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MFA PROGRAM IN STAGE MANAGEMENT The MFA in Stage Management provides a contemporary approach for students who wish to pursue careers as professional stage managers. The program’s curriculum is designed to expand upon two central principles: 1. Stage managers must have portable, flexible, and scalable skill-sets that allow them to work in a variety of arenas. 2. Modern stage management requires its practitioners to embrace the concept of the SM as a “hybrid CEO/COO,” an executive-level position that is at the top of any production’s organizational chart. The coursework uses methodologies specific to commercial (Broadway) and not-for-profit theatrical stage management as a foundation. This allows students to build best-practices in many other areas: opera, dance, television, and corporate events (to name a few). Courses in dramatic literature and all aspects of theatre practice are mandatory; enrollment in relevant classes outside the Theatre Program is encouraged. Students are expected to develop a thorough comprehension of union regulations and theater administration, as well as a working knowledge of various theatrical aesthetics that enhance creative development on a production. A major focus of the program is on leadership training: setting the tone, driving the process, and delivering results. Current trends in workplace culture, team dynamics, and human-resource management are actively analyzed and discussed across all program platforms. Classroom courses are augmented by practical experience that gives students hands-on participation in the production process, in both academic and professional situations. Stage management students are required to work on departmental presentations, as well as complete at least two internships in professional theatre. Individually designed field studies allow for the exploration of ancillary interests in other realms of entertainment management. Finally, the program gives students the opportunity to build contacts with subject-matter-experts who are working at the highest industry levels; this gives graduates a leading-edge when they enter an intensely competitive job market. PAGE 1 SAMPLE CURRICULUM Fall Semester – Year 1: Introduction to Stage Management – Michael Passaro Theatre Management & Administration I – Julie Rossi Special Topics in Stage Management – Bonnie Panson Seminar in Stage Management – Marybeth Abel History and Theory of Theatre – Carol Rocamora Spring Semester – Year 1: Collaboration – Anne Bogart Directing for Stage Managers – Peter Lawrence Stage Management Seminar: Metropolitan Opera and American Ballet Theatre – Ray Menard and Danielle Ventimiglia Practicum: Trends in Contemporary Theater – Abigail Katz Critical Issues in Stage Management/Focus on Contracts – Laura Brown McKinnon Fall Semester – Year 2: Advanced Stage Management: Plays – Linda Marvel Advanced Stage Management: Musicals – Ira Mont Special Topics in Stage Management – Bonnie Panson Field Study Spring Semester – Year 2: Special Topics in Stage Management – Michael Passaro Advanced Stage Management: Next Steps – Diane DiVita Stage Management Seminar: Metropolitan Opera and American Ballet Theatre – Ray Menard and Danielle Ventimiglia Additional Requirements: 2 Professional Internships; 2 to 4 Production Assignments, including the stage management of up to two departmental thesis productions in Year 2; Collaboration Weekend Workshop. *Recommended Electives include Issues in the National Not-for-Profit Theatre, Viewpoints, History and Theory of Comedy, Promotions and Audience Development, Fundraising and Marketing, Critical Writing for the Theatre, Budgeting and Reporting, Models of Dramatic Structure, Press, Publicity and Audience Development, Planning a Theatrical Season. PAGE 2 Stage Management Thesis Project: Students must satisfactorily complete a 40-page thesis in order to graduate: a position paper with a viable thesis statement that is supported by research, experience, documented sources, and (if applicable), interviews, statistical analysis, and exhibits. Ideally, the thesis will be based on actual recent and practical production or work experience; however, students may choose to write about historical, economic, and/or sociological topics that are directly related to stage management. Traditional “prompt” books and/or production diaries can be used as supporting documentation. AEA Eligibility: Two stage management MFA students per year will be eligible to join the Actors Equity Association through their participation as stage managers for the Classic Stage Company’s Young Company production. This production is held at CSC’s downtown venue every spring. FACULTY MICHAEL J. PASSARO (Adjunct Assistant Professor; Concentration Head, Stage Management) has over twenty-five years experience as a Production Stage Manager for theatrical productions – on Broadway, regionally, and worldwide. He is currently the PSM for Evita, his 22nd Broadway show. Some of his other credits include the original Broadway productions of Starlight Express, The Will Rogers Follies, Angels in America, The History Boys, A Steady Rain, (starring Hugh Jackman and Daniel Craig), Promises Promises (with Sean Hayes and Kristin Chenoweth) and the recent revival of How To Succeed in Business Without Really Trying starring Daniel Radcliffe. Michael also has significant experience as a producer of corporate events and as a project manager for experiential environments, working for various production companies and clients around the world. Over the past fifteen years, his continuing work with Jack Rouse Associates includes projects for Chevron, Novell, Dell, The Fort Worth Zoo, the NCAA “Hall of Champions” in Indianapolis, IN and the US Open’s “Octagon Retail Store” at the Tennis Center in Flushing-Meadows. Other production companies/clients include: Williams-Gerard Productions (Merck, Bristol-Myers Squibb), Empire Entertainment (Disney, Pfizer), and Production Glue (Bloomberg LP). In addition to his recent appointment at Columbia, Michael has taught at the Graduate Program in Stage Management at the Yale School of Drama. MARYBETH ABEL (Adjunct Assistant Professor) has had a career in the theatrical industry marked by 30 years of consistent employment. Highlights of her Broadway career include Production Supervisor for 10 years of all the PAGE 3 North American companies of Les Misérables, including the Broadway Company. B’Way credits as PSM: Wicked, Cyrano de Bergerac, Sweet Charity, La Cage Aux Folles, Sly Fox, Fosse, Les Misérables, Five Guys Named Moe. Favorite OffBroadway shows include Under the Bridge & Adult Entertainment. Among her favorite touring and regional credits are Cats and Guys and Dolls, The USO Department of Defense: Best of Broadway, Pittsburgh Civic Light Opera--four seasons, over 25 major musicals. Ms. Abel has been a guest lecturer for numerous universities as well as The Educational Theatre Association, she has taught with the Educational Theatre Program at NYU; and was developer and educator of a dramatic arts program within the Archdiocese of NY. She is a mentor to working professionals across the country. Born and raised in Pittsburgh, PA; married 29 years; mother of a male 16 year-old high school senior; and resides in New York. ANNE BOGART (Professor; Concentration Head, Directing) is the Artistic Director of the SITI Company, which she founded with Japanese director Tadashi Suzuki in 1992. Recent works with SITI include Trojan Women; Under Construction; Antigone; Who Do You Think You Are; Radio Macbeth; Hotel Cassiopeia; Death and the Ploughman; La Dispute; Score; bobrauschenbergamerica; Room; War of the Worlds; Cabin Pressure; The Radio Play; Alice’s Adventures; Culture of Desire; Bob; Going, Going, Gone; Small Lives/Big Dreams; The Medium; Noel Coward’s Hay Fever and Private Lives; August Strindberg’s Miss Julie; and Charles Mee’s Orestes. Operas include Carmen and I Capuleti e i Montecchi (Glimmerglass); Nicholas and Alexandra (Los Angeles Opera), Marina: A Captive Spirit (American Opera Projects), and Lilith and Seven Deadly Sins (New York City Opera). Bogart is the author of four books: A Director Prepares, The Viewpoints Book, And Then, You Act and Conversations with Anne. LAURA BROWN MCKINNON (Adjunct Assistant Professor) has worked on Broadway for over nine years. Starting out with Gene O’Donovan and the technical supervision firm of Aurora Productions, she served first as assistant to the technical supervisor and eventually worked her way up to associate technical supervisor on over 68 Broadway productions and First National Tours. These productions include: The Who’s Tommy, A Christmas Carol at Madison Square Garden, The King and I, Titanic, High Society, Hamlet, An Ideal Husband, Master Class, Stanley, Not About Nightingales, A Doll’s House, Skylight, Judas Kiss, The Blue Room, Sideman, 1776, Closer, and Amy’s View. After six years in the technical supervision end of theatre, she decided to go back to stage management. Her Off-Broadway stage management credits include Chesapeake with Mark Linn Baker at Second Stage, Hedda Gabler with Kate Burton for the Williamstown Theatre Festival and The Unexpected Man with Alan Bates and PAGE 4 Eileen Atkins at the Promenade Theatre. Her Broadway stage management credits include The Price, Rose with Olympia Dukakis, 42nd Street and The Crucible with Liam Neeson and Laura Linney, as well as numerous substitute stage manager positions all over Broadway. She is currently a lecturer in Stage Management at the Yale School of Drama. DIANE DIVITA (Adjunct Assistant Professor). B’way: Lombardi, Hamlet with Jude Law, Impressionism, Coast of Utopia, Absurd Person Singular, Drowning Crow, Ma Rainy's Black Bottom, King Hedley II, Sound of Music, How to Succeed In Business Without Really Trying(1995 version), Dream, Broken Glass. Off-B’way: Recently Dogfight directed by Joe Mantello at Second Stage Theatre, Roundabout Theatre Company, Manhattan Theatre Company, MCC, Westport Country Playhouse, Bay Street Theatre, plus many Regional Theatres, throughout the country. Currently, Diane is an instructor at Yale for the thirdyear MFA Stage Managers. ABIGAIL KATZ (Adjunct Assistant Professor) currently serves as Literary Manager for Atlantic Theater Company. She previously held the position of Literary Associate and Dramaturg for The Civilians, where she worked on productions Brooklyn at Eye Level, This Beautiful City (The Vineyard Theatre) and Paris Commune (The Public Theater). She was also Producer for Voice & Vision, a company devoted to developing women theatre artists. Other companies she has worked with include Classic Stage Company, New Dramatists, Snug Harbor Productions, and the New York Musical Theatre Festival. She has been a teaching associate/guest lecturer in theatre at Barnard College, and has taught at The New School, PlayPenn, Playwrights Foundation, Samuel French Institute and New York Conservatory for Dramatic Arts. She also heads up the Arts Committee for the Alumni Career Task Force for The Dalton School and serves on the New York City team for the American Theatre Archive Project. A native New Yorker, Abigail received her MFA in dramaturgy from Columbia University School of the Arts. PETER LAWRENCE (Adjunct Assistant Professor) has been Associate Director or Production Supervisor for Shrek, Spamalot, Sunset Boulevard and for the Broadway revivals of Gypsy, Annie Get Your Gun and Man of La Mancha. Mr. Lawrence was the Executive Producer for Miss Saigon and Les Miserables, and has directed or re-staged the U.S. Tours of Spamalot, Social Security, Broadway Bound, Rumors, Lost in Yonkers, Sunset Boulevard, Spamalot London, and the Asian tour of Miss Saigon. He has originated twenty Broadway productions as Production Stage Manager, and has taught in the Drama Departments of Transylvania College, The University of Hawaii and Columbia University. PAGE 5 LINDA MARVEL (Adjunct Assistant Professor) has been a Production Stage Manager for over 22 years, managing the Broadway productions of Fela!, 33 Variations, The Little Dog Laughed and this spring’s upcoming Hands On A Hardbody. Off-Broadway, Ms. Marvel has managed the premieres of Athol Fugard’s The Train Driver, directed by Mr. Fugard, Eve Ensler’s Emotional Creature, Sam Shepard’s The God of Hell and Michael Weller’s Beast as well as productions at Second Stage, Playwrights Horizons, Signature, NYTW, MCC, and TFANA. Her many Regional credits include productions at La Jolla Playhouse, Long Wharf, Center Stage Baltimore, Olney Theatre and Pittsburgh Public. Ms. Marvel is the Production Supervisor for Seven, a documentary theatre piece about women working for human rights being performed in Europe, Asia and the United States. RAYMOND MENARD (Adjunct Assistant Professor) attended the New England Conservatory of Music, Rutgers University and received a BFA from the Pratt Institute. Early in his career he worked as a Music Supervisor for NBC, on the staff of the Sarasota Opera and the Washington Opera and as Staff Director and later, Artistic Administrator for the New York City Opera where he received the Julius Rudel Award. Since 1987 he has been employed as Stage Manager with the Metropolitan Opera and now holds the title of Production Stage Manager. Ray has helped shepherd projects to the opera stage directed by Franco Zeffirelli, Hal Prince, Jack O’Brien, Frank Corsaro, Andrei Serban, Bart Sher, Robert Lepage and John Dexter among others. Among the noted conductors with whom Ray has worked are James Levine, Valery Gergiev, Colin Davis, Seiji Ozawa, Herbert von Karajan, Pierre Boulez and Carlos Kleiber. IRA MONT (Adjunct Assistant Professor) started life as an actor but has been stage managing professionally since 1987. He is the Production Stage Manager of the upcoming Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Cinderella. His other Broadway credits include Ghost the Musical, Relatively Speaking, the revivals of Arcadia, La Bête, A Little Night Music and The Norman Conquests, Young Frankenstein, The Producers (from the first day to the last), the revival of Jesus Christ Superstar, Smokey Joe's Cafe, the revival of The Sound of Music, Disney’s Beauty & the Beast, Sacrilege, Love! Valour! Compassion! & Cyrano - The Musical. He has done five national tours; M. Butterfly, Catskills on Broadway, Fame - The Musical [the 1st time], MOMIX Dance Company, and The Boys Choir of Harlem. Off Broadway credits include Full Gallop, I Do! I Do! and shows at Manhattan Theatre Club, Playwrights Horizons and the Vineyard Theatre. Around the country, Ira has worked at the Pittsburgh Public Theatre, the Cambridge PAGE 6 Theatre Company, Theater Factory St. Louis and the summer stock circuit (Westport, Cape & Ogunquit Playhouses). He directed Full Gallop at the Philadelphia Theatre Company, was the Production Consultant for The Sound of Music in Australia and was the Production Supervisor for MCC Theatre for seven years. Ira is a past Chair of the Stage Managers’ Association and continues to be a member. He has lectured at Yale, Rutgers and Julliard and is an Adjunct Assistant Professor at Columbia University. He has been a Councillor of Actors’ Equity since 1996 and is in his fourth term as the 3rd Vice President (an office held by a Stage Manager). He is also the 1st Vice President of Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS and he serves as a Trustee of the Equity-League Pension, Health & 401k Plans. Ira is a native of Brooklyn, NY where he still lives with his wife of 22 years, Jill Cordle (also a Broadway stage manager), his 15 year-old daughter and his 12 year-old son. He has appeared on HBO’s “Curb Your Enthusiasm” and he made his feature film debut in The Producers, the new Mel Brooks movie musical. BONNIE PANSON (Adjunct Assistant Professor) is presently the Production Stage Manager for Bring It On, the Musical, now on Broadway after a 12 city USA tour. She has served as Production Supervisor or Production Stage Manager or Stage Manager for 26 Broadway shows including Spider-man, Dance of the Vampires, Private Lives, Blast!, Seussical, Jesus Christ Superstar, The Civil War, Candide, On the Town, Bring in 'da Noise..., The Tempest, Kiss of the Spider Woman, She Loves Me, Starlight Express, The Odd Couple, Merlin, Pirates of Penzance, and Tintypes. Off-Broadway:Lucky Guy, A New Brain, Return to the Forbidden Planet. CAROL ROCAMORA (Adjunct Assistant Professor) is a teacher, playwright, translator and critic. Her three volumes of Anton Chekhov’s complete translated dramatic works have been published by Smith & Kraus. Her new play, I take your hand in mine...., based on the correspondence of Chekhov and Olga Knipper, premiered in September 2001 at the Almeida Theatre in London starring Paul Scofield and Irene Worth, and opened in Paris in October 2003 at Peter Brook’s Théâtre des Bouffes du Nord, under his direction, starring Michel Piccoli and Natasha Parry. Dr. Rocamora has been the recipient of the David Payne Carter Award for Teaching in Excellence at the Tisch School of the Arts. Formerly, she was the founder and artistic director of the Philadelphia Festival Plays at Annenberg Center. Dr. Rocamora’s biography, Acts of Courage: Václav Havel’s Life in the Theatre, was published in 2005. She has written about theatre for The Nation and the New York Times, and currently contributes to The Guardian and American Theatre. She has recently completed Rubles, a collection of original plays inspired by Chekhov’s short stories. She is currently working on a biography of Chekhov. PAGE 7 JULIE ROSSI (Adjunct Assistant Professor) has been the Director of Academic Administration, Theatre at Columbia University’s School of the Arts since 2008. Prior to Columbia, she held various positions in theatre management including as Director of the Gaelen Center for the Arts at JCC MetroWest, Director of Individual Giving at Manhattan Theatre Club, and Engagement Manager of the Broadway National Tour of Fosse. She has a BA in History of Art from Yale and an MFA in Theatre Management & Producing from Columbia. She has taught as adjunct faculty in the MFA theatre programs at Yale and Columbia. DANIELLE VENTIMIGLIA (Adjunct Assistant Professor) is currently the Production Stage Manager for American Ballet Theatre, where she has been a stage manager since 1997. Her ABT tenure includes countless world premieres and galas in historic opera houses and international venues, including the Herod Atticus at the Acropolis in Athens, the new Royal Opera House Muscat, Oman, and the National Grand Theatre in Beijing. She enjoys working with the highest caliber of dancers, choreographers, and designers in multiple new productions each year. In addition to ABT, she has been PSM or Production Coordinator for several emerging choreographers, most recently Benjamin Millepied and Christopher Wheeldon, on international tours that included 6 world premieres and the opening night gala of the Winspear Opera House in Dallas. In addition to stage managing, she has been instrumental in assisting AGMA negotiations for the past several ABT contracts, and has lectured at Hunter College and mentored and advised young stage managers for many years. PAGE 8