Off Headset is a collection of essays by a richly diverse group of stage management professionals and educators covering the challenges stage managers face on the job, in their lives, and in their careers.

Rafael Jaen (sounds HA-EN), Associate Professor of Theatre and Performing Arts Chair, UMass Boston. Jaen is an award-winning costume designer, educator, and author. He is a USITT Fellow, the USITT VP for Communications (2019-2022), and a past National KCACTF DTM Chair. He is the author of SHOWCASE (2011) and Digital Costume Design and Collaboration (2017) by Focal Press/Routledge, and the Series Editor for the USITT/Focal Press Backstage series.

Christopher Sadler, Associate Professor, University of Oklahoma's (OU) Helmerich School of Drama. Sadler heads the stage management emphasis and teaches multiple courses in stage and theatre management and dramatic literature at OU. He has degrees from Ithaca College and UC San Diego and is a proud member of Actors' Equity Association. Sadler has a successful freelancing career having been on stage management teams for over 100 productions at theatres nationwide.

Preface

Rafael Jaen and Christopher Sadler

Introduction. Intersectional History: Stage Managers' in the Actors' Union

Jennifer Leigh Sears Scheier

Part 1: Work

1. The Big Picture

Joseph Drummond

2. Maximum Flexibility

Tom Humes

3. The Journey of a Thousand Steps Starts With a Dream

Matthew Stern

4. The "Smusedays" of Touring a Broadway Show!

Kristi Ross-Clausen

5. Running Away with Cirque du Soleil

Alana Clapp

6. Opera Stage Management 101

Erin Joy Swank

7. Off Headset at Sea

Charlotte Sachetti

8. A Mutualistic Symbiotic Model: Stage Manager and Designers' Strong Ties and Participative Intentions

Rafael Jaen

9. The Art of Management

Joanna Obuzor

10. Stage Management is Only Just Beginning

David McGraw

11. Hold, Please: Addressing Urgency and Other White Supremacist Standards in Stage Management (HowlRound)

Miguel Flores, R. Christopher Maxwell, John Meredith, Alexander Murphy, Quinn O'Connor, Phyllis Y. Smith, and Chris Waters

Part 2: Life

12. Stage Managing a Beautifully Complicated History

Nikki Hyde

13. Already Calm, I'm the Stage Manager

Michele Kay

14. Life in the Real World

Amanda Spooner

15. "Was That a Go?" Lessons on Perseverance & Resilience

Jay Sheehan

16. A Multiplicity of Identities, On Headset and Off

Narda E. Alcorn with Copy Editor and Proofreader Sam Tirrell

17. The Fallacy of Figuring It All Out: Finding Grace in the Imperfect Attempts at Balance

Jonathan D. Allsup

Part 3: Career

18. A Matter of Perspective

Ramón Valdez

19. Maxwell, Brown, and Co.: Learning from Corporate Management

Christopher Sadler

20. On Networking and Making Connections: A New, Empty Rolodex

Elynmarie Kazle

21. From Stage Management to Production Management: One Path

Cary Gillett

22. Unemployment: The Other Side of Being a Freelance Stage Manager

Erin Joy Swank

23. These Skills Are Made for Walking

Tina Shackleford

Afterword. Moment of Pause-Tech, 09.26.20

Evangeline Rose Whitlock