In this ShowbizU interview, host Tim Kashashani talks with veteran Broadway stage manager Arturo Porazzi. Porazzi explains what it takes to become a stage manager, emphasizing the importance of people skills and a broad technical understanding of lighting, set, props, and audio. He shares his philosophy of assessing candidates’ love for people, technical background, and performance experience. The conversation also touches on his first professional gig and the moments that sparked his interest in stage management, setting the stage for later stories about working with legendary performers and navigating the Broadway world.
Today we sit down with Broadway stage manager Arturo Perazzi as he recalls the stage manager's journey and working with inspiring legends.
First things on your mind when somebody says, "I want to be a stage manager." I usually ask them when they were dropped as a child, how bad the injury was, and— So it goes from there? No, there's an awful lot to it. So I usually ask, first thing, do you like people? And if you don't like people, go the other way because it's all about the people. I have to check to make sure that they have enough technical background and enough acting background, performance background, to understand what's going on and to appreciate all the different elements that come into play with a show. You know, it's not just the performers. There's lighting, there's set, there's props, there's audio, all these elements that you have to know something about and understand how they work so that you can help facilitate what has to happen to make the production go smoothly.
What was your first gig and what actually got you to say, "Yeah, you know, I want to give this a try"?
I thought I was going to be an actor in college and I had this idea, you know, I can work with tools, let me work backstage. Meet people, get to know people in the department. I went to Hofstra University, and one, that was a very good idea because I met a lot of people instantly, and I got to work right away on shows. You didn't have to be tested, you know, like, we need people here to do this and do that, and then, you know, you can handle a hammer, oh great, you know how to use a screwdriver and a drill, oh, and next thing you know, they're using you more. I ended up being an employee, like a student aid employee. Leaving college, I actually didn't know where I wanted to go, what to do. So I worked as a crew person freelance and did some lighting design, worked as a technical director at a theater, and met an Equity stage manager who saw my skills. My first Equity tour was a summer tour of Hair, which was interesting to do. Stories abound. Anyway, stories abound with every show. I got my Equity card on that, and that was for a summer. Then the following fall, I was working with this gentleman. We ended up over the course of years to do 9 Broadway shows together. He was the production stage manager. I was his first, and we had different seconds. But, you know, we had a shorthand. You know, he could wink and, you know, go like that. Like, oh, you need a first aid kit. Great. You know, you know what to do with this. Give me a ground plan, and I know knew what dimensions we needed to put down on the floor and create the propolis, maintain the propolis. So I learned a lot in doing. I got more out of being a stage manager in doing than learning in college because there's so much in college that is already done and assumed, but it was not like this where you had, okay, I got real crew people here to deal with. These are professionals. There's a way they work, and I learned. When you take your mistakes, your experiences, and you try to make them better the next time out, that's how you teach yourself. You take it in, don't grow a tumor over it, say, "How can I change this?" And it makes you better. As I say, it hones your skill. One of the great things about being a stage manager, because you're in the middle of it and because you are so a part of the creative as well as the technical. You're balancing both. It's the people you work with, the designers, the writers, choreographers, the directors, and the performers, the actors. It's always amazing to see. I can go through my entire career and pick out every show some aha moments. Some, some, some, as I would say, pinch me, I can't believe I'm here. I mean, and it started for me when I was at Hofstra. Between my junior and senior year, I was working at Westbury Music Fair, and the first person I had to work with was Sammy Davis Jr. You know, I'm like, oh my God, it's Sammy Davis Jr. And you know, it's rather impersonal. I was just doing things backstage that needed to get done, and he was nice gentleman, whatever. But I got to watch him for 2 weeks in a row perform 8 shows a week, and I got to watch him perform, and he would change the show up. I got to see Angela Lansbury there, be able to sit in her dressing room, have a conversation with her. That was— we're talking '72. If I met her on the street right now, I'm sure she wouldn't remember me, but I remember her because Angela Lansbury, hello. And then in just my own career with Broadway shows, to be working with a Julie Andrews, to be working with a Chita Rivera, to be in Terrence McNally's apartment, playwright Terrence McNally's apartment, with Chita on one chair, Graciela on the other chair, and you're there to take notes. To work with Liza Minnelli To be in a rehearsal hall where it's the piano player, Fred Ebb of Kander and Ebb, name the shows, folks, sitting there next to you, and Liza just about 8 feet away. And we're rehearsing what dialogue, what introductions she's going to do for her different songs. And she's talking to me. And she's singing to me. To listen to Gregory Hines and Sadie Young Glover and Ted Levy tapscat, you know, they would have, "No, man, that's not the way it goes." The other one said, "No, it's—" "No, it's—" Well, they would arrive at something. Okay, and then they do it and you go, well, that's exactly what they said. You can't buy that. You can only get that in a career. Those are the highlights.
