Wicked stage manager tells of life on Broadway
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Brian Bogin, stage manager for Wicked, offers tips on how to break into the business.
Photo by Kimi Lillig |
 The stage manager of Chicago’s hit Broadway musical Wicked met with students on Nov. 29 to share his career experiences and to explain how he moved his way up in the musical theater business.
Brian Bogin, speaking to a group of about 30 drama and choir students and cast members of the LCHS musical The Music Man, said he began as a stage manager in high school, stayed with it through college, and since has been the stage manager of many musicals, including The Phantom of the Opera.
He says his favorite part of the job is traveling, being around the live theater, and hearing the audience’s reaction to the show.
“It’s pretty awesome to be a part of that,” he said.
Although there are many positives to being a part of a big Broadway production, there are also downsides, he says. There is always something happening that a stage manager needs to be a part of and you do not get much time off. A normal day is about ten hours long, six days a week.
The best advice for someone interested in being successful in musical theater is to go to college and get an internship in the city you wish to work in, Bogin said.
“The measure of success is the measure of how you feel,” he said.
Story by sophomore Kimi Lillig |
