Hi Everyone!
I stage managed my first show in high school - I was 14 and doing props for a show but when the costume designer quit I took on that role and when the stage manager quit two weeks before opening I also took on that task. It was kind of trial by fire, but I fell in love with the fact that I could support the art form and be an intimate part of it without being on stage.
After high school I went to Trinity Western University in Langley, BC where I studied Theatre & Communications. In my time there I stage managed seven shows and designed three. I started working professionally during my second year of university and following graduation spent two years as the Resident Stage Manager at Vancouver's Pacific Theatre.
I am now a freelance stage manager and primarily work with smaller, independent companies. Summer 2011 (read: currently) I worked for the Vancouver International Fringe Festival as the BYOV Coordinator where I was responsible for 19 venues and 39 companies, 12 of which were a part of a program I mentored in site-specific theatre.
I am very involved in social media and have been interviewed a number of times on the subject of theatre and social media in Canada. I want to see Canadian Theatre practitioners using the free tools at our finger tips to talk to each other and to create better art. I blog at
www.loisbackstage.com and am on twitter as @SMLois.
One of my goals for the next five years is to work in every province/territory in Canada, so who knows when our paths will cross. I'm constantly reminded just how small the theatre industry/community in Canada is.
Lois
