Berkshire Opera
Life has a soundtrack.

Talk about Uncharted Territory… when was the last time you ever saw the Production Stage Manager in the spot light? Have you ever even seen a Stage Manager? Do you really even know what a Stage Manager does?

I usually try to keep a low profile. I’m one of those behind the scenes people that Ryan and Kathy keep talking about in their blog entries. The title, stage manager, seems pretty self explanatory - the person that manages the stage. Most of the time, I’m just that - the gal behind the curtain. I’m the one coordinating the lights and the set changes and the cast, making sure that all of the pieces of the puzzle that have been put together by the Conductor, Director and Designers, continue to stay together once the show is open. But what have I been doing this week working in the office in Pittsfield? That’s what Ryan has charged me with writing a blog entry about.

While the director and designers have been brain storming the direction of this summer’s production of Le Nozze di Figaro, and Ryan and Kathy have been building the programs for our concerts and recitals, and Marianne has been putting together contracts for the artists and orchestra musicians and technicians - there’s a whole lot of information that’s floating around out there that needs to be organized and shared. Yup, organize and share, that’s me!

That’s pretty much what Stage Managers do. We are the disseminators of information. During rehearsals for a production, we’re the ones that make sure the cast knows when they have to be where each day. I coordinate musical coachings, staging rehearsals, costume fittings into a daily schedule and make sure that artists can be all the places they need to be in a day and still have time for a lunch break. While I’m watching a staging rehearsal, if there is a new prop added to a scene or Susanna needs a pocket in her apron to put that prop, I make sure that information is shared with the Prop Master and the Costume Designer in my daily rehearsal report. When the Tech Director and the Set Designer need to move the wall of the Countess’s bedroom upstage 3 feet because the Lighting Designer needs to hang a light in a new location, I’m the one who makes sure everyone that will be affected by that change knows.

This week I’ve put together the first draft of the season’s master calendar. I made arrangements for the Lee Middle-High School to be used as our rehearsal space for all of this summer’s productions. Marianne and I started putting together contact sheets that will keep the artists and staff involved in this season’s 2 concerts, 4 recitals, and 1 fully staged opera communicating with one another when they join us here in the Berkshires this summer. Best of all, I sat in on the first face-to-face meeting of the design team for Le Nozze di Figaro. Being able to sit down with artistic minds while they are in their creative process is one of my favorite parts of my job. A lot of information can come out of a meeting like that. Now I get to share it with everyone.

Did I mention I’ve also been given the new title of Education Programs Coordinator? This summer will see the return of programs like “Behind the Velvet Curtain” - a week long opera camp for children co-produced by Berkshire Opera and Berkshire Music School. We are also creating new programs like Family Opera Festival - a hands-on Sunday workshop designed for families attending the matinee performance of Figaro on Monday 8/18. Perhaps the education side of me is another blog entry entirely…

I really love my place behind the curtain. I connect with opera in a way that not many people get a chance to do. When the backstage elements come together smoothly, then all the artists you see on stage perform at their best. If you enjoyed a beautiful performance and had no idea that the technical side was a challenge, then I’ve done my job well. One of my greatest skills is the art of not being noticed from the audience. It’s a skill that I take great pride in.

And no Ryan, you cannot put a picture of me up with this blog entry… a gal has to keep some air of mystery about her!

- Laura R. Krause, production stage manager
education programs coordinator

This weekend I have the pleasure of hosting the design team for this summer’s production here in the Berkshires. I’m currently sitting in my dining room, several feet from the meeting of the minds as they discuss the look and feel of our upcoming Figaro. For the past few years, I’ve collaborated primarily with Adriana Zabala who founded SEFoS with me five years ago. We’ve known each other for so long now that she and I have a comfortable shorthand language and we’re very informal in how we develop new ideas for our productions. In a continuing season of firsts for me personally, this is the first time I’ve ever attended a meeting like this (let alone organized it). It’s exciting to watch and listen as intelligent creative types attack a new project with gusto.

The discussion that’s going on today is fascinating. Each member of the team is really embracing the comprehensive vision of Berkshire Opera, and bringing their own viewpoint to the fore. Thinking in a “chicken or the egg” frame of mind, I don’t know whether we’ve gotten lucky in that their creative process naturally embraces storytelling in a very expressive way, or if they have made a decision to approach this process to honor our new vision statement.

Laura Krause, BerkOp’s veteran production stage manager is also here for the meeting, listening as the team establishes a working vocabulary and common thematic focus. I can’t emphasize what a treat it is to have a gifted stage manager around at all times… she has taken copious notes, offered insights about some of the familiar cast members who will join us for the production, and even produced the requisite clatch of sticky-notes for the others to jot down reminders. She even has helped the group stay on task (we’re going to enjoy dinner at Spice and the opening night of Trumbo at Barrington Stage tonight).

Discussion has varied from general period and style to nuanced color and detail. In telling Mozart and da Ponte’s classic story, how does BerkOp present Nozze so that modern audiences have an experience in the theatre that mimics what period audiences might have felt after hearing the piece for the first time? Our stage director, Greg Keller is up to the task and I can’t wait to see his ideas implemented. For this production, he is re-teaming with Dipu Gupta, the incisive lighting and set designer responsible for BerkOp’s strikingly beautiful Butterfly from two seasons ago. I’m very interested in the shared ideas that spill out of the talks. The goal seems to be highlighting the contrasting characters while presenting them with a layer of stylish detail that ensures cohesion to the project as a whole. “There’s a challenge with anything you put on stage,” says Charles Caine, our costume designer, “and I’m excited by the possibilities.” These guys recognize that the moment at which one embraces limitations and boundaries is precisely when the genesis of creativity and artistic expression takes hold.

As the designers’ ideas begin to coalesce, I’m having a blast imagining the individual singers who will inhabit this world and these roles. At some point in the future, maybe I’ll be smart enough to record these initial meetings for podcast on our website. I can’t explain why sitting here as a fly on the wall gives me the intense feeling that this is such a guilty pleasure, but I’m happy to have had this experience… far too much fun for a quiet Saturday afternoon in the snowy countryside.

I’ve been a performing musician for a long time. My first position of leadership within an arts organization was as interim music director of a small suburban orchestra in Seattle. It wasn’t an enormous musical challenge, but what an education in terms of leadership, organization, and administration! I had worked as an opera house coach and assistant conductor and performed as a soloist and chamber musician, but I had never realized how much work went on behind the scenes to make my experience as an artist run smoothly. It was almost overwhelming. I’m still gaining skill in this area, but I’ve learned to appreciate and enjoy the work that goes on behind the scenes that no one on stage - and certainly no one sitting out in the theater - will ever know about.
Ryan and Marianne are involved in this kind of work every day, in many different arenas. Ryan and I get to collaborate on the particularly enjoyable behind the scenes project of planning our opening concert, and we’re in the thick of it this week. This involves so much more than choosing and assigning music. We’ve chosen our soloists for this concert, and a theme (”Women on the Verge” - check it out here), and now begin the conversations. I’ve been contacting each of the soloists to ask what they’re dying to sing. This isn’t like asking someone to come do an operatic role. A concert seems a shorter night to the audience, but a whole evening split between just a few people means that it’s a big night for the performers. In that case, we want to make sure the night is enjoyable for them and includes music that is either “easy” (something they already know and enjoy) or something they’ve been itching to do. On the other hand, I certainly come to the process with ideas of my own. How much is reasonable to ask? Many things play into that question and its answer. How close a relationship do I have with this singer - is there enough trust and common knowledge there to warrant trying something new together? How busy is this artist right now - are they coming to us after a period of rest, or straight from another job? How well do the performers know each other - is there already a relationship, common repertoire? How convinced am I that a new combination of singers will catch fire?
Soon we have a list of possibilties. Ours, in fact, is almost complete, and at this point I turn to Ryan and we start making a program. The music has to flow beautifully through the night, but the night also has to flow beautifully for each performer. Piece A might be artistically fabulous next to piece B, but if both pieces are soprano tour-de-forces, that’s not a good choice for the soloist. Pieces get shifted about as we put the puzzle together. Where do we want the listeners lifted up, where do we let them relax? Do we want to rocket them towards the end of the night or let them out of the theater dreaming? All of these questions play into our conception of opening night, of the way we welcome our audience to our season.

If you enjoyed reading about this process, another great piece of writing about it can be found here. Adriana Zabala will be featured by BerkOp in recital this summer, and she directs the Southeastern Festival of Song along with Ryan. Check out their work on their blog. You’ll see that we’ve got much in common when it comes to planning philosophy. This process is new every time, always fascinating, always challenging, and if we do it right our listeners will be aware of none of it as the curtain rises. Making it look easy…that’s part of the job, and part of the joy!