FREE NETWORKING EVENT CONNECTING BIPOC STAGE MANAGERS WITH INDUSTRY PROFESSIONALS!
Press Contact
Michael Strassheim | mstrassheimPR@gmail.com
BROADWAY & BEYOND:
ACCESS FOR STAGE MANAGERS OF COLOR
Announces First Free Networking Event of 2022
Connecting BIPOC Stage Managers with Industry Professionals
Introduced by Tony Award® winner Brian Stokes Mitchell
Broadway & Beyond: Access for Stage Managers of Color is pleased to announce its first networking event of the year, continuing its mission to provide opportunity, education, and vital industry connections for stage managers of color. The event will be held virtually on Monday, January 24 from 6:00-8:30pm EST, and will offer stage managers of color the unique opportunity to connect directly with industry professionals who are in positions to share advice and personalized counsel and – crucially – to hire. Broadway veteran and advocate, Tony winner Brian Stokes Mitchell will introduce the event.
Attendance is free, and interested candidates must register online at BroadwayBeyondAccess.com by 9:00pm EST on Tuesday, January 18. Participation is capped at 80. Panelists will be provided with the résumés of all confirmed participants in advance of the event and will engage directly with attendees in small break-out groups. The groups will be sorted into seven categories: Broadway, Off-Broadway, Regional & Opera, Touring, Cruise Lines, and Events. Opera, cruise lines, and events are new categories this session. Applicants are encouraged to identify their top four categories and will be guaranteed access to at least three of their choices.
As with Broadway & Beyond’s two previous networking events, the participating professionals include production supervisors, stage managers, general managers, and producers representing key institutions and offices in New York City and throughout the country. The January event will, for the first time, also include Broadway choreographers and professionals from the opera, cruise lines, and events worlds in a continued effort to expand access to opportunities for stage managers of color throughout the performing arts industry.
Confirmed to participate are:
BROADWAY
101 Productions
RCI Theatricals
Foresight Theatrical
321 Theatrical Management
Joey Parnes Productions
Bespoke Theatricals
Blair Russell Productions
Disney Theatrical Productions
OFF-BROADWAY
Second Stage Theatre
MCC Theatre
Center Stage Company
Vineyard Theatre
Roundabout Theatre Company
Manhattan Theatre Club
TOURING
Work Light Productions
Troika Entertainment
NETworks Tours
REGIONAL THEATRES & OPERA
The Metropolitan Opera
Broadway Sacramento
Denver Center for the Performing Arts
Paper Mill Playhouse
Goodspeed Musicals
Berkeley Rep
St. Louis MUNY
The Old Globe
La Jolla Playhouse
Dallas Theatre Center
Alliance Theatre
5th Avenue Theatre, Seattle
American Theatre Group
CHOREOGRAPHERS
Kelly Devine
Christopher Gattelli
JoAnn M. Hunter
EVENTS
TMW Enterprises
The upcoming event marks Broadway & Beyond’s fourth event since launching in December 2020. Its inaugural event was hosted by Tony-winning director Kenny Leon and marked a first-of-its-kind opportunity for 75 stage managers of color from around the country to meet more than 30 professionals, including veteran stage managers, production supervisors, producers, and general managers representing Broadway, touring, and several major regional theatres. A second, more intimate networking event was held in March 2021. Broadway and Beyond has also hosted a résumé and interview prep workshop and created an online database of stage managers of color, as well as a job notices page, both of which are available for free at BroadwayBeyondAccess.com.
Since its first event just over a year ago, Broadway and Beyond alumni have accepted 43 jobs – including 11 in the current Broadway season – via connections made through the organization and its networking events.
Broadway & Beyond: Access for Stage Managers of Color is a networking organization that aims to connect early and mid-career BIPOC stage managers with industry professionals. Led by veteran stage managers Lisa Dawn Cave, Beverly Jenkins, Jimmie Lee Smith, and Kenneth J. McGee, Broadway & Beyond provides opportunities to aspiring and current stage managers of color to learn from industry insiders and meet industry leaders, and provides insights to help BIPOC stage managers start, maintain, and advance a career in the arts and theatre through free networking and educational events.
To learn more and register for the January 24 event, visit BroadwayBeyondAccess.com and connect with us on Facebook and Instagram @broadwayandbeyondaccess.
To download the Broadway & Beyond logo click here.
Biographies
LISA DAWN CAVE is currently the production supervisor for Disney’s Frozen both nationally and internationally. She’s mounted productions for Broadway; the US tour; Sydney, Australia; London; Hamburg; and supervised the Tokyo 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 serves on the board of Broadway Cares/Equity Fights Aids and is a founding member of Black Theatre United. She is an advisor for the Prince Fellowship and an elected councilor for Actors Equity Association.
BEVERLY JENKINS, 2020 Tony Honors recipient for Excellent in the Theatre, 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 boards of Broadway Cares/Equity Fights Aids and Beyond the Stage Door, 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.
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.
KENNETH J. McGEE was born in Brooklyn, New York and started his stage management career by working as a production intern on A Grand Night for Singing and the 1994 revival of Picnic, both at the Roundabout Theatre Company.
Kenneth has worked on over 20 Broadway shows including Once on This Island (revival), Significant Other, An American in Paris, Kinky Boots, Gore Vidal’s The Best Man, Jerusalem, God of Carnage, In the Heights, Spamalot, Disney’s Aladdin, The Little Mermaid, and Tarzan, Rent, Pacific Overtures (2004 revival), Seussical, On the Town (1998 revival), Bring in ‘Da Noise, Bring in ‘Da Funk, and Jesus Christ Superstar (2000 revival). Off-Broadway work includes Manhattan Theatre Club, Playwrights Horizons, Classic Stage Company, and Lincoln Center.
Kenneth currently works on the Broadway stage management team of The Lion King, which he joined in July of 2018.
Kenneth is on the board of Broadway Cares/Equity Fights Aids and has been a proud AEA member since 1994.
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