of the stage manager. I have now been exposed to the joy and edge that position has to offer