KCACTF National and Regional Stage Manager Fellowships
Purpose of the Fellowship:
The purpose of the KCACTF Stage Management Award is to provide
student stage managers with feedback from professionals working
in the field; to give outstanding student stage managers national
recognition; and to provide the opportunity for student managers
to attend the national festival at the Kennedy Center.
Students who have stage managed a KCACTF associate or participating
production entry are eligible for the Stage Management Award.
Student stage managers must be nominated by the director of the
production they stage managed or a faculty mentor. Letters of
nomination should be sent to the regional design & technology
chair, and copied to the regional chair. Please be sure to provide
contact information, including email, for all student stage managers.
At the regional festival guest professionals will respond to the
projects of regional stage management nominees who are present;
they will select one winner (national stage management finalist)
from the regional stage management entries.
General Information on the KCACTF Stage Management Award:
Student stage managers may be nominated to attend their regional
festival as regional stage management nominees regardless of whether
the production from which they were nominated is itself selected
for the regional festival. Regional stage management nominees
must attend the Region I festival, display their materials, stage
manage an assigned event and be interviewed by a professional
stage manager in order to be eligible for nomination to the National
Stage Management Award.
The stage manager is responsible for bringing their materials
to and from the regional festival. A guest professional, or professionals,
will respond to the work of all regional stage management nominees
who are present at their regional festival. One regional stage
management winner (national stage management finalist) will be
selected. The selection of national finalists shall include the
guest respondent/s; the selection process may include other guest
respondents as determined by the regional design & technology
chair.
Nominating a stage manager for the Region I Festival:
- Materials for nomination must be postmarked by December 1st.
- Only students who have stage managed an associate or participating
KCACTF entry are eligible for the KCACTF Stage Management Award.
Student stage managers must be nominated by the director or appropriate
faculty mentor.
- Two letters of nomination must be sent to the Chair
of Design and Technology for Region I from faculty, directors
or other mentors. These can be sent with the required student
information (see #3). The letters of nomination must address
the effectiveness of the student stage manager's collaboration,
team-building, and communication – with director, actors,
designers and production staff; the effectiveness of their personnel
management skills; their effectiveness of time management at
rehearsal and performance; the effectiveness of their process,
including paperwork, script notations and calling the show;
and the effective use of resources.
- Students must send to the Chair of
Design and Technology
- a resume that includes current contact information; email,
address and current phone number
- a letter of application written by the student stage manager
nominee, which includes why the student is interested in participating
in this fellowship program at the National Festival, and the ways
in which they believe it may contribute to their growth as a stage
manager.
- The student should affirm their availability for the National
KCACTF Festival in Washington DC in April. Check national
website, www.kcactf.org,
for specific dates.
- Enrollment requirements: Undergraduate student who is registered
for a minimum of six semester hours or nine quarter hours at the
time of production; b) a graduate student who is enrolled for
three semester or four quarter hours at the time of production;
c) a continuing part-time student who is enrolled in a regular
degree program at the time of production.
- All nominees will be reviewed by a panel and the top stage
managers will be invited to participate at the Region I festival.
If selected to participate at Region I KCACTF:
- After nomination, and appropriate notification from the regional
design & technology chair, the student stage manager will
prepare their materials for the regional festival and register
to attend. Registration forms for Region I can be found at http://www.kcactf1.org/festival_info.asp.
- Stage managers will be assigned to a practical event at the
festival such as an Irene Ryan round, one of the 6 x 10 plays
or one of the 1 x 2 plays or any combination thereof. Students
will be reviewed on their handling of the event.
- Stage managers will also be interviewed by a professional equity
stage manager. They should bring their materials that are in the
design and technical expo to the interview.
- The stage manager is also responsible for bringing the materials
to the festival for display in the Design and Technology expo.
Materials will be displayed on a table space, 30 inches deep and
36 inches wide. If they want, they may bring a foam board display
for materials to be displayed vertically on the back of their
table space.
- Set up times for the Design and Technology expo will be posted
in the festival program which can be found on the website at
http://www.kcactf1.org/festival_info.asp.
- Stage managers are encouraged to include all of the following
materials in their display at the regional festival. Please note
that an inability to provide all requested materials should not
discourage or prevent students from participating in the stage
management competition. The materials requested are:
- A one-page statement of the stage manager's production management
approach.
- Documentation –
- At least one representative production photograph, in
color, labeled as to scene/locale. It should illustrate
the entire setting and its relationship to the stage and
theatre space.
- Playbill or program from the production.
- Process – visual information such as
- Effective collaboration with director, performers, designers,
and production staff
- Effective management of rehearsal and performance process
- Team building and personnel management
- Effective use of resources
- Preparation of schedules, shift plots and running-sheets
- Script notation and calling the show
- Implementation – visual information such as
- Prompt book/sample script with cues and blocking.
- Effective use of schedules, lists, plots and running-sheets
– for one performance.
- Computer applications
- Indication of communication style of stage manager –
such as examples of email correspondence
- Any other materials used to accomplish job
- All materials must be labeled with: the play title and
playwright; and the student stage manager's name. Wherever
possible the name of the stage manager's college or university
should not be visible on the front of any materials.
- *Be careful to maintain the privacy of individuals –
do not include any paperwork that might indicate private
information of cast, crew, or production staff. Examples:
any lists with social security numbers; medical information
forms; or address and phone numbers.
The stage manager finalist will be announced at the awards ceremony
for the Region I festival. See festival program for dates and
times of ceremony.
If selected as the Region I finalist:
The regional stage management finalist will be announced at the
regional festival. National stage management finalists will be
invited to attend the national festival in Washington , D.C in
April.
If selected to attend the national festival, KCACTF will provide
national finalists with travel, shared hotel accommodations and
per diem for the period of national festival (normally Tuesday
through Saturday). Attendance at the national festival is not
mandatory; however, the National KCACTF Stage Management Award
will be determined by a student's work assignments, and participation
in workshops and master classes, while at the national festival.
Faculty mentors are not able to observe workshops or master classes
held during the national festival week. Please see the “What
Next?” page for further information on the national festival.
For information on what is expected at the national festival,
go to www.kcactf.org
and click on ‘student’ then on ‘design technologies’
and find Stage Management Fellowship in the left column.
