Backstage Breakdown

Cheryl Mintz

Listen Later

Allison and Elizabeth chat with Cheryl Mintz about her decades long career in stage management. Cheryl has worked professionally on Broadway and with leading Theater, Ballet, and Opera companies and productions, while also being active on the Stage Managers Association Executive Board, producing the Del Hughes awards, and teaching at Montclair State University. 

 

Cheryl Mintz’s 42-year career as a Production Stage Manager spans Theater, Ballet and Opera. She is currently the Production Stage Manager for the two leading ballet companies in New Jersey; American Repertory Ballet and New Jersey Ballet, and an Adjunct Professor at Montclair State University. Cheryl continues her career-long 39 production collaboration with director/playwright Emily Mann most recently with the world premiere stage adaptation of Wladek Szpilman’s memoir, The Pianist, and the revival of Ms. Mann’s Execution of Justice. Cheryl celebrated 30 seasons at the Tony Award Winning McCarter Theatre Center, 25 as McCarter Theatre’s Resident Production Stage Manager, and has collaborated with America’s finest directors, playwrights, designers, actors, and theater-makers. Cheryl has enjoyed thirteen collaborations with Maestro Gian Carlo Menotti and the Spoleto Festivals in USA and Italy.  Cheryl spent five seasons at Lincoln Center with New York City Opera where she Stage Managed 40 operas and musicals, three tours and three PBS telecasts, and has six Broadway/Production Contract shows to her credit. Cheryl has mentored hundreds of emerging theater-makers through teaching and supervising assistantships. She has written for The New York Times, Yale School of Drama Alumni Magazine, and is a contributor to Sound and Music for the Theatre: The Art & Technique of Design and Dance Production; Design and Technology. Publications include Acting Editions of Athol Fugard’s The Road to Mecca and A Place with the Pigs. Cheryl received her MFA from Yale School of Drama, Management Development Certificate from Princeton University, BA from SUNY Stony Brook, SUNY Scholarship at University of Loughborough, England, and named a SUNY Notable Alumni in the Arts. For the Stage Managers’ Association, she was an Executive Board Member for 21 years, and produces The Del Hughes Awards Event for the past 8 years. Cheryl is a recipient of the Award of Excellence at the 2020 New Jersey Theatre Alliance Curtain Call, and 2010 Applause Award. Cheryl is a founder and partner of princetonVIRTUAL, which through creative virtual and live events brought communities together during the pandemic. Cheryl lives in Princeton, New Jersey with her husband Harris Richter and son Jake.

 

Topic #1: Schooling / Early Career

  1. What made you want to pursue Stage Management as a career?
  2. After graduating with a BA, what made you decide to go for your MFA?
  3. How did your MFA benefit your career? 
  4. What was your favorite part of your schooling? 
  5. You now teach stage management at the collegiate level. What are some words of wisdom you try to impart on your students? 

    6.  

    Topic #2: Stage Managing Opera and Dance

    1. How did you decide to add stage managing dance and opera to your repertoire of  skills?
    2. What are some of the key differences between stage managing opera and ballet, vs. theater?
    3. For Opera and for Dance- how is the score used while calling the performance?  Do you read music?  Do you feel that an opera or dance stage manager needs to be able to read music in order to succeed? 
    4. Are there differences between working with actors vs. working with opera singers and ballet dancers?
    5. What is some advice you’d give to young stage managers looking to get in the Opera field? What about dance?
    6. You are pictured backstage at your call desk often.  Tell us what working in the wings is like. How do you work a calling desk from offstage? 

      7.  

      Topic #3: Career at McCarter Theatre

      1. You worked at McCarter Theatre from 1991-2020. Tell us a little bit about your time spent there and some of your favorite highlights.
      2. How did you initially get that position?  Did you start as the Production Stage Manager or did you start in another role first?
      3. How did you transition from project based employment to being the Resident Production Stage Manager?  Was there a resident PSM before you? 
      4. What did a typical season look like when you worked there as Resident PSM? Were  you involved in every production? 
      5. What was the best part about working at a company for 30 years?  
      6. We’d love to talk to you about your long term working relationship with Emily Mann, the Artistic Director of McCarter Theatre from 1990-2020. 

        7.  

        Topic 4: The Stage Management Association (SMA) 

        1. How did you get involved in the SMA? 
        2. What does the SMA do? 
        3. Can you tell us why it’s important for stage managers to join and how it benefits one’s career? 
        4. What would you say to a young stage manager who wants to get involved in the SMA?

          5.  

          Theme music by Barrett Riggins.

          BARRETT RIGGINS is a composer and lyricist based in Brooklyn. He won the 2025 Richard Rodgers Award for HELSINKI (Upcoming; The New Group, Selection; NAMT). He is represented by UTA and the Hybrid Agency.

          ...more
          View all episodesView all episodes
          Download on the App Store
          Backstage BreakdownBy backstagebreakdownpod