Student Stage Managers

Episode 143: Student Stage Managers It’s important to remember that theatre is not just an onstage activity. There are many roles that have be fulfilled offstage that are just as vital to a successful show. A student stage management team can be your best production ally.  But what if you don’t have a lot of backstage experience? How do you encourage and develop student stage managers? Karen Loftus has spent time in the classroom and as a professional stage manager. She fully believes in the power of the student stage management team and she’ll tell you how. Show Notes * Episode 142: Theatre Safety Episode Transcript Welcome to TFP – The Theatrefolk Podcast – the place to be for Drama teachers, Drama students, and theatre educators everywhere. I’m Lindsay Price, resident playwright for Theatrefolk. Hello! I hope you're well. Thanks for listening. Welcome to Episode 143! You can find any links to this episode in the show notes at theatrefolk.com/episode143. We’re going backstage for this episode and I have to confess – this is a big old confession – my background in high school theatre and in university with backstage-type things was minimal by choice and negative – I’m going to say it – by choice. I wanted to be onstage and not, you know, hidden in black in a backstage corner and being ignored by the actors. I had to take backstage roles a couple of times; I wasn’t good at it and I think, most importantly – more importantly than not good at it – I didn’t try to be good at it. I was backstage for one show in high school and I refused to wear blacks. I’m pretty sure I wore red pants for one and nobody cared and nobody commented but it’s not good! You know, twenty-plus years later, I’m not so happy with that Lindsay Price and I think that I had to learn my lesson well and I certainly have because, if you want a successful show, you need a balance of onstage and off-stage roles. Theatre is not just an onstage activity. If you are a high school teacher do-it-all director with a small support system, growing a student stage management team can be your best production ally. But what if you don’t have a lot of backstage experience? How do you encourage and develop student stage managers? Today, I’m talking to Karen Loftus. She has spent time in the classroom and also as a professional stage manager. She fully believes in the power of the student stage management team. Let’s hear her tell you the why and the show. LINDSAY: Hello, Karen! KAREN: Hello! LINDSAY: How are you today? KAREN: I’m good! How are you? LINDSAY: I’m going to say I’m great. I got a nice day. I’m just going to go with that. KAREN: Yes. LINDSAY: Now, Karen and I, you and I have known each other… I was trying to think. I know exactly when we had our first conversation. It was at the FATE Conference in Jacksonville – face-to-face, anyway. KAREN: Yeah, definitely. We met. You were the superstar to my kids because we performed Emotional Baggage and they fought tooth and nail. They were just like, “This script is different! What is this?” and then they won a slot at state and [00:03:24 unclear] again so they were like, “Oh, it’s great!” LINDSAY: That’s right, then they totally switched and it went well. Weird is awesome! KAREN: Weird is awesome! Yeah, and then, you know, we were kind of Disney friends together as well. LINDSAY: Yes. KAREN: Then, I’ve been haunting you guys for years. LINDSAY: Karen wins one of the awards for most interesting background.