Stage managing can be a difficult job to balance with anything else. The hours are long. You don’t always know exactly when you’ll be needed. And you may be nomadic – out on tours, cruise ships, or hopping contracts to where ever the next place is that might hire you. And early career stage management…
I thought some of you looking for your pivot careers might be wondering what exactly a digital workshop producer does, so today I’m going to take you through an average day as one. 6:45 AM – Wake up. Make coffee. Get dressed from the waist up. Early start times mean pajama bottoms for me. 7:05…
What a time to be alive. I have a Google alert set on “stage manager” and every day I get an email with a listing of articles published online that mention stage manager. Early on in quarantine, I saw an interview with the Pandemic Players and thought, “oh, that’s interesting.” And so began my dive…
I just want to start this post with the idea that relaxing and resetting aren’t bad things to do with some of the extra time we find ourselves with in the unusual and extraordinary turbulent time we find ourselves in. Amp up your bubble bath time. Read for fun. Go for long, rambling, solitary walks.…
**This post contains affiliate links.** Looking for something for your favorite stage manager for the holidays? Well, here are some cool items that won’t break the bank but will likely make their day. NINJA This store is full of awesome shirts, cool pins, fun patches, clever stickers and, my personal favorites, snarky pencils (because, yes,…
For the last several years, my annual goals list has included adding two resume skills. I got this idea after reading “I am my biggest asset” over and over again on career related blogs, but it’s kind of true. It’s funny how long I overlooked that investing in myself often has some pretty big returns,…
Profile I am thirty four years old and the Performance Director at Big Apple Circus. I make $70,000 a year and live in a show provided RV. I also have health insurance through this job that’s deducted straight from my paycheck, so I don’t really count it in my bills since it’s never money I…
I’ve toured several different ways. I’ve lived on boats and trains that were like a little apartment that stays with you the whole time you’re on tour. I’ve done week long sit downs in hotels, which also gives you a little of the home feeling. But I’ve also done van and box truck tours and…
I started my blog to try and stay accountable while paying off a bunch of student debt. However, once I finished that, I had to rethink why I wanted to keep blogging and my main goal really has been to show an accurate pictures of life and finances when you work in the arts. I’ve…
Finding work can be difficult for anyone, but breaking into the theater world can seem impossible sometimes – especially if you come from a school with no network (cough, cough, Stockton University, cough). Here are a few resources worth looking into to find a job as a stage manager. Please note that under the paid…
Profile I am thirty two years old and I am the Production Stage Manager for Tenderly: The Rosemary Clooney Musical at the Southeastern Summer Theatre Institute. I make $400 per week with no per diem. I also only started this gig at the end of the month, so for the rest of March we can…
Profile I am thirty two years old and I’m unemployed. It’s cool though. Well… no it’s not. But I’m surviving. Saving & Spending 2017 might be cursed. I’m not sure yet. For the first time in my career, a job got cancelled at the last minute. And by last minute I mean, like… less than…
Profile I am thirty two years old and I am the Production Stage Manager for the national tour of FAME. I make $700 per week and a $300 weekly stipend. Saving & Spending September might be trying to kill me. Or this tour is – as I type this going into day 7 of 16-20…
Profile I am thirty one years old and I am the Stage Manager/Lighting Director for Clifford the Big, Red Dog! I make $700 a week and receive a $30/day per diem. Saving & Spending This month, while totally average, just felt like such a let down after all the big wins of February. Why can’t…
Profile I am thirty one years old and I am the Stage Manager/Lighting Director for Clifford the Big, Red Dog! I make $700 a week and receive a $30/day per diem. I also finished up Potted Sherlock the first week of this month and am now on the hunt for something to do this summer!…
My previous “day in the life” posts were so popular, I figured it was time to add the latest job to the list – a day in the life of a touring stage manager. The thing about this job is that there were three very different kinds of days: There were days off. Seriously, it…
It’s normal to assume you’ll graduate from college, get your first job and start making money, but some jobs require a little bit of investment for success. I remember shelling out several hundred dollars for medical tests for my first big job that stopped a good friend from taking a similar job – he didn’t…
So today is my first day at a new job! It’s pretty common knowledge among my regular readers that I was discontent at the last one. I actually had a funny conversation one of the last days at my old job with the Stage Manager for the company doing the show there. She said she…
A few months ago I wrote a post about how to stock a stage management kit on a budget. One of those tips was to use freebie offers to stock your kit, but since then a few of you have reached out to find out more about exactly where and what you can find for…
A few months ago I tossed out the idea “how much do stage managers make?” Because as one, I’m generally pretty curious. There’s a wide variety of pay scales among us (and the job itself varies widely), but I’ve always been a little puzzled about why we keep what we make such a secret. If…
Stage Managers are people with the answers to all the questions. How do we get that way? With a heck of a small army of tools and tricks. If you’ve already checked out how to stock your kit on a budget, here’s a list of several apps to beef up your smartphone for free* too.…
Every job has its tools and one of the biggest money suckers for a stage manager is their kit. What’s a stage manager kit? Well, it harkens back to the idea that a stage manager is the person who is “absolutely responsible for absolutely everything” for a production… which is an over or under simplification…
After all that jetsetting through my twenties, I recently transitioned to a pretty normal job. Now I work as a Production Manager for an Off-Broadway theater. It’s sort of a step away from Stage Management, but uses a lot of the same skills. If, for some crazy reason, this was a path you were thinking…
As if I weren’t ill adjusted to normal life enough from my days at sea, once I left ships, I joined the circus. The days honestly all started to blur into one of two types over the following weeks and months I was out with them. Except travel days. We lived on a train…
I realize I advocate some crazy ways to pay off debt, like going to work on a cruise ship… and that life seems way out there to some of you. But one of my favorite kind of posts to read is 24 hours in someone else’s shoes… so today I give you 24 hours in…