Written by: Matthew Stern
Imagine a room packed with nearly 100 stage managers from around the world. Sounds crazy, no? Well, I’ve been in that room for the last 10 years, and I can attest: when stage managers get together and build a connection, something wonderful happens. It’s an incredible and mind-blowing experience.
For the past decade, I’ve been producing the Broadway Stage Management Symposium, an annual event where stage managers from around the world gather and Broadway’s best share their expertise and experience.
Why have I been doing this? Because stage managers spend so much time taking care of others, the Symposium is a rare space where we can take care of ourselves. Even leaders need time to reflect, pause, synthesize, and grow.
And yes, stage managers are leaders. Not paper pushers, not just cue callers, not mere data deliverers. That lone person furiously writing notes in the back of the room? That’s a leader.
We don’t just care for the show — we care for the people in it. We support, uplift, counsel, and unite the company. Some of the best in our business share this belief, and their wisdom often revolves around the same key themes: leadership, community, service, compassion, equity, passion, and connection.
This year at the Symposium (May 17–19), we’re focusing on the theme of Connection, and every panel will explore a different facet of this vital skill.
Building Connection with Your Team: Trust and Communication
Our first Symposium session dives into how you connect with your team — and why it matters so deeply.
Cody Renard Richard and Jhanaë Bonnick, the PSM and 1st Assistant on The Last Five Years, are a perfect example. They have a close working relationship where it’s almost like one can finish the other’s sentences. When that connection is strong, you can practically hear the room humming along.
- Communication becomes faster and more effective.
- The production process flows smoother.
- The team feels supported and confident.
A PSM can only be in so many places at once. Their 1st Assistant becomes an extension of them.
Together, they’re greater than the sum of their parts. Especially in a large production like a Broadway musical, a connected leadership team holds everything and everyone up.
Cody and Jhanaë built their relationship on a solid foundation of trust and respect, modeling to the entire company: “We got you. And we got this.”
Connection Across Departments: Stage Manager and Company Manager
Another crucial relationship for any stage manager is their connection with the company manager. It’s a right brain/left brain partnership: each handles separate sides of the show, but when they come together, magic happens. Financial meets creative, legal meets compassionate, practical meets personal.
In our second session at the Symposium, Tony Honoree Beverly Jenkins and her close friend, company manager Lizz Cone, will explore this powerful relationship.
Professionally and personally, their strong bond has supported them through countless productions and life milestones.
- Strong professional alignment leads to better show operations.
- Deep personal friendship provides resilience and joy.
- Shared leadership across departments benefits the whole company.
A great show isn’t just run by talented individuals — it’s built by strong partnerships.
Connection to a Greater Community: Purpose Beyond the Production
Leadership isn’t confined to the walls of the theater. It’s also about how we connect to the larger world. Broadway has long partnered with Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS, raising millions to support AIDS organizations, natural disaster relief, and much more.
When we connect our work to a larger cause, it transforms our experience:
- Shared purpose brings new meaning to our roles.
- Acts of service strengthen community bonds.
- Giving back deepens the pride we take in our work.
Connecting with our community takes us out of ourselves, and often connects us to colleagues we might not otherwise have truly known.
Connection with Yourself: The Root of Authentic Leadership
One of the sessions I’m most excited for brings together a stage manager, an actor, and a producer — all of whom transitioned into becoming mental health professionals.
Their panel focuses on perhaps the most important connection of all: the connection to yourself.
We’ll explore:
- What stories we tell ourselves — and how they shape us.
- The coping mechanisms we use — healthy and otherwise.
- How greater self-awareness leads to deeper, more authentic leadership.
When we connect to our authentic selves, we can form genuine, present, respectful connections with others. Leadership rooted in honesty, transparency, and compassion changes the entire culture of a team.
Leadership is About People, Not Just Productions
Ultimately, all these layers of connection come back to one truth: people are more important than things.
We live in a challenging, fast-paced world. Theater especially demands urgency, perfectionism, and constant high stakes. But connection — true connection — reminds us of our humanity.
As leaders, when we build relationships based on trust, empathy, and presence, the work gets better. The environment gets healthier. And we all grow not just as professionals, but as people.
As J. Donald Walters put it in The Art of Leadership:
“Genuine leadership is of only one type: supportive. It leads people; it doesn’t drive them. It involves them; it doesn’t coerce them. It never loses sight of the most important principle governing any project involving human beings: namely, that people are more important than things.”
Join Us at the Symposium
That’s the goal of the Broadway Stage Management Symposium, and it’s what we’ve been building for ten years: A place to care for stage managers. A place to reconnect with our community, our collaborators, and ourselves. Wherever you are on your journey…student, early career, or late career, you’re welcome at the Symposium.
We’ve made the event Fully Hybrid:
- Attend in-person in NYC
- Join live online from anywhere
- Or watch the sessions on-demand.
No matter where you are, you can connect.
No matter where you are, you can grow.
More information and registration: www.broadwaysymposium.com
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MATTHEW AARON STERN:. Broadway Stage Management credits include: Come From Away, Finding Neverland, On The Town, Spider-Man, An Evening with Patti LuPone & Mandy Patinkin, The Little Mermaid, Wicked, Phantom of the Opera, & The Full Monty; Tours: Mandy Patinkin: Dress Casual, John Lithgow’s Stories By Heart, Billy Crystal’s 700 Sundays, Les Miserables & Grease. Other: Lord of the Rings Symphony Concerts, Radio City Christmas Spectacular, Blue Man Group at the Hollywood Bowl. Corporate event clients include: Google, Samsung, Lenovo, Toyota, Volkswagen, Lincoln Financial, GSK, Abbvie, and many more. Alum of UC San Diego, Matt teaches at SUNY Purchase and Montclair State, serves on the Board of the Stage Managers’ Association, and is a proud AEA member. founder of the Broadway Stage Management Symposium, the annual conference for stage managers & co-founder of Event Training Academy, an online course for event stage managers.
