Meet Hannah Smith

Working for any company for 20 years is a huge milestone. Can you share a bit about your "origin story" or how you got started in theater? How you got the "bug" so to speak?

I was always an artsy kid, the local school had a pretty robust music department, and our church did a shows every year at Easter and Christmas, so even though I lived in a fairly small town, there were opportunities to be involved in music and theatre. The big thing that introduced me to the world of technical theatre, though, was when the local news did a feature on The Phantom of the Opera's backstage team when the tour came to St. Louis. They showed off the costumes, had someone explain how the gondola and "floating" candles worked, and I even specifically remember one of the people they interviewed talking about how there were times backstage when someone had to stop cold so someone else could rush past them to their next part of the show. Of course I knew that running a show took more than the actors, but I hadn't stopped to think about how many people it would take working in sync to ensure something like Phantom ran correctly every single show. I somehow convinced my parents to get tickets to the tour for the whole family, and I've never been the same since watching that chandelier raise up during the overture.

What does a stage manager do? (I don't think people know this.)

The stage manager is the one person with a show for its entire span, from pre-production (meetings and other prep work), through rehearsals (keeping the rehearsal room on task, sending daily reports and having in-person check-ins to keep the full team on the same page, creating paperwork for things like keeping track of props and scenic pieces), technical rehearsals (working out lighting and audio and everything else cue placement with designers, ensuring everyone on the team - actors, designers, crew - know what's happening when and how all their roles need to work together) and finally performances (mainly calling the show - meaning cueing crew and sometimes actors when they need to take their next item, like a sound effect playing at an exact moment or a scenic element being rolled onstage, all while watching the show to make sure everyone's staying true to what we rehearsed). The stage manager handles so many things over the course of one single production, I can't even think of all of them to list. People probably see it as a very administrative position - and it is! It's a lot of managing people, creating and following paperwork, and problem solving - but calling the show can be very creatively fulfilling, especially any with "call on this feeling" cues in addition to the usual "call on this exact line / word / action" cues.

What's a moment over the last 20 years you'll never forget?

Oh man, there's way too many to only list one! How nervous I was calling The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe - my first professional show as SM - for the very first time. Taking the final blackout for Bagels..., the last show at the old Grace Theater, and Mrs. George speaking at the top of the show at the To Kill a Mockingbird (and George Theater) opening. The first time I felt like I had called all the cues in the Miss Maude photo montage scene at the right time, and - for some recency bias - bursting into tears after the very last time I called the opening number for Brother Andrew (and having to tell myself to stop crying or I was gonna miss cues!)

Though, if you can really only have one... 

Fixing the doorknob mid-show during The Hiding Place. A doorknob came off from the upstage side (out of view of the audience) of a door when an actor exited, and he passed it off to me backstage at my Assistant Stage Manager station. Since we needed that door to be functional again before the end of the act, I army crawled from the wing to the door, tightened it back on best I could, and crawled back off ... all while the show was still playing.

If you were a breakfast cereal which one would you be?

Ha! Probably something like Frosted Flakes or Honey Nut Cheerios - something basically good for you, but with a sweet tooth layer.