Student stage managers for the theatre department will earn wages throughout the rehearsal process and performances starting this fall. Previously, stage managers were not paid, unlike other student employees who work on the production team. The change will take effect for Into the Woods, the department’s main production of this semester.
The department typically pays students hourly for other work for performances including set and costume design or working as backstage crew. The new policy means stage managers — head and assistant — will be eligible for pay for weekly rehearsals and meetings.
“I’m just really proud of the department for supporting it, and I think it’s a really positive step forward,” Production Manager Jenn Collins Hard told the Record.
Assistant stage managers for department shows typically work 12 hours per week, while head stage managers work up to 20.
The department has seen declining student interest in stage managing in recent years. “If we don’t get student interest in stage managing, we will go out and hire a professional,” Collins Hard said. “We want to make sure the productions are supported with the appropriate people to staff them.” The department hired professional stage managers for Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812 in 2024 and Everybody last spring.
“It’s just a behemoth of a job,” Grace Newman ’26 told the Record. “It’s not just rehearsal times. It’s also meeting times, it’s the time that you spend scheduling, it’s the time that you spend writing emails and coordinating with actors and all that.”
Newman, who will serve as head stage manager for Into the Woods this fall, has been a vocal advocate for student compensation. “If students are doing this work, which they would hire an adult professional to do, students should be getting compensated,” she said.
According to Collins Hard, a significant factor enabling the decision was a change to college guidelines that expanded the number of hours students could be paid per week from 10 to 20 hours.
This development also coincides with several other changes in the theatre department and major this year. While theatre majors were previously required to stage manage to complete the department’s production requirement, students may now use other experiences — such as collaborating with a guest artist or designing for a show — to fulfill the requirement. If students still wish to use their experience stage managing as a production credit for the major, they can opt out of being paid.
Paying stage managers will help create a more professional work environment, Newman explained. “I feel like now, instead of being a student doing this job, I am being treated like someone who has an important role on the level of everyone else who is getting paid on this production,” she said.
Stage managing is tough work that requires dedication, said Ben Ptak ’28, who is an assistant stage manager for Into the Woods this semester and served in the same position for Much Ado About Nothing last fall. “There’s so many easier ways on campus to make money,” they said. “If you’re stage managing, you’re there for the love of theatre, and I think that will always, always shine through above monetary or nonmonetary incentives.”
However, Newman noted that students’ passion should not be taken advantage of without material recognition of their work. “In theatre, there’s such a culture of, ‘Oh, you’re just lucky to be here,’” she said. “You do it for the art… even if you’re not getting compensated at all, you do it for the love of it. And that is so true. I do this because it’s the best. There’s a reason that I do it when I don’t get paid.”
“But also at the end of the day, when we all graduate, we are going to have to be making money to support ourselves and to live,” she continued. “And figuring that out starts now.”
