Stage Manager Lisa Dawn Cave Featured on THEATER: ALL THE MOVING PARTS

Lisa Dawn Cave, top Broadway stage manager (Frozen, Fun Home, The Color Purple), is featured in this episode of THEATER: All the Moving Parts, hosted by Patrick Pacheco, premiering on Friday, February 21st at 10:30PM on CUNY TV. From her backstage perch, on headset and in front of a monitor, Ms. Cave's responsibility is tantamount to landing a starship, calling over hundreds of technical and automation cues to the stage crew in the course of any given show. In the case of Disney's Frozen, she began writing in her "call script" from day one of rehearsal, detailing every minute change, and marshaling not only a cast of forty but also dozens of creative personnel, including lights, costumes, scenery, and video.

A self-described "Mama Bear," she defines her job as the person to whom everyone in a production comes with questions. The key to her success? Patience, a calming presence and exceptional communications skills, often being called upon to "cool tempers, nerves and egos."

Pacheco says, "Audiences are mostly aware of a stage manager when, as THE VOICE of God, some technical difficulty demands a 'hold' in the performance. But, prior to meeting Lisa Dawn, I was unaware of the sheer scope and breadth of her duties and just how much the success of any performance relies on her whip-smart judgment, knowledge of craft, and technical expertise."

"THEATER: All the Moving Parts" is a new CUNY-TV show, featuring in-depth interviews with top theater artists including playwright Theresa Rebeck, musical director Casey Nicholaw, intimacy director Claire Warden and choreographer Sergio Trujillo. Of Pacheco, Rebeck said, "I felt like I was being interviewed by someone who knows me better than I know myself." Go to THEATER: All the Moving Parts to see these and other episodes.

Patrick Pacheco is an Emmy-winning commentator and journalist whose work has appeared in The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, THE WALL Street Journal, Esquire.com, and many other periodicals. He wrote the 2009 Disney documentary "Waking Sleeping Beauty," and is the co-writer, with Maria Cassi, of the play, "My Life with Men...and other animals." He is the writer and editor of the Amazon best seller "American Theatre Wing, An Oral History: 100 Years, 100 Voices, 100 Million Miracles."

Lisa Dawn Cave has stage-managed close to 20 productions on Broadway: Frozen, Shuffle Along, Fun Home, Rocky, Cat On A Hot Tin Roof, Bring It On, West Side Story, Come Fly Away, The Color Purple, The Caine Mutiny Court Martial, The Woman In White, Julius Caesar, Caroline or Change, Hollywood Arms, Into the Woods, Parade, Smokey Joe's Café, and Showboat. She is now the production supervisor for Frozen, responsible for maintaining the schedule for every production of Frozen (currently: Broadway, North American tour; upcoming: West End, Australia, Germany, Japan), and getting each production up on its feet from a technical point of view. Prior to becoming a stage manager, Lisa Dawn was a dancer (Cats, The Wiz, Guys and Dolls, and Jerome Robbins' Broadway).

STREAMING on THEATER: All the Moving Parts starts Monday, February 24th.

Watch a promo here:

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