Backstage Bruins: Student stage manager finds pivotal role away from spotlight
Beyond the actors and stage of UCLA Theater Film and Television’s “Eurydice,” stage manager and second-year theater student Kristin Hwang (left) coordinates her 20-person crew for a cohesive, smooth production from start to finish. (Daniel Alcazar/Daily Bruin senior staff)
By William Thorne
Jan. 29, 2016 7:19 a.m.
Kristin Hwang is a stage manager and a mother of 20.
She comes across as a stern mother, commanding her cast and stage crew children from a gallery high up in the theater. She puts them in their places with a turn, a look and a smile. Hwang said once she has already established her authority and the rules in the room, a smile suffices to enforce them.
“The role of the stage manager is to help everyone in the production fulfill their full potential,” said Hwang, a second-year theater student. “It’s my job to make sure they’re at their best.”
Hwang acts as the hub of communication for a production. Through her microphone, she hears a dozen voices in her head, prompting her with questions about opening elevator doors and rain sound effects. She has to coordinate all of the voices toward a cohesive, smooth theater production.
Part of a stage manager’s job is to take control of the situation when something goes wrong – the show must go on. Hwang would know; she has been in the job since her junior year of high school when she assumed the role for the musical “Annie.”
As stage manager for “Eurydice,” opening at the Little Theater tonight, Hwang has seen her fair share of awkward pauses and on-stage catastrophes.
“I would be most satisfied if everyone survives this production without any broken bones or bleeding,” Hwang said.
Keeping the cast and crew out of hospital is a pessimistic target, but one which Hwang said is by no means easy to achieve. The set for “Eurydice” has a small river basin flowing through it and an antique elevator which opens to reveal a running shower. Slipping and falling on set is a realistic prospect, Hwang said: Two actors have already fallen, trying to jump over the river.
On the darkened set of “Eurydice,” bathed in eerie blue light, Hwang sat halfway up the banked benches, poring over a script, her face illuminated by the amber glow of reading lamps.
“Standby, lights, sound and go,” Hwang enunciated into her microphone.
The lights flashed, coupled with a strange gurgling sound and a hefty book sailed down from the ceiling backstage left. The book smacked against the floor.
“That was way too fast,” Hwang said. “Let’s do that again.”
A stage crew member hoists the book back to the ceiling, while Hwang carefully places a pink sticky note into her thick script. On the second attempt she counts slowly down from ten, clicking her fingers on each beat, marking the timing for the book to be lowered.
Hwang sees herself as the uniting factor between the stage crew, the cast and director. Being a stage manager is often a hectic, stressful experience, Hwang said, laughing in hysterical embarrassment when asked to recount her worst moment in a theater. Everything depends on her to coordinate the production and act as a compassionate leader to turn to with questions or issues.
Despite the order she maintains over proceedings, Hwang knows a perfect production is not a realistic goal.
“Something goes wrong every show, but that’s the beauty of theater – no show is ever the same,” Hwang said.
She recalls, on the Saturday night of “Annie,” the actor playing Mr. Warbucks forgot his lines, jumping two pages, a quick change for Annie, a cue for the orchestra and several light cues.
In that moment the entire cast and crew froze, hearts in mouths.
“It was probably one of the worst moments of my life, but that’s the time when stage managers have to shine and take control of the situation,” Hwang said.
But Hwang has to put any setbacks and pre-show nerves behind her before the high of the curtain call. Even though she dabbled in acting in her first year at UCLA, Hwang said ever since she worked as stage manager for “Annie,” she has been hooked on the stage crew experience, which she described as like being on crack.
“At a certain point in your life, you learn there are certain things you can’t do and there certain things you’re great at,” Hwang said. “I learned that I’m good backstage and that I didn’t need to be in the spotlight to fulfill my potential.”
