By Jaehun Lee
Arts Reporter
On the final night of South Stage’s winter musical, this year Urinetown: The Musical, it is customary for all the seniors who have ever been involved in South Stage to kiss the stage goodbye. This tradition is not solely for actors, as senior Kate Pozner, the production’s stage manager, awaited this moment with a great deal of ambivalence.
Though being a stage manager is perhaps a less iconic role in a production than being an actor, it is by no means less crucial.
During rehearsals, the stage manager is in charge of taking notes on every technical aspect of the production: blocking, props, costumes, sets, lighting, and anything else that the director might require. In addition, the stage manager makes sure that the actors are present and working on their characters and will take on perhaps the most complicated task in the entire production: calling the show.
While it’s an incredibly rewarding experience, being a stage manager was not what Pozner had in mind when she first came to South.
“I came to South Stage with every intention of being an actress,” Pozner said. “Growing up, my world constantly revolved around performing, so it seemed like the next logical step. I was in the frosh play and then the winter play. But when I wasn’t cast in the spring season I went to Mr. K [Newton South’s theater director], and he said that the North/South production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream was looking for two assistant directors and a stage manager, so K assigned me as stage manager.”
Pozner did not enjoy her first experience as stage manager and swore never do it again. However, she soon found herself stage managing again after she was not cast in the next season.
“It really wasn’t a specific aspect of stage management that made me keep doing it after that first time,” Pozner explained. “It was more of a lack of things to do in a season.”
It was at this time Pozner realized she had improved in her technique and decided to focus more on stage managing.
“Lin Manuel Miranda said in an interview on 60 Minutes that he felt inadequate among his peers academically, so he picked a lane and ran with it,” Pozner said. “It got him two very successful shows on Broadway and hopefully my lane will lead me there too.”
Some of Pozner’s most memorable productions include Lucky Stiff last fall and Girlhood in October.
“Last year during one of our performances of Lucky Stiff, one of the actors, Ellie Yorke, was supposed to push Noah Weisskopf in a wheelchair through a set of elevator doors to exit the scene,” Pozner remembered. “The elevator was up on a high platform and Ellie had been instructed to give the wheelchair a hard push to make it over a gap in the wood. Ellie underestimated her strength and ended up sending Noah over the back of the platform onto a pile of wood. The last thing I saw from the booth was Noah falling face first, arms in the air. I have to be honest, it was one of the funniest things I have ever seen and it was so incredibly difficult to keep quiet because I was laughing so hard.”
This past October, however, Pozner was more than happy to have all eyes on her.
“A year later, I was lucky enough to stage manage Girlhood, a musical cabaret about the lives of girls,” Pozner went on. “My director, Jim Honeyman, asked me if I wanted to start off the show onstage. I obviously agreed because as a stage manager, that is a really rare opportunity. I started both acts with announcements about playbill ads and donations and even got to call some light cues in front of the audience. Not many people know exactly what I do, so it was cool to be able to share a big part of my life with the audience.”
Despite her experience in stage managing, Pozner still considers herself a student in the ways of stage management.
“It’s my sixth show so I’m definitely not new to the job, but I’m also still working at a high school theatre company so I haven’t had experience in different theaters with different people,” Pozner said. “I don’t think I consider myself as good, I consider myself as growing. My dad always said growing up that practice doesn’t make perfect, it makes better.”
Pozner has learned through experience that finding a good balance between humor and professionalism is incredibly helpful when stage managing.
“No one likes working with someone so serious all the time, especially in the arts,” Pozner said. “[but] they also need to know when it’s important to take things seriously and not be joking when it’s unsafe or inappropriate. The person has to be a leader to a huge group of people. They have to have a thick skin–something I’m working on– and they have to love theatre.”
When asked if she could return to acting if given the opportunity, Pozner, whose ultimate goal is to work on a Broadway show, decided to pass.
“I love it. My favorite thing about acting was the adrenaline rush you get from being onstage during a show,” Pozner said. “With stage management, I get the exact same feeling because even though the audience can’t see me, I’m still performing just as much as the actors. I wouldn’t trade it for anything.”
Still, Pozner doesn’t plan on leaving the stage entirely.
“I’m definitely planning to spend my time stage managing, but some programs require SM majors to take acting classes,” Pozner added. “It’s really important as a stage manager to understand every aspect of theatre. If you don’t know what you’re talking about, how can you be a leader? I’ll be taking tech classes and acting classes to ensure that I’m a qualified and well-rounded theatre artist.”
As she moves on from high school stage managing, Pozner looks back on it as an experience that has helped her grow immensely as a thespian.
“It’s definitely opened my eyes to how much work it takes to put on a production,” Pozner said. “It’s more than memorizing lines or building sets and turning on the lights. There’s an insane amount of talent that goes into each part of the process. We have students sewing costumes in the costume room, designing and engineering set designs, designing, hanging, and focusing lights, all for three two-hour shows.”
Pozner also praised South Stage for ensuring that its actors get the chance to understand the technical aspects of their productions, as well.
“Over the course of three months, these people have brought sketches on paper to what the audience sees on stage,” Pozner said. “Even though the stage manager has no active role in the design of the show, I get to see the entire process and work surrounded by insanely talented people. That being said, it was hard only as an actor to realize what was going on outside of rehearsals. One day you’re rehearsing in an empty room with black boxes in place of chairs and tables and the next you’re on a fully executed set. I never saw the blood, sweat, and tears that went into the tech of the show. Now, Mr. K has made it a requirement for actors to work on tech as long as they are part of a production. The extra man-power definitely helps get the process moving, but it also teaches the actors about how hard everyone is working to make them look the best they can when they walk on the stage on opening night.”
While Pozner concluded her high school stage managing career with Urinetown, she will be directing the June play, Five Women Wearing the Same Dress.
