A Midsummer Night's Dream

suny new paltz, 2018, mckenna theatre

playwright: william shakespeare

director: lauren bone noble

stage manager: emma philipbar

Ground plan And Point sheet

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Tape out

first time for everything

for the first time in my career i was the one (quite literally) calling the shots and the show. being in charge was a daunting task, but this process taught me more than i ever expected about myself and stage management. changing focus from following directions to giving those directions was frightening at first, but with the support of my team and my faculty advisors, the show was a success.

Blocking Key

the stage manager's toolkit was essential for me in learning the shorthand needed to take quick and accurate blocking during rehearsal. 

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blocking page

using the key, i was able to navigate the multitasking needed to look at everyone onstage and simultaneously write exactly what they are doing.

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Calling the show

calling was something that was entirely foreign to me before this production. being an asm i have heard many stage managers call before, but have never had the chance to do it myself before midsummer's tech week. i ended up rewriting my calling script 8 times before the production opened, finally proud of the way it looked.

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Production Photo

olivia whalen kipp as puck addresses the mass of fairies below them in the tree.

Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival 2017 Season

during the summer of 2017 i was one of two stage management interns at the hudson valley shakespeare festival in garrison, new york. i performed a variety of duties as intern, including acting as run crew, creating and maintaining paperwork, driving people to and from rehearsal and housing, reading stage directions, and space maintenance. 

Cueing on

one of my jobs this summer was walking cast members down the woods path at boscobel house and gardens to the look-out point known as the belvedere. from there, i cued actors on throughout the show. (self-edited photo).

actress: kerry warren

working in style

every year the hudson valley shakespeare festival hosts a fundraising gala, and the interns are charged with setup and running the events. once our jobs were done, we met on the belvedere to take this photo. 

from left to right: emily weisbecker (lighting), mary caitlyn deffley (company management), kirk ruby (sound), meredith key (stage management), emma philipbar, (stage management), ali west (costumes), kendall allen (production management), and henry wilen (lighting).

Oklahoma!

ASM Track

as one of the two asms on this production, i was in charge of generating and maintaining paperwork for properties tracking. during performance, i was also in charge of prop handoffs and moving various set pieces during transition moments. I was truly a sight to see in my costume overalls, headset, and neck brace (as i was nursing an injury at the time).

strength in numbers

this photo was taken the morning after election day (2016), during a truncated performance of songs and dances from our production for the local children's center in new paltz. after a night of stress and fear, helping to expose children to the magic of theatre was just what everyone needed. 

production photo

the end of the burlesque dance, during the dream ballet. 

Julius Caesar

Cry “Havoc!” and let slip the dogs of war,

my first production assignment at suny new paltz was to be one of two assistant stage managers for the department's production of julius caesar. i was in charge of managing the stage left prop table, as well as the blood station backstage left. following the murder of caesar, i crawled under the deck with a tupperware container full of fake blood for the conspirators to "bathe their hands in." 

paperwork crash course

under the tutelage of my psm, francesca dicicco, i also learned how to format and fill in rehearsal reports, production meeting minutes, and daily calls for distribution.