Erin Joy Swank is a Denver-based stage manager who enjoys working in multiple genres, including musical theatre, opera, dance, plays, cirque, and events. She also has guest lectured for numerous colleges around the country, both in person and by video chat, and has been a Stage Management Respondent for KCACTF Region IV. Recent credits include Cirque Dreams Holidaze, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Tuacahn Center for the Arts, a highly technical production of The Nutcracker for Nevada Ballet Theatre in Las Vegas, and numerous opera companies including Boston Lyric. Five Christmases were also spent touring with the Radio City Christmas Spectacular, featuring the Rockettes and three adorable camels. For USITT, Erin is the Vice Commissioner in Management for Portfolio Reviews & Interview Materials Prep (PRIMP) & Special Projects, has mentored for both SMMP and Gateway, and hails from the Rocky Mountain USITT region. She invites you to join her and colleagues celebrating 2020 as the Year of the Stage Manager.

Jennifer Leigh Sears Scheier is a freelance AEA stage manager and a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Her dissertation is focused on reclaiming stage management history while investigating and interrogating 20th-century labor practices and power shifts, especially in regards to invisible and emotional labor and its continued effect on the field today. In-between researching, dissertation writing, teaching, stage managing, and life, she writes articles about her research for Stage Directions Magazine. Her past stage management credits include Celebration Theatre, Illinois Shakespeare Festival, Knoxville Opera, La Jolla Playhouse, Lamb’s Players Theatre, Long Beach Opera, San Diego Repertory Theatre, and Tennessee Repertory Theatre. She graduated from the University of Iowa with an MFA in Theatre Arts (Stage Management) and is a proud member of Actors’ Equity Association and the Stage Managers’ Association