Off Headset: Essays on Stage Management Work, Life, and Career from Focal Press is a collection of chapters containing essays by a richly diverse group of stage management professionals and educators covering the challenges stage managers face on the job, in their lives, and in their careers.The book starts with the intersectional history of stage managers and the actors' union. In Part 1: Work, the contributors share a wide range of experiences, from regional theatre and Broadway to operas and cruises-and even running with the circus. The essays in Part 2: Life explore the relevance of stage managers claiming their identity, their resilience, and practicing self-care. Finally, in Part 3: Career, readers receive aspirational and business advice for life in the real world: leadership, networking, unemployment, managing demanding calendars, and career planning.
The book ends with a moment of pause during tech-a direct response to the absence we have been enduring throughout the COVID-19 pandemic and a tribute to a world we used to take for granted. Intertwining practical advice with personal anecdotes, Off Headset: Essays on Stage Management Work, Life, and Career is the perfect accompaniment to students studying stage management in a university setting and professionals working in the field.
- 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
- 1. The Big Picture
- 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
- 12. Stage Managing a Beautifully Complicated History
- Part 3: Career
- 18. A Matter of Perspective
- Ramón 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
- 18. A Matter of Perspective
Christopher Sadler, Associate Professor, University of Oklahoma's (OU) Helmerich School of Drama. Sadler heads the stage management emphasis and teaches multiple courses in stage and theatre management and dramatic literature at OU. He has degrees from Ithaca College and UC San Diego and is a proud member of Actors' Equity Association. Sadler has a successful freelancing career having been on stage management teams for over 100 productions at theatres nationwide.