Behind the scenes: Story of a Southeast stage manager

Thomas Gilman laid a legacy of stage managing at Southeast unlike anyone before him.

The Lee’s Summit, Missouri, native decided to major in theatre, following a path traveled by both his parents. His mother was a high school theatre teacher and his father worked in professional theatrical rigging.

Gilman has stage managed seven times at Southeast. In addition, he managed twice professionally during the Summer Arts Festival at Southeast, and twice in New York City with “An American Hero.” Most recently, Gilman was the production stage manager for “An American Hero” at the New York Musical Festival (NYMF) in New York City.

Gilman’s journey began as assistant stage manager for the Southeast production of “The Addams Family” in Fall 2015 when he was a sophomore.

He then moved on to the role of stage manager for the Southeast production of “Stop Kiss.”

It was around that time when Gilman met the stage manager for the national tour of “Wicked” who advised him to do anything else besides stage managing, if he could, because of the difficulty of the profession.

Instead of chasing Gilman in a different direction, the advice drove him to embrace his convictions toward the job.

“It’s fun to be in power,” Gilman said. “[Stage managing] is monotonous, it’s paperwork, but I don’t get bored with it.”

Gilman noted management and organization as his strong suits, as he also has a minor in fine arts entrepreneurship. But he said, what keeps him managing in the theatre world is the environment.

“It’s a big team, and you get to put on these really cool things,” Gilman said about the productions. “There’s nothing that compares to the pride I have on opening night when everything goes off right.”

Gilman has a large amount of experience for a stage manager his age, but he said managing “An American Hero” at the NYMF was his biggest accomplishment.

Prior to that performance, his production team was given half an hour to load the entire set onto the stage, get actors costumed and wearing their microphones, have a fight call, and do microphone tests. It was no small task, but Gilman said the stage was set, and actors ready with minutes to spare.

He includes carpentry, electrics, and sound design among his growing list of technical theatre skills.

He is also a charter member and former vice president of Alpha Psi Omega, a theatre fraternity recently formed at Southeast.

Gilman said he has gained experiences he could not have imagined through stage managing at Southeast.

“Without those opportunities from the school, I would’ve never gotten out of the Midwest,” Gilman said.

Gilman graduates in December, and his plan is to find a job in theatre. He eventually wants to move to New York City, which he says he fell in love with, and work as a stage manager.

“Get a job, don’t starve, don’t be homeless. That’s the plan,” Gilman said.