Today’s episode features Jennie Yu, who went to school with me and is currently a paralegal who moonlights as an incredible stage manager! Jennie takes us through her SM origin story, breaks down the responsibilities that the role entails, and speaks to the importance of finding your place in theatre. We then get into the struggles of grappling with wanting to pursue the arts as children of immigrants who want more traditional and stable lives for us. We also talk about presenting ourselves as women in the arts in certain ways in order to be taken seriously, and we point out how the ways in which women are encultured as planners and empaths yield great stage managers, which is bittersweet in that their superpowers come from being master accommodators. We conclude by preaching for early exposure and accessibility in the arts, and daring to challenge the status quo by actively seeking diverse casts and crews.

I’m also attaching a link here to the off-Broadway show that Jennie is stage managing this weekend (7/20-7/24): https://ci.ovationtix.com/35658/production/1127713?performanceId=11102773