Being the assistant stage manager for Southwestern University's Fall 2017 production of Five Women Wearing the Same Dress was really great. I had developed a great friendship with Stage Manager Trevor Stoneburner prior to being assigned my position on this show. Trevor and I make an awesome team and we always have a good time working together. My friendship with Trevor and the other cast and crew members made this whole process really good time.

My duties for this show included attending all rehearsals and production meetings, setting up the space before rehearsal and clearing it after, finishing rehearsal reports when my stage manager was absent, being on-book during rehearsal while simultaneously taking line notes that I would send out every night, dressing the set, and setting up for act two during intermission.

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One of the most challenging tasks I was given was taking line notes and being on-book at the same time. Trevor taught me how to take line notes and I caught on to the format fairly quick. I struggled to type the notes and keep up with the actors for a while. After trying several different tactics, I found that the most effective way to do this job was to circle things in the script that went wrong and type the line notes during pauses and breaks. This method worked really well.

A unique aspect of working on this show was that the actors had to smoke a clove cigarette rolled to look like a joint on stage. In order for this to happen, we had to cooperate with the fire marshal and follow all of the open flame rules. One rule stated that someone had to be holding a fire extinguisher and have their eyes on the fire at all times. This was one of my jobs.