Broadway Symposium Panel Topics & Speakers Announced

The fourth annual Broadway Stage Management Symposium (BSMS) will feature an incredible line up of Broadway's top stage managers in panels that address some of today's most important issues in the theatre industry.

The Stage Manager Moms panel will cover the challenges of raising a family while working as a professional stage manager. Jill Cordle (Six Degrees of Separation), Charlene Speyerer (The Band's Visit), Valerie Lau-Kee Lai (Spider-Man: Turn Off The Dark) & Narda Alcorn (The Iceman Cometh) will share their strategies for finding work/life balance.

Inclusion, Diversity and Collaboration will bring together stage managers Justin Scribner, Ken McGee and Mary Kathryn Flynt from Once On This Island and others to discuss how race, ethnicity and gender have impacted their careers, their companies and how they lead a cast and crew as a team.

Understanding Harassment will feature Mary McColl, executive director of Actors Equity Association, headlining a panel about harassment in the workplace, and the impact of the #metoo movement on Broadway and beyond.

In addition, Dear Evan Hansen PSM and frequent stage manager for director Michael Greif, Judy Schoenfeld, will speak about her career and how she builds long lasting relationships with directors by implementing and maintaining their vision.

From Production Assistants to Stage Managers, will bring together: Colyn Fiendel-Milani (Bandstand), Cherie B. Tay (Amelie), and Emily Hayes (Angels In America), to discuss their transition from production assistants to Broadway stage managers, their preparation and training, how they got their break, and the joys and challenges of that big step.

Other sessions include: Resume Workshop and Show Calling Demonstrations.

All sessions have Q&A time with the speakers, and attendees can meet panelists during breaks and at the wrap party.

These sessions are in addition to the Keynotes with our headline speakers covering Leadership, The Production Process, and Care & Maintenance of a Broadway Show with the previously announced: Lisa Dawn Cave (Frozen), Richard Hester (Jersey Boys) & Julia P. Jones (SpongeBob SquarePants)

Stage managers are the leaders of a theatrical company and are responsible for the maintenance and running of a show. They deal with a wide variety of issues and need to be well-versed in both production processes and people skills. The BSMS provides a unique forum to engage with top professionals on numerous topics important to stage managers at all levels. Previous attendees have gone on to book jobs through relationships with both expert panelists and other stage managers they met at the Symposium.

Early bird rates for the BSMS, for both the live Symposium & Webinar options, are available until the end of February at www.BroadwaySymposium.com

The 2018 BSMS will be held June 2 - 3, 2018 at Shetler Studios in midtown Manhattan, one week before the Tony Awards. This educational intensive is open to the public (see website for full details and pricing).

Justin Scribner is currently leading the stage management team at Once On This Island. Justin was also the PSM at Rock of Ages and has assisted on The Crucible, God of Carnage, The American Plan, A Chorus Line, Times They Are A-Changin', Lennon, & Pacific Overtures.

Jill Cordle has been the Production Stage Manager on some of the most successful Broadway plays of the last few decades. Those productions include: Six Degrees of Separation, Blackbird, The Realistic Jonses, Betrayal, Death of A Salesman, Jerusalem, God of Carnage and many, many more in a career spanning over twenty years on Broadway.

Judy Schoenfeld, the Production Stage Manager of Dear Evan Hansen. She has also been the Production Stage Manager for four successive Broadway shows directed by Michael Greif's from 2006 - 2016 - If/Then, Next To Normal and Grey Gardens.

Ken McGee is the first assistant stage manager on Once On This Island. He has worked on nineteen different Broadway productions including musicals: An American In Paris, Kinky Boots, The Little Mermaid, In The Heights, Tarzan, Spamalot & Pacific Overtures as well as plays such as: God of Carnage, Jerusalem, The Mountaintop & Gore Vidal's The Best Man.

Charlene Speyerer has worked on some of the most popular musicals in recent history, including current hit The Band's Visit, the indominable Hamilton, as well as Mamma Mia and the global sensation Les Miserables. Other Broadway credits include: School of Rock, On the Town, Billy Elliot, Legally Blonde, Thoroughly Modern Millie & 42nd Street.

Narda Alcorn is both a Broadway stage manager and educator. She worked on Disney's The Lion King and August Wilson's plays: Seven Guitars, Joe Turner's Come and Gone, Radio Golf, Gem of the Ocean, & Fences with Denzel Washington as well as two revivals of A Raisin In The Sun, one with Denzel Washington and the other with Sean Combs & Audra McDonald. She has taught at SUNY Purchase, DePaul University and NYU Tisch.

Mary Kathryn Flynt is currently on Once On This Island. Other Broadway credits include: The Seafarer, Billy Elliot, Priscilla Queen of the Desert, Annie, Les Miserables and Something Rotten.

About Broadway Stage Management Symposium

The BSMS brings together the most experienced and highly-regarded Stage Management professionals on Broadway for an immersive two-day program that offers practical insights, instruction and inspiration for anyone interested in stage management. This one-of-a-kind program offers the kind of practical career advice and deep insights, that only come with the benefits of decades on Broadway. BSMS is also a great networking opportunity, helping attendees exponentially increase their professional network and opportunities for employment. Past attendees have come from all over the U.S., as well as Argentina, Bolivia, Canada, Mexico and Australia.

BSMS was founded by seasoned Broadway stage manager and educator, Matthew Stern who has worked on over twenty Broadway productions including Finding Neverland, On The Town, Spider-Man: Turn Off The Dark, The Little Mermaid, Wicked, Death Of A Salesman (with Philip Seymour Hoffman), Fiddler On The Roof (with Alfred Molina and Harvey Fierstein), Enchanted April (with Molly Ringwald and Jayne Atkinson), The Full Monty, and many more.

Stern is on the faculty of SUNY Purchase and has taught at UC San Diego. Inspired by his students' enthusiasm to learn what it really takes to manage a Broadway show, he brings together his colleagues and fellow Broadway stage managers for this intensive weekend of panels, seminars and lectures, the Broadway Stage Management Symposium.

For more information, please see www.broadwaysymposium.com