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INSIDE THEATRE
P R O J E C T I O N L I G H T S & S TA G I N G N E W S
In all, there are more than 450 lighting cues, and a single automation cue can move up to 15 pieces of scenery.
the company soon asked Passaro to come on
board as a stage manager. “I didn’t even know
what a stage manager did,” he confesses. “All
I knew back then was that they were paying
$850 a week, and that was a lot of money
then. It still is to some people. And here I am
20 odd years later. You learn by doing it.”
When asked about the advice he would
offer to up-and-coming stage managers —
which he does with his class at Yale University
— Passaro says, “You will learn more about
stage managing by anything other than your
experiences either working directly in the
theatre or going to the theatre. By that I mean
it’s about how you handle people, personal issues
and personal challenges. At the end of
the day, it’s a one-on-one mom and pop business.
For example, working at McDonald’s
in high school taught me more about team
leadership than any early theatre experience
I had or any class I had in stage management
or theatre. Go seek out those experiences. If
you’re a college theatre major who’s interested
in stage management, the classes that
you take in history, art history or accounting,
all those classes you take outside of theatre
will probably prepare you more for a career
in the theatre and stage management than
anything you know right now.”
The production stage manager feels
that a positive aspect of college programs is
that they give “a seal of approval and a seal
of legitimacy to a full-fledged career in stage
managing. Years ago, I think people — perhaps
[with] the generation before mine or
perhaps some in my generation — always
looked at stage managing as a stepping
stone, and certainly it can be that. One of the
things that I talk about with my students at
Yale is that the skills you require as a stage
manager are so valuable in the corporate
world. I’ve seen it and experienced it myself.
The skills of leading a team toward a common
goal, to get a curtain up at eight o’clock every
night or on an opening night — those time
management and team leadership skills are
absolutely invaluable and all come together
in crystal-clear form as a stage manager so
that you can transport those skills to other
entertainment-related careers or not. But I do
think the college programs are good because
they do give a legitimacy to it. You can have a
very fulfilling career as a stage manager, and
that’s great.”
22 PLSN DECEMBER 2010