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101 Black Stage Managers
During this pause in our working lives, The Stage Manager’s Association has focused their energies on creating initiatives to better serve the entire Theatre community. The Stage Manager’s Association is pleased to announce that they will be partnering with the Black Theatre Caucus to raise the visibility and knowledge into the community of outstanding Black Stage Managers.
The goal of this partnership is to identify and honor One Hundred and One Black Stage Managers. It is the SMA’s intention, to offer to these stage managers, a two-year professional membership, as part of our commitment for big change in the SMA. It is their hope that with the addition of these voices to their professional association, they will gain new opportunities to learn, to make change and find their way to a more equitable Stage Managers’ Association for all.
Below are the Stage Managers showcased…
Aldora Neal is an Organized Creative from Brooklyn, NY. Leaving SUNY Purchase as a proud Alumna she hit the ground running in the artistic Hotbed of NYC by balancing her passions of Stage Management & Dance. Some of her credits include: Broadway (Production Assistant)- Frozen, Once on this Island, The Cher Show, Freestyle Love Supreme, & Caroline, or Change. NYC Theatre (Production Stage Manager)- Radioactive (Manhattan School of music), Hedda Gabler (IRT Theater), & Still Not (Fringe NYC). Dance: Project D Dance Company (Company member & Event Coordinator) & The Blacksons (Company member & Administrative Director). Recognizing the duality of her identity, Aldora leads each day with gratitude for her opportunities and the company she keeps. She intends for her journey to inspire fellow Black Women & BIPOC to be receptive of their own magic.
Jereme Kyle Lewis (Assistant Stage Manager): Broadway: Caroline, or Change. The Height of the Storm, Bernhardt/Hamlet, M. Butterfly, Present Laughter, Our Mother’s Brief Affair, Sylvia, Hand to God, The Trip to Bountiful. Off-Broadway: Continuity (MTC), White Noise (Public), Sugar In Our Wounds (MTC), Tiny Beautiful Things (Public), The Roads to Home (Primary Stages), The City of Conversation (LCT), The Madrid (MTC). Regional: Williamstown Theatre Festival, Center Theater Group, The Wallis, Arena Stage, Goodman Theatre, The Eugene O’Neill Theater Center. Tours: Grey Gardens, The Trip To Bountiful.
McGee was born in Brooklyn, New York and this is his 26th year as a proud AEA member! He started his career by working as a Production Intern on A Grand Night For Singing and the 1994 revival of Picnic. Both were produced at the Roundabout Theatre Company. Shortly after, he got his AEA card working for TheaterWorks USA touring the country with children’s theater. Since those early days, Kenneth has worked on over 20 Broadway shows including: the 2017 revival of Once On This Island, Significant Other, An American In Paris, Kinky Boots, Gore Vidal’s The Best Man, Jerusalem, God Of Carnage, In The Heights, and many others! He has also worked Off-Broadway at Manhattan Theatre Club, Playwrights Horizons, Classic Stage Company and Lincoln Center. Since July of 2018, Kenneth has been a part of the Stage Management team for The Lion King!
Tiffany is a proud native of Philadelphia and holds a BFA in Theater Arts Administration from Howard University. Tiffany has had the pleasure of working as a professional Stage Manager in Philadelphia and New York. Selected Shows: MJ The Musical (Broadway 2021), Richard, Jane, Dick and Sally (Baltimore Center Stage), The Cher Show (Chicago and Broadway), Some Old Black Man (59E59), Motown the Musical (Broadway and 1st National), Memphis (1st National), Three Sisters (Classical Theatre of Harlem), Dreamgirls (National Tour) and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (Broadway - African American cast).
Nakia Shalice Avila is a SC raised, BX bred non-union freelance stage manager currently pursuing a Masters of Fine Arts at Yale School of Drama. She is a 2016 graduate of South Carolina’s oldest (and BEST 😌) historically black institution, Claflin University, where she earned a Bachelors of Arts in Psychology. As a student she received recognition by the Claflin University Theatre Ensemble for her service as the department’s stage manager. Nakia’s professional credits include productions at Trinity Repertory Company, Utah Shakespeare Festival, Steppenwolf Theatre Company, Court Theatre and Chamber Theatre Productions. Nakia’s future career goals include heralding productions on Broadway as well as inspiring and educating the next generation of black theatre artists. She looks forward to leading a legacy of people focused leadership while also creating resources and avenues for more black folx to have access to the arts and arts education.
Nikki Hyde is a stage manager who is passionate about telling stories about communities. She has been an ensemble member of Cornerstone Theater Company since 2010 and is a frequent stage manager at Los Angeles Opera and San Diego Opera. She is also a faculty member at California Institute of the Arts. A member of Actors’ Equity Association and American Guild of Musical Artists, Nikki has worked across the country at companies such as The Public Theater, MCC Theatre, LA Philharmonic, Notch Theatre Company, South Coast Repertory, The Wallis, Cincinnati Opera, Pasadena Playhouse, and Center Theatre Group, among others. In her free time, she enjoys practicing and teaching yoga (www.facebook.com/yogaforstagemanagers), spending time with her partner, Jim, and her dog, Bella, cooking vegetarian/vegan meals, and taking long road trips.
Jhanaë Bonnick (she/her/hers) is a Caribbean-American AEA Stage Manager and Administrator who is passionate about the power of language, education, and community. Committed to cultivating the future of the industry and the world, Jhanaë finds her most fulfilling work is on material steeped in working towards collective liberation in ways both big and small. She is a core leader in Everybody Black - a new membership organization whose goal is to make the American Theatre Industry not only anti-racist, but pro-Black and she was recently selected for the inaugural list of “Women to Watch on Broadway.” Credits include - Broadway: Caroline, or Change, Slave Play, Hadestown, Gary, Six Degrees of Separation, and The Cherry Orchard.Select Off-Broadway: RECONSTRUCTION, Octet, Rags Parkland Sings the Songs of the Future, Primer for a Failed Superpower. Select Regional: Lempicka. BA SUNY New Paltz.
Arianna is a freelance Stage Manager and arts professional based in Houston, TX. She has served as Stage Manager for many local theatre companies including her absolute favorite, The Ensemble Theater (the oldest and largest professional African American theatre in the Southwest). Credits include, Too Heavy For Your Pocket, Fetch Clay Make Man, Soulful Christmas, Mahalia, Satchel Paige & The Kansas City Swing. She has also worked in the Stage Manager capacity for the Fade To Black Play Festival which celebrates the new works of African American playwrights. Arianna also enjoys mentoring other up and coming BIPOC Stage Managers and loves assisting organizations as a ‘day of’ coordinator for their special events. When she is not in a booth calling a show, she serves as the Group Sales Coordinator at Stages.
Avery, originally from Jackson, MS, is a second year graduate student at the University of California, Irvine where he is studying to get his MFA in Stage Management. He has dedicated his career to making change ethically in the industry as well as focusing on youth outreach and representation.
Tia Harewood-Millington* is a Colorado-raised, New York City-based stage manager with a passion for working on live TV events, concerts, new theatrical works, and projects that center and uplift womyn and minority groups. Past credits include How I Learned to Drive (Manhattan Theater Club), one in two (The New Group), The New Englanders (Manhattan Theater Club), Lempicka (Williamstown Theatre Festival); Selling Kabul (Williamstown Theatre Festival), soft (Williamstown Theatre Festival) Bright & Brave (Dixon Place), Shipwreck (The Public). Proud alumna of Hofstra University 2019 and member of Actor’s Equity. Thanks and love always to Mom, Lindsey, Noah, and Lowe 217.
Caren Celine Morris is a multidisciplinary theatre artist from The Bronx. She aims to promote inclusion, diversity, and accessibility in all of her projects. Caren has worked on projects at The Tank, Quill Entertainment Company, The Cradle Theatre Company, the New York Musical Festival, Derek Fordjour Studios and The Bushwick Starr. She is very proud to represent The Bronx.
![Edmond O’Neal (he/him/his) is a third-year M.F.A. candidate at Yale School of Drama, where his credits include Fun Home, Hamlet, and The Tempest, and Assistant Stage Manager on Measure for Measure, Locusts and Seven Spots On the Sun. His other credits include Is God Is, We Are Proud to Present, School Girls; or, the African Mean Girls Play (Yale Cabaret); Latinos Who Look Like Ricky Martin(Verano Cabaret); Grey Gardens, Peter and the Starcatcher, The Flick, The Complete Works of William Shakespeare [abridged] (Lyric Repertory Company); and Gertrude and Claudius (Orlando Shakespeare Theater). Edmond is currently researching and exploring barriers to stage management training programs for Black stage managers across the country, and is honored to have been asked to assist the Broadway and Beyond Access team on their various networking events aimed at providing access opportunities to BIPOC stage managers. He holds a B.A. in Theatre Studies from the University of Central Florida.](content/v1/5f03d45c2da53a4ed0d7f100/48295d81-111a-475d-8b74-857c0bbb5176/TS+3.20_+Edmond+O%27Neal.png)
Edmond O’Neal (he/him/his) is a third-year M.F.A. candidate at Yale School of Drama, where his credits include Fun Home, Hamlet, and The Tempest, and Assistant Stage Manager on Measure for Measure, Locusts and Seven Spots On the Sun. His other credits include Is God Is, We Are Proud to Present, School Girls; or, the African Mean Girls Play (Yale Cabaret); Latinos Who Look Like Ricky Martin(Verano Cabaret); Grey Gardens, Peter and the Starcatcher, The Flick, The Complete Works of William Shakespeare [abridged] (Lyric Repertory Company); and Gertrude and Claudius (Orlando Shakespeare Theater). Edmond is currently researching and exploring barriers to stage management training programs for Black stage managers across the country, and is honored to have been asked to assist the Broadway and Beyond Access team on their various networking events aimed at providing access opportunities to BIPOC stage managers. He holds a B.A. in Theatre Studies from the University of Central Florida.
VICTORIA WHOOPER (Asst. Professor of Instruction in Stage Management/Production Stage Manager) Credits include: VIRTUAL PRODUCTIONS: Bard at the Gate: Origin Story (PSM); Hangar Theatre: The Skin of Our Teeth (PSM); ACADEMIC- Jerry Herman Ring Theatre: The Mystery of Edwin Drood (PSM). REGIONAL- Into the Woods (ASM); Elm Shakespeare Company: Romeo and Juliet (PSM); Connecticut Repertory Theater: Noises Off (PSM) & Peter and the Starcatcher (PSM); Chicago Shakespeare Theater: Loves Labors Lost (ASM), Northern Stage: Macbeth (PSM), and Yale Repertory Theater: Peerless (PSM). Broadway- Eclipsed (Production Assistant). Yale School of Drama/Yale Cabaret: Amy and the Orphans, Altogether Reckless, Paradise Lost, Midsummer, Faustus and The Untitled Project (PSM). Victoria holds an MFA from the Yale School of Drama and is a faculty member at Columbia College Chicago.
EGYPT DIXON: (AEA STAGE MANAGER) is born and raised in New York City. Atlantic Theater Company (Production Stage Manager): Anatomy OAS. Theatre for a New Audience (Assistant Stage Manager): Fefu and Her Friends, Julius Caesar, Winter’s Tale. Weston Playhouse (Assistant Stage Manager): Indecent. Weathervane Theatre (Assistant Stage Manager): Bright Star, Curious Incident…, Chicago, Sister Act. Weathervane Theatre (Production Stage Manager): Little Shop, Miracle of South Division Street, And the World Goes Round, Always, Patsy Cline.
After stage managing several productions with a college student theater group, his opera stage management career began at the Opera Theatre of the Curtis Institute of Music with productions of works by Debussy, Mozart, Puccini, and R. Strauss. The following year, with the Academy of Vocal Arts Opera Theatre, it continued with productions of works from the standard repertoire by Bellini, Donizetti, Massenet, Mozart, Puccini, Rossini, and Verdi. The repertory also included works by Britten, D’Albert, Davies, Handel, Menotti, Musgrave, Pasatieri, Poulenc and Weill. With the Opera Company of Philadelphia (now Opera Philadelphia) the repertoire included in addition to standard works, those by Berlioz, Bizet, Boito, Gounod, Janacek, Mussorgsky, Offenbach, J. Strauss, and Tchaikovsky. Several productions, including the Verdi Requiem with Luciano Pavarotti (in the Spectrum arena), were telecast by PBS. Productions with other companies, Opera Delaware, Opera Ebony, and The Pennsylvania Opera Theater, included among others Aida, Trovatore, Beggar’s Opera, Cenerentola, Porgy and Bess, and Figaro. His careers became New York-based, after a decade of stage managing more than 100 opera productions, with an appointment to the Faculty of the New York University Libraries, Working with AOP (the American Opera Project) changed the focus of stage managing from standard repertoire to new works in development, with workshops leading to premieres of Heart of Darkness, Séance on a Wet Afternoon, Before Night Falls, Darkling, Tone Test, Paul’s Case, Scarlet Ibis, Summer King, Lost Childhood, Semmelweis, Three Way, Ashes and Snow, and Echo Drift. The stage management of world premieres include Harriet Tubman, Out cold, Romulus, This is the rill speaking, Patience and Sarah, Six. Twenty. Outrageous! and As One (“the most produced new opera in North America”). Although now retired from the NYU faculty, he continues as AOP’s Resident Production Stage Manager, Board member, and an active member of the Stage Managers’ Association.
