Stage Management Personal Statement

I'm often told by those around me that stage management sounds like an awfully complicated and demanding discipline. Yet I instinctively smile, as I know I love and continue to pursue roles in it for that very reason. It is this innate feeling that tells me that I want to work professionally in this industry, and I believe that this course will provide me with the necessary skills, opportunities and contacts to help make that happen.
Over the past five years, I've spent a large portion of my free time and, more recently, time at college in a theatre. I have been lucky enough to see a wide range of plays, musicals and live performances in numerous venues across London, as well as being a member of the crew in multiple school and college productions. Having the option to study what I once considered a hobby and being a part of many more complex and challenging productions fills me with heaps of excitement.
This was the first time I had ever been a Deputy Stage Manager, and I knew very little about the role going into it. We spent nine months rehearsing weekly after school, learning how to block in the prompt copy as I went along, with help from the theatre technician and a book he gave me – Stage Management: A Gentle Art by Daniel Bond. As well as using forums and articles found online, I read the book from cover to cover. When the performance dates came around, I had to call the cues, a task that at first seemed extremely daunting. Yet after the final show, I knew that calling was my favourite DSM duty, and probably one of the main reasons why I would love to do it professionally in the near future. Working on this musical certainly taught me that it’s ok to enjoy challenging situations, and I began to notice that it is possible to succeed despite a great deal of