September 2015, Kansas City, MO: At this point in my career, I had spent eight years as a nonunion stage manager, worked at several Equity theaters and accrued 30 weeks toward Equity membership. Oddly enough, the one Equity theater I hadn’t worked at in some capacity, Kansas City Actors Theatre, hired me as a non-Equity ASM for its first production of the season, The Gin Game.
While working as the ASM, I received a call from the theater’s production manager. The second show of its season, At Home at the Zoo, had just wrapped up casting the last role in the show. It turned out the actress cast to play that character had initially been hired to serve as the stage manager for the show – so this left a vacancy. My production manager was able to find an Equity stage manager to run rehearsals, but he would have to leave the show the week it moved to the theater to start another production elsewhere. Since my production manager was well acquainted with my desire to turn Equity, he offered to put me on contract to take over the show from tech week through the end of the run.
This was a theater that I had never worked at before, but all within my first season there I worked as an ASM, got my Equity card to replace a stage manager and was offered the SM position on the last show of that season. I am currently the Resident PSM at Kansas City Actors Theatre and just wrapped first rehearsal for our third show. I feel nothing but pride every time I open my wallet and see my blue (for now) Equity card, and I will continue to feel that way for many colors to come.
Originally published in Equity News, Winter 2017.
