Off Headset: Essays on Stage Management Work, Life, and Career

Preface

Rafael Jaen and Christopher Sadler

Introduction. Intersectional History: Stage Managers' in the Actors' Union

Jennifer Leigh Sears Scheier

Part 1: Work

1. The Big Picture

Joseph Drummond

2. Maximum Flexibility

Tom Humes

3. The Journey of a Thousand Steps Starts With a Dream

Matthew Stern

4. The "Smusedays" of Touring a Broadway Show!

Kristi Ross-Clausen

5. Running Away with Cirque du Soleil

Alana Clapp

6. Opera Stage Management 101

Erin Joy Swank

7. Off Headset at Sea

Charlotte Sachetti

8. A Mutualistic Symbiotic Model: Stage Manager and Designers' Strong Ties and Participative Intentions

Rafael Jaen

9. The Art of Management

Joanna Obuzor

10. Stage Management is Only Just Beginning

David McGraw

11. Hold, Please: Addressing Urgency and Other White Supremacist Standards in Stage Management (HowlRound)

Miguel Flores, R. Christopher Maxwell, John Meredith, Alexander Murphy, Quinn O'Connor, Phyllis Y. Smith, and Chris Waters

Part 2: Life

12. Stage Managing a Beautifully Complicated History

Nikki Hyde

13. Already Calm, I'm the Stage Manager

Michele Kay

14. Life in the Real World

Amanda Spooner

15. "Was That a Go?" Lessons on Perseverance & Resilience

Jay Sheehan

16. A Multiplicity of Identities, On Headset and Off

Narda E. Alcorn with Copy Editor and Proofreader Sam Tirrell

17. The Fallacy of Figuring It All Out: Finding Grace in the Imperfect Attempts at Balance

Jonathan D. Allsup

Part 3: Career

18. A Matter of Perspective

Ramon Valdez

19. Maxwell, Brown, and Co.: Learning from Corporate Management

Christopher Sadler

20. On Networking and Making Connections: A New, Empty Rolodex

Elynmarie Kazle

21. From Stage Management to Production Management: One Path

Cary Gillett

22. Unemployment: The Other Side of Being a Freelance Stage Manager

Erin Joy Swank

23. These Skills Are Made for Walking

Tina Shackleford

Afterword. Moment of Pause-Tech, 09.26.20

Evangeline Rose Whitlock