One of the biggest challenges of having the actors playing their own instruments is not only micing them but also their instruments. Do we use wireless pickups on the guitars? Do we just use their body mics to pick up the instrument sound? Also, how do we give the actors monitors? Most musicians need to have an on stage monitor so they can hear what they are playing. The issue is that the musicians are moving all over the stage. So the guitar player is not always in the same place when he/she is playing a particular song. So where do you put the monitors? That is one of the major challenges. I'll keep you posted.

The biggest challenge in being able to assemble the set in our scene shop. Unfortunately we have height issues at the shop so it is difficult to put everything together before it comes into the theater. The other challenge is making it safe. There are ramps connecting the different levels of platforms so we have to put railings on them. Do you put railings around the upper platforms that are 8 – 10 feet above ground? We’ll cross that bridge when we get into the theater and see how the actors react.

We always try to have backup plan. For example, in Beauty and the Beast, the big wagon that rolled down stage was operated by a motorized winch. One night one of the crew people hit the wires connecting the motor to the winch with some scenery and blew out the motor. The solution was to cut the cables and push/pill the wagon up and down stage. We try to plan to never have a performance stop because of a piece of scenery.

I love the concept of the actors playing their own instruments. It is forcing Bethann and I to learn a lot about musical instruments. Normally the musicians show up with their own instruments. In this circumstance there are times that we can’t use the actor’s instrument because it is a nice shiny guitar. The show takes place in a sort of homeless village, so the guitar has to be distressed which means we have to provide the actor with a guitar that he/she can distress. We are learning all about guitars, cellos, flutes, stand up basses and lots of other musical instruments.

That there is much less room backstage than they think. People are always amazed at how much scenery we can cram into the small backstage area that we have. Also, that we only paint, build what the audience can see. Thus, all the scenery is only painted on the front side and that the scenery stops as soon as the sightline stops.

So far it has been SINGIN' IN THE RAIN because there were so many challenges to overcome. The rain for the famous dance number, a full stage rain at the end of the show, getting rid of the water after it rained, four short movies that we had to produce that were in the show which took place on scenery that was also in the show.

I went to college thinking that I wanted to be an actor. I soon fell into stage management, which I really liked. After college I began to work at the Pittsburgh Public Theatre as a carpenter and run crew person. I kept telling the Producing Artistic Director that I wanted to stage manage. One day an opportunity presented itself and the Artistic Director hired me for one show as a stage manager, with no guarantees after that. I was lucky and became the resident stage manager for the next 11 seasons. I then moved to New York City where I continued to stage manage for another 6 seasons, five at the Roundabout Theatre. I then moved to Philly to work as the Production Manager/Production Stage Manager at the Philadelphia Drama Guild. I did that for five seasons until the Drama Guild folded. I then worked at various theaters in Philadelphia as a Production Manager until I got hired here at the Walnut six seasons ago.