Stage Managers on the rise! A story that ends WRONG
Participants from WHEELS, a public k-12 school located in Washington Heights, are working hard to revive their tradition of putting on a high school musical for the students. While the acting, singing, and dancing are certainly things covered in our programming, this challenge also presents a brand new opportunity: The rise of young stage managers!
Before BAE started working with WHEELS and before the COVID-19 shutdown in 2020, this high school used to have a tradition of putting on a yearly high school musical. When the shutdown happened, this tradition was lost. In response, BAE has been working with young people weekly since fall of 2022 to build a theater program from the ground up. The group, newly named “Club Curtain Call” meets weekly on Thursdays after school for two hours of theater activities led by myself, teaching artist Luis Mora.
Now that we are putting on a musical, these extraordinary young people have risen to the challenge to become stage managers, an essential part of any theatrical event; but something that was somewhat foreign to the students. This is when I had the idea to show them what a stage manager does in the best way for me, by taking them to see a show!
On December 2nd, the participants and I went to see the matinee of the Off-Broadway play The Play the Goes Wrong. We were accompanied by Program Manager Tracia Banuelos and president of the board Catherine Cantrell. Participants got to see a hilarious play where the stars of the show are the stage managers. Through this experience, they got to see first hand what stage managers do (and what not to do!) From setting props, caring for the set, prioritizing safety, and even jumping in if an actor is unable to perform; they got to understand and explore what that looks like in real time.
Following the show the participants got to share a meal with the chaperones and express their excitement for the work ahead, emphasizing how much their upcoming high school musical will uplift their school spirit, something that they articulate as being lost after the shutdown.
These young stage managers will get to put their new skills to the test at an Art Share that is being produced by the students at their school this December. Then, they will be in charge of stage managing their high school musical which will be performed on March 21st and March 28th.
Program Coordinator, Teaching Artist and Storytelling Director – Luis Mora has over a decade’s experience working with young people grades K-12. Through his career as a teaching artist, he has worked for a multitude of arts organizations including: Inside Broadway, Broadway Musical Theatre Inc., The Roxy Performing Arts Center, EM Arts, and Casita Maria Center for the Arts. At the latter, he took on the position of arts education doordinator, where he supervised over 25 teaching artists in all disciplines related to the arts. Although he is proud of every young person he has worked with, some stand out, as they have gone on to attend and graduate from prestigious arts programs and pursue successful careers in the arts. In addition to a career in arts education, Luis is a practicing artist as a musical and theatrical performer. He has participated in multiple readings, workshops, cabarets, concerts, regional theatre productions, national tours, and Off-Broadway shows. Luis is bilingual, as he is a proud Colombian-American. His work in both education and performance have the common thread of being focused on representation for people of color and immigrant communities. His thoughts on representation have been published online and in print in the first volume of Musical Theatre Today.
