My Mom always says, "Ask and you shall receive." Nobody wants to admit it, but since I am an adult now I can appreciate it, my Mom is (almost) always right.
Upon my arrival in Chicago and attending just a handful of shows at Second City varying from end of term student shows all the way to The Mainstage I noticed they all had something in common... they all had a stage manager. I then thought to myself, who better to stage manage an improv show than someone who stage manages and also does improv. So I sent a couple of emails out; one to the Second City administrative offices, and the other to their internship program. Many days later (long enough for me to forget about the emails) I heard back from both of them with some really exciting stuff.
The internship program at Second City said that they do not currently have a stage management program but because enough people have expressed interest in it they are thinking about developing one. So that is something to look forward to in the coming year. YAY!
I also got an email back from Joe Ruffner the producer of Touring Companies and Associate Producer of all Second City Theatricals. He gave me the contact information for two Touring Co. stage managers. Both of them were incredibly willing to meet with me, answer questions, look at my resume, and even let me sit in the booth during a show.
I met with Kimberly on monday who is currently the stage manager for Green Co. She was super helpful she talked a lot about what makes a stage manager at Second City different from your typical stage manager. Not only is the stage manager responsible for running rehearsals and the show, but for designing the lights to mirror the archival videos, designing/finding/building necessary props for the show, driving the van, set up at each venue, keeping track of which sketches are being used for the show, keeping track of new sketches and new sheet music, ability to "stay calm even if you just drove the van for 10 hours and the venue has nothing they promised they would have." She said "you are the Mom and the Dad for the show, the director doesn't travel with you and you don't have any ASMs or crew." Pretty intimidating.... but also something that I think I could definitely do. She went into a lot of detail about the typical tour schedule, pay, rehearsal schedule, etc... She also raved about how great of an environment it is to work for Second City, everyone is super understanding and helpful, due to the fact that Second City has this improv mentality of well that didn't work so let's try something else and "yes and..." At the end of the meeting she said that if I ever want to send her my resume or cover letter to look over before applying to jobs she would look over them for me. She also said that she would be willing to send my resume on to some storefront theaters in the city if she knows of positions that are available.
WOOHOO!!! So meeting number 1 went so well and I got so much great information from her.
I will be meeting with Jayme tomorrow, she is the stage manager for Blue Co and is currently stage managing Summer at The Second City so she is letting me sit in the booth with her during the show and listen to her call the show and see what that looks like. So I am very excited to get another perspective and get to see the "stage-managers-eye-view" of a show.
More to come on that meeting later.
Lastly, remember how I am the nanny for a Chicago Shakespeare Theatre stage manager... Well, she arranged for me to get to sit in the booth with the stage manager for Shrek next Saturday!! Plus she said she will try and continue to get me backstage for different shows as opportunities arise amongst her friends and colleagues (potentially Wicked when they come to town this fall).
I am really looking forward to meeting and talking to these people, getting to see two totally different kinds of theatre being called from a stage manager's perspective, and the possibility of more opportunities like this in the future!!
So like my Dad always says "It's not what you know, it's who you know!"
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