Chicago Sun-Times: Last year, Kyle Aschbrenner had to have a talk with his charges after one of them drew a penis on a bulletin board.
“I had to tell everyone to sit down and be like, ‘While I find this very funny, I have to tell you guys not to do stuff like this,’” Aschbrenner recalled.
Aschbrenner doesn’t run after-school detention at a high school for misfits. He’s a non-Equity stage manager — perhaps the most stressful, complex, occasionally absurd, and underappreciated job in Chicago theater.
2 comments:
This was really refreshing to read, I’ve seen a lot of job offers come and go before just because I couldn’t afford the work and it’s really quite sad to be so busy that you can’t afford the job you want- this article is really a good stance on how I’ve felt for a while. This pickle has been pushing me to explore more of what a production manager or producers role looks like instead, a job that is stable and regular, but truthfully that instability is the appeal of stage managing. The idea that every single day there’s something completely different- some days you’re calmly taking notes in a rehearsal room, others you’re rushing to buy 50 people Subway as quickly as you can so everyone can eat before getting in drag. There is never a good job description when people ask, since it really could be anything, but the pay is usually well… bad. This flexibility in the position leaves room to underpay, and especially when the people who do this job are here because they love it, it’s easy to let go of the money when it’s such a fulfilling experience.
This article's focus on non-Equity stage managers, who are crucial to every show yet are frequently disregarded in theater, intrigues me. It means a lot to me as someone who is a stage manager, to see people within our section of the industry being honored with the Jeff Awards. I think it's critical that people realize how much responsibility stage managers have, from overseeing rehearsals to issuing cues and resolving unforeseen issues. Stage managers perform a lot of unseen behind-the-scenes work, which makes their acknowledgment even more crucial.It's also intriguing to me that a lot of non-Equity stage managers have other jobs and are underpaid, yet they continue to work in theater because they enjoy it. That demonstrates how enthusiastic theater professionals are about what they do. I love how this article makes it abundantly clear how crucial stage managers are to a production's success and why the theater industry should give them more credit.
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