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 BIPOC stage managers 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.
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Contact Us for more information on how you can be involved.
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Events
Thursday, December 17, 2020
5:30pm - 7:30pm EST
Broadway & Beyond’s first networking event for BIPOC stage managers will include a virtual panel discussion featuring production supervisors, stage managers, and general managers representing organizations including Disney Theatrical Productions, Bespoke Theatricals, Foresight Theatrical, RCI Theatricals, The Alliance Theatre (Atlanta), The Muny (St. Louis), The 5th Avenue Theatre (Seattle), and others. A full list of panelists is below.
Attendance is free, and applicants must register or join the wait list no later than Sunday, December 13 at 11:59pm.
Participation is capped at 75.
Panelists will be provided with the resumés of all confirmed participants in advance of the event and will engage directly with attendees in small break-out groups.
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Panelists
J. Philip Bassett
Bonnie Becker
Heather Brose
Jill Cordle
Matthew DiCarlo
Julia Jones
Johnny Milani
Ira Mont
Bonnie Panson
Michael J. Passaro
Kathleen E. Purvis
Thomas Recktenwald
Clifford Schwartz
Rebecca L. Skupin
Rolt Smith
Paul J. Smith
Rick Steiger
Kelsey Tippins
Charlie Underhill
Kim Vernace
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101 Productions
321 Theatrical Management
Alliance Theatre
Berkeley Repertory Theatre
Bespoke Theatricals
Dallas Theater Center
Denver Center for the Performing Arts
Disney Theatrical Group
Foresight Theatrical
NETworks
RCI Theatricals
The 5th Avenue Theatre
The MUNY
Special Guest Speaker
Kenny Leon
Award Winning Director
KENNY LEON is a Tony® and Obie Award-winning and Emmy®-nominated Broadway and television director, presently directing The Mahalia Jackson Story for Lifetime. Most recently, he directed the Broadway premiere of Charles Fuller's Pulitzer Prize-winning masterpiece A Soldier's Play. He also directed The Underlying Chris at Second Stage Theatre Company and the acclaimed production of Much Ado About Nothing at the Delacorte/Shakespeare in the Park.
Broadway: A Soldier’s Play; American Son; Children of a Lesser God; Holler If Ya Hear Me; A Raisin in the Sun (Tony Award, 2014); The Mountaintop; Stick Fly; August Wilson’s Fences, Gem of the Ocean, and Radio Golf. Off-Broadway: Everybody’s Ruby, Emergence-See! (The Public), Smart People (Second Stage). Television: “American Son” (adapted for Netflix), “Hairspray Live!,” “The Wiz Live!,” “Steel Magnolias,” “Dynasty,” “In My Dreams.” Author, Take You Wherever You Go. Artistic Director Emeritus, Kenny Leon’s True Colors Theatre Company.
Our Supporters
BROADWAY & BEYOND
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 is on the board of Broadway Cares/Equity Fights Aids and a founding member of Black Theatre United. She is an adjunct professor at Columbia University and an elected Councilor for Actors Equity Association.
Beverly Jenkins
Production Stage Manager, Hadestown
BEVERLY JENKINS 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 board of Broadway Cares/Equity Fights Aids 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.
Access for Stage Managers of Color
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.