Ever sit in the audience at a play and wonder if there are details on stage that you can't see from your seat? Stage managers know these secrets, but since stage managers are backstage heroes that are rarely in the spotlight, their secrets usually stay secret!
LUCE SM Charles M. Turner III (SLOWGIRL, ALL-AMERICAN) calls his Assistant SM Sara Cox Bradley (DISGRACED, STUNNING) the "Paper Props Queen." They explained...
Chuck: We have a wonderful props team on this show: Faye Armon-Troncoso & John Michael Creenan supplied the props, and Meghan Abel takes care of the props here at the theater. But... there were times when we needed something right away and Sara would take the reins.
Sara: It's just what you do in rehearsal at the last minute. You need to make a computer, a paper, a banner-you name it.
Chuck: I think the favorite is Sara's "Assembly Program."
Sara: We needed an event program for the "Culture Month Assembly" [a high school assembly during which Luce gives a speech]. The program is brought on by two of the actors and though it is never opened, I made it a real program.
Chuck: Sara modeled it on one of her own high school assemblies-she was in the show choir.
Sara: No, just choir.
Chuck: Is there a difference?
Sara: Totally.
Chuck: Well... in the program, she has the school's choir singing, and the band playing, and several referenced characters (that are mentioned in the play but never seen) speaking.
Sara: I also included people I went to high school with- friends, people I was in choir with, teachers...
Chuck: We showed it to May (our director), at a production meeting one night, and she laughed for a good five minutes.
Sara: I put a copy on Facebook and tagged all the friends I mentioned. It was a big hit there as well. We ended up using it onstage.
Chuck: Their Off-Broadway debuts!
Sara: And at Lincoln Center... That's impressive!
Chuck and Sara are clearly also fun people to have around-if you found yourself backstage before the half hour mark before a performance of LUCE, you'd hear their call-and-response sing-a-long to the American Authors song "Best Day of My Life". Sara said, "It's way more fun than when Chuck sings 'Wrecking Ball'..."
Check back soon for more of our Backstage Blog from the LCT3 production of JC Lee's LUCE!
Natasha Sinha is the LCT3 Associate at LCT3/Lincoln Center Theater.
