The Mission
Broadway & Beyond: Access for Stage Managers of Color provides opportunities to aspiring and current stage managers of color to learn from industry insiders, meet industry leaders, and provide insights to help stage managers of color start, maintain, and advance a career in the arts and theatre through free networking and educational events.
Broadway & Beyond offers direct access to the industry professionals responsible for filling stage management positions in New York, on tour, and in regional theaters throughout the country. We aim to eliminate the phrase ‘I don’t know where to find them’ from the hiring process and create opportunities for stage managers of color who are ready to work.
Contact Us for more information on how you can be involved.
Hybrid Networking Event:
Monday, September 12, 2022, 10:30am-5:00pm
in midtown Manhattan (location to be announced soon).
Continuing its mission to provide opportunity, education and vital industry connections for stage managers of color, Broadway & Beyond Access hosts its first hybrid networking event. Following the extraordinary success of its three virtual-only networking events, the hybrid event will foster in-person connections for those who are able to attend in person in New York, while continuing to provide an opportunity for stage managers of color and professionals from around the country to participate virtually. Information about discounted hotel options will be posted soon.
Stage managers of color interested in participating in the event, either in person or virtually, must apply online by Sunday, August 7, at 11:59pm PST.
Application and registration instructions here.
Theater Industry Professionals who are interested in joining, sign up here by Friday August 12 at 11:59 PST.
Discounted hotel accommodations are available at THE CIVILIAN HOTEL. To book a room, click here and use the promo code, BWAYBEYOND to received the Broadway & Beyond 18% discount.
To ensure this opportunity is made available to as many qualified applicants as possible, Broadway & Beyond launched a $100,000 fundraiser this spring. Funds raised through the campaign will cover travel and hotel costs for stage managers of color outside of the New York City area whose applications are accepted for the event. Additional support will be made available on a case-by-case basis for applicants who live in the NYC area and need assistance with local travel, childcare or other support that enables them to attend the event in person.
Thomas Schumacher and Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS matched $35,000 in donations and donations are still being accepted [link here]. To make a tax-deductible donation to support stage managers of color making vital industry click here.
What People Are Saying
I must say in all honesty, that my inbox has never had this much activity and I have you three to thank.
It's been a while since I have been on Broadway and now it's in my future.
And I can't remember when I have had to say "No" to more than one project.
A hundred million thanks for what you all have done.
BERNITA ROBINSON
I am an early career stage manager that just graduated with my MFA in stage management. After attending your second round of zoom networking events, I'm happy to let you know that I have been hired as an Assistant Stage Manager....
I am so grateful for this opportunity, and I know it would not have been possible without the incredible work you all have put into Broadway Beyond Access. Thank you for seeing us and helping others see us too.
KAYLA URIBE
Thank you all for your leadership and effort put forth into this organization. I've been able to connect with people I'd have never thought possible. Doors continue to open
I want to first say thank you all for creating Broadway & Beyond, it has been a blessing having a space created that I can see other stage managers in all different points in their careers that look like me. Thank you thank you thank you for creating this space, I look forward to more events with you all.
TONY H. HARRIS II
JANETTE BRAGGS
Educational Event:
Held Tuesday, April 5th, 2022
The Stage Manager’s Role in Building an Equitable and Compassionate Production Culture
Broadway & Beyond: Access for Stage Managers of Color welcomes veteran stage managers and professors Narda E. Alcorn and Lisa Porter for a webinar on anti-racist and anti-oppressive stage management practices. Webinar includes ASL interpretation.
The webinar will focus on tools that enable stage managers to build an equitable and compassionate workspace and will promote transparency, equity and inclusion as community-wide practices that can be exercised by everyone involved in a production. Alcorn and Porter will discuss how to effectively collaborate with producers, general managers and anyone who holds positional authority within an organization. They will speak from their social identities, mid-career women—one Black, and one White—who are educators and stage managers, spouses, parents and leaders in the field of stage management.
This event was very important for our entire community; therefore, the video/replay is shared below.
About the Presenters
Professor Narda E. Alcorn (she, her, hers), Chair, Stage Management, David Geffen School of Drama at Yale University, and Professor Lisa Porter (she, her, hers), Professor, Head of Stage Management, UC San Diego, published their first book, Stage Management Theory as a Guide to Practice: Cultivating a Creative Approach, in January 2020. The book has been featured in multiple publications and they have visited more than 50 virtual spaces in the past two years to teach and present their work.
Over the summer of 2020, Professors Alcorn and Porter co-authored the HowlRound essay We Commit to Anti-Racist Stage Management Education. This essay sparked a conversation about anti-racist stage management practices that continues on the HowlRound platform with the recent work by a collective of the next generation of stage managers: Hold, Please: Addressing Urgency and Other White Supremacist Standards in Stage Management.
Alcorn and Porter are honored to be cited in the American Theatre article Pushing Past Norms and Into Equitable Authenticity: how TGNC production and stage managers are leading the field by example, co-authored by UC San Diego MFA Stage Management Alumni Kasson Marroquin.
Other press features include the American Theatre article Managing the Stage, and Managing Expectations and on the USITT podcast, TECHnically Speaking: A Conversation on Anti-Racist Stage Management, and A Call to Diversify Those Calling the Cues, NY Times, July 5, 2021.
Professors Alcorn and Porter have been stage managers since high school and met at David Geffen School of Drama at Yale University in 1992.
You can find information regarding past events here.
If you are interested in participating as a panelist in the future, please contact us.
Currently Broadway & Beyond's virtual events are free to attend. Applicants must register in advance.
Participation may be capped.
Our Supporters
BROADWAY & BEYOND
For information on the Broadway Stage Management Symposium Charlie Blackwell Scholarships, click here.
The Founders
BROADWAY & BEYOND
Access for Stage Managers of Color
Lisa Dawn Cave
Production Supervisor, Frozen
LISA DAWN CAVE is currently the production supervisor for Disney’s Frozen both nationally and internationally. She is currently in Sydney, Australia mounting the Australian production.
Stage management is Lisa’s second career. She started her studies as a dancer/singer and worked professionally in that role for 10 years. She then transitioned into stage management and has been working consistently for over 25 years.
Her other credits include the Broadway productions: Shuffle Along, Fun Home, Rocky, The Humans, Cat On A Hot Tin Roof, Bring It On, West Side Story (2009), Come Fly Away, The Color Purple, Hot Feet, The Caine Mutiny Court Martial, The Woman In White, Julius Caesar, Caroline or Change, Hollywood Arms, Into the Woods, Wild Party, Parade, and Smokey Joe’s Café. She has worked with creatives: Hal Prince, George C. Wolfe, James Lapine, Jerry Zaks, Kenny Leon, Thomas Kail, Sam Gold, Daryl Waters, Jeanine Tesori, Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty, Alex Lacamoire, Tom Kitt, Jason Robert Brown, Lisa Kron, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Maurice Hines, Rob Ashford, Andy Blankenbuehler, Alex Timbers, Hope Clark, Savion Glover, and Christopher Gattelli, to name a few.
Ms. Cave serves on the Board of Broadway Cares/Equity Fights Aids and is a founding member of Black Theatre United. She is an Advisor for the Prince Fellowship, and an elected Councilor for Actors Equity Association.
To learn more, click here for the article & podcast on ipondr about Lisa Dawn's journey.
Beverly Jenkins
Production Stage Manager, Hadestown
BEVERLY JENKINS, 2020 Tony Honors recipient for Excellence in the Theatre, has been managing Broadway productions for close to 30 years. Ms. Jenkins is the production stage manager for the TONY Award winning Best Musical Hadestown. Other shows she has worked on include A Bronx Tale, Fully Committed, Amazing Grace, Living On Love, Holler If Ya Hear Me, Machinal, Godspell, Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo, In the Heights, Shrek: The Musical, Avenue Q, Aida, Sweet Charity, Oklahoma!, The Lion King, Bring In Da Noise/ Bring In Da Funk; Miss Saigon. Off Broadway: A Bronx Tale: The Musical (Paper Mill Playhouse); Bad Jews, If There Is I Haven’t Found It Yet (both at Roundabout).
Ms. Jenkins is on the boards of Broadway Cares/Equity Fights Aids and Beyond the Stage Door, and president of D.I.V.A., Inc: The Society for Women in the Arts. She is an adjunct professor at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts and The Conservatory at Shenandoah University. She is a proud mom, wife, and Howard University graduate.
Listen to Beverly discuss her amazing career, being a mother of 7 (Yep. 7!) and of course, B&B: Access for Stage Managers of Color on an episode of the mamastalkinloud podcast or wherever you listen to your podcasts.
Access for Stage Managers of Color
Jimmie Lee Smith
Stage Manager, Aladdin
JIMMIE LEE SMITH is currently a stage manager with Disney Theatrical Group stage managing on Aladdin The Musical. Aladdin marks Jimmie’s fourth show with Disney Theatrical. Recently Jimmie was also honored to be a part of Kenny Leon’s production of The Mountaintop with Samuel L. Jackson and Angela Bassett. Other Broadway, pre-Broadway, and national touring credits include: The Lion King, Mary Poppins, The Little Mermaid, Saturday Night Fever, Jekyll & Hyde, Evita, and Jesus Christ Superstar.
Jimmie Lee has worked with creatives such as: André De Shields, Mercedes Ellington, Sir Richard Eyre, Jerry Mitchell, Casey Nicholaw, Arlene Phillips, Kenny Leon, Anthony Lyn, Julie Taymor, Alex Timbers, Schele Williams, and George C. Wolfe.
Jimmie has also managed corporate fundraising and entertainment events for Presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton and for the MLK Memorial in Washington, D.C. to name a few.
Access for Stage Managers of Color
Kenneth J. McGee
Assistant Stage Manager, The Lion King
KENNETH J. McGEE was born in Brooklyn, New York and started his Stage Management career by working as a Production Intern on A Grand Night For Singing and the 1994 revival of Picnic, both at the Roundabout Theatre Company.
Kenneth has worked on over 20 Broadway shows including Once On This Island (Revival), Significant Other, An American In Paris, Kinky Boots, Gore Vidal’s The Best Man, Jerusalem, God Of Carnage, In The Heights, Spamalot, Disney’s Aladdin, The Little Mermaid and Tarzan, Rent, Pacific Overtures (2004 Revival), Seussical, On The Town (1998 Revival), Bring In ‘Da Noise, Bring In ‘Da Funk and Jesus Christ Superstar (2000 Revival). Off-Broadway work includes Manhattan Theatre Club, Playwrights Horizons, Classic Stage Company and Lincoln Center.
Kenneth currently works on the Broadway Stage Management team of The Lion King, which he joined in July of 2018.
Kenneth is on the board of Broadway Cares/Equity Fights Aids and has been a proud AEA member since 1994.
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Access for Stage Managers of Color