|
11:55 a.m., April 28, 2003--Although Brian S. Newman, a graduate student in the Professional Theatre Training Program (PTTP), usually works behind the scenes, he was on stage to receive the U.S. Institute for Theatre Technology’s (USITT) Stage Management Award at its annual conference in Minneapolis in March. With more than 3,600 members representing design, production and technology in the performing arts and entertainment industry, USITT presented one of its national awards for young designers and technicians to Newman for “demonstrating excellence” and “outstanding potential.”
 |
| PTTP student Brian Newman with veteran stage manager Cynthia Poulson, in whose honor the USITT award was given this year. |
A stage manager has a finger in just about everything during the planning, rehearsal and performance of a theatrical production and spends many hours on the job, according to Newman. He or she runs the rehearsals, is the liaison with the technical staff, communicates with the director and rehearses replacements and understudies. The stage manager also calls all the sound, light and backstage cues during the performance. When a show is finalized and is being performed, the director departs, and the stage manager is in charge of keeping things running smoothly, Newman said.
In a letter of recommendation for the award from Rick Cunningham, associate professor of theatre, Newman is cited for his “excellent skills as a communicator,” as “extremely reliable in the role of intermediary between the director and production staff” and as “genuinely friendly and a calming influence in a world of deadlines and due-dates.”
Gail Anderson, production manager of the Surflight Theatre in Beach Haven, N. J., where Newman works summers, wrote that Newman’s skills were “top notch” that he handled “directors, designers, crew, actors, as well as other management, competently and professionally,” and that he was “committed to doing his best at his profession.”
A graduate of Louisiana State University, Newman started out to be an engineer. However, a course in drama and an opportunity to be a stage manager changed his career goal. “I loved being a stage manager, decided that’s what I wanted to be and focused on getting experience,” he said. He worked in summer theatre in stage management and came directly to UD after graduating from LSU.
Newman has been stage manager for numerous PTTP productions and also has worked at the Merry-Go-Round Playhouse in Auburn, N.Y., the Berkshire Theatre Festival, the Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival and the Surflight Theatre, where he will work again this summer.
As a student at UD, Newman was selected by the PTTP faculty as a Polly Russell Dowling Fellow, an award that honors students who best embody and practice the principles of the program. He also was sponsored to enter the Actors Equity Association as a stage manager, achieving that level a year ahead of schedule.
Article by Sue Moncure
Photo by Tom Thatcher, USITT
|
