In the wings, URI theater student wins stage-managing competition

02/20/08 - Typically, a play is known for its stars, its set or its dialogue. But who ushers those stars onto the stage, supervises the set-building and writes cues to deliver the perfect punch line?University of Rhode Island theater student Samantha Demers knows that these responsibilities are part of a stage manager's job.

As the recent winner of a regional stage management fellowship award, it's her job.

From Jan. 29 to Feb. 3, Demers participated in the New England Stage Management Fellowship Competition at the annual Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival, which was held in Fitchburg, Mass.

During the nearly weeklong competition, the Cranston resident competed against almost 30 participants from Connecticut, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine, according to its official Web site, to win the award.

Demers, who transferred to URI three years ago, said she is amazed at her newfound celebrity status, especially because she had only managed one play before the competition.

"Already, just winning this New England region [competition], I've gotten two job offers and people are recognizing me left and right," she said.

But Demers laughed when asked if money is the key to success.

"You wouldn't be in it if you wanted money," she said. "For theater, you don't do it for the money."

Demers became involved with stage management after she transferred to URI, when she stumbled upon it by accident. She was the assistant director for URI play, "Strange Snow," and helped the stage manager build the set.

Demers later managed URI's production of "Stuff Happens," which directly led to her recommendation to the festival.

"I found that I like it a lot, and I'm good at it, so I thought, 'Why not do that?' As I was working as assistant director, I realized during ["Strange Snow"] that that definitely wasn't my calling," she said.

Theatre Department Chairwoman, Paula McGlasson said she is more than satisfied with Demers' performance at the regional competition, and was one of the professors who wrote her a recommendation letter.

After "Stuff Happens," Demers was approached by a judge from the festival who attended the show, and she urged McGlasson to "get the ball rolling" and enter Demers in the competition.

"From what she and several of the other students said, the sense of organization and detail and the professional look her book had made it stand out from the others," McGlasson said. "I'm very pleased she is going forward."

The "book" McGlasson referred to is called a "prompt-script," which holds the script and all of the cues and set designs in it.

"Any paperwork involved whatsoever in the show goes into [this] binder, and it's basically the bible of the show," Demers said. "If anything happened to the stage manager they should be able to go to the book and anything they needed to know at all should be in the book."

Demers brought her prompt-script to the festival, and judges looked at it for clarity and skill in management, she said, though they did not use a point scale.

"It was intense, there's a lot of work involved in it," Demers said.

Next, she participated in an interview with a production manager and an equity stage manager, who asked her what she planned on doing after college and why she was attending such a competition.

Judges then critiqued the participants while they stage-managed a portion of the festival called the Irene Ryan Acting Competition, which featured aspiring actors and actresses. The acting portion included 10 URI theater students among its competitors.

The next stop on Demers' schedule is the national competition, which will be held April 14 to 20 in Washington, D.C. But for now, Demers is concentrating on stage-managing her next production at URI, "Amadaeus," which will open next week.

"I'm just trying to almost not think about it, trying not to get anxious about it," she said laughing.