Theatre Design & Technology - Winter 2020 - 19

importance of mentorship as a means
of providing community and access.
"The idea of the mentor is to connect
the student with a working stage manager-someone who has contacts and can
advise the student in their area of expertise. It is one of the goals of the project
that some sort of working relationship
would develop. For all of that, only time
will tell," the proposal noted.
"I remember Elynmarie reaching
out to people to be mentors and having
to explain why it was going to be fun
and exciting and important," Greenberg
recalls. Kazle, however, knew the value
and importance of having access to
working artists who could help a student stage manager build connections,
learn the profession, and work in a supportive environment. "That first year it
was six [mentors] and six [mentees].
One of the first mentors was Jennifer
Tipton. She was doing lighting and we
assigned someone to stage manage for
her. What an incredible opportunity,"
says Greenberg.
The community-building also extended beyond the mentor and mentee pairings-another example of the
SMMP's broader impacts. "I think the

stage managers were surprised that
they all had the same stories," says
Greenberg. "I don't think anyone had
ever sat down before and said 'Oh, I do
theatre.' It was the first time that people
had sat down together to see the similarities. Look at all these people just like us,
but we didn't know how to process that.
And we were able to see that there were
people from all over the country who
wanted to know. There was no internet
at that time." DeCastro concurs, noting
that the community-building opportunities also extended beyond the program
and into the conference at large: "The
benefit to me was getting to know everyone in the Institute, not to sit in the
background. You're forced to get out and
get involved, to get to know people who'd
been doing it much longer."
Laying Groundwork for the
Future: The people involved in the project over the early years helped to build
the framework, the ongoing community,
and the programming directions, and
that foundation and approach will carry
SMMP into the future as a relevant and
thriving program.
Participant input has been vital for
shaping the program. "Mentors helped

us figure out what the program could be,"
says Kazle. "Wichita was when we started having students who really pushed us.
We started having more private sessions,
more check-ins-not as fancy as what
there is now, but we would meet and say
what worked and what didn't work. We
started having an office to have a space
to be, to hang out and talk." While the
group was responding in the moment to
perceived needs, many of those programs
are now traditional parts of the conference. "We developed a lot of things that
are standard now," says DeCastro. "We
developed the resume roundtable. But
at the time we were making it up as we
went along." These programs then were
expanded to include the entire membership, as was Kazle's vision all along. In
fact, Greenberg recalls that the roundtables were never large enough. "One
year we were surprised how many people
showed up. But it was never a surprise
to Elynmarie. This project was always
meant to be thousands of people strong in
her mind, from the first day."

Gateway Program

Early efforts toward supporting diversity and inclusion initiatives in USITT

BUILDING THE BUSINESS OF SHOW BUSINESS

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Theatre Design & Technology - Winter 2020

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