Stage Managers Association Australia: Interview With A New Non-Profit

Stage Managers Association Australia Ltd (SMA AU) is a recently launched, not-for-profit organisation, working to build a supportive community for stage managers in Australia. Kate Middleton-Olliver, the Chair of the Board of Directors, is a New Zealand-born stage manager, now based in Sydney, Australia. Trained at Toi Whakaari: New Zealand Drama School, Kate has worked for all the national ballet and opera companies in New Zealand and Australia across a variety of stage management roles. This latest role has taken Kate out of her comfort zone and seen her dive into the deep end of the business world. Kate shares some insight into the process of setting up the association, as well as the vision and long-term plans for Stage Managers Association Australia Ltd.

Hi Kate, thanks for talking with us at TheatreArtLife! How are you doing, and how are you coping with getting things ‘back to normal’ where you are at the moment?

Thanks for allowing us to share our good news with you. Life in Australia has been a rollercoaster over the last 18 months. Borders closed very quickly in March 2020, and of course the arts and events industry completely shut down straight away. We were the envy of the world for a while late last year when we reopened and the industry resumed shows and events. But the Delta variant struck us hard this year and put us back to square one. We are just now starting to reopen again.

Like many in our sector, I’ve been riding the rollercoaster of emotions throughout this time. However, I’ve also made something of this downtime by working with a group of stage managers to take this opportunity to bring something positive to our stage management community here in Australia.

How would you summarise the work that Stage Managers Association Australia Ltd plans to do, and can you tell us a bit about the mission of the organisation?

Stage Managers Association Australia Ltd is an organisation for stage managers, by stage managers. Our vision is to build a connected, open and inclusive community of stage management practitioners that actively engage in, and have access to programs and initiatives for talent development; wellbeing and support; and advocate best practice in all sectors and genres of our work across Australia. Everyone involved in setting up and running the organisation currently is a practicing or former stage manager so we know first-hand the challenges and rewards of being a stage manager in Australia.

We now need our community to get involved by becoming members, and providing their thoughts, skills and time to help us run the organisation so we can realise the full potential that exists here.

Members will be able to participate and engage in a variety of ways – writing articles/guides, attending or hosting online or in-person events and training, and being a mentor or mentee, to name a few. We realise that stage managers don’t have a regular schedule so where possible we’ll provide options for participating on different days/times or offering recordings of online events.

In time we hope to provide something for everyone, but not everything we do will be of interest to everyone all the time. For example, there will be programmes that are useful to students that aren’t relevant to professional stage managers, and vice versa.

And how did you realise there was a need for this, and how did you go about setting up SMA AU?

During lockdown I personally felt quite disconnected from the industry and could see the amazing work being undertaken by stage management organisations overseas to keep their newly unemployed stage managers connected and engaged. Nothing was really happening in Australia, so I asked some friends what they thought of the idea of having our own SMA. I eventually brought together thirteen stage managers from across Australia to form a working group to assess the viability of forming an organisation here.

On 10 October 2020, recognised as International Stage Management Day, we launched a survey of the stage management community in Australia. Over the following two-week period we received 472 responses, of which 87.29% wanted a stage management organisation in Australia, 11.23% were unsure and only 1.48% didn’t believe an association was needed.

We were totally overwhelmed by the support and enthusiasm. We had a clear mandate from our community so have spent the last year working to build the foundations of this company. Jaramer Legal helped us to create our own Constitution, our founding document, and worked with us to complete the incorporation process. We’ve elected an initial Board and I’m proud to continue leading this work as the Chair of the Board of Directors. There’s still a lot of work to do, but it’s been made easier by the fact that COVID-19 has given us the space and time to have these conversations. I can’t imagine how long it would have taken us to get this far if we’d all been working full-time.

We also discovered there was an attempt back in 1991 to start a stage management organisation here. This has been at least 30 years in the making and we’re determined to build an organisation that is sustainable and successful long into the future.

I must take this opportunity to acknowledge everyone who has helped us get to where we are today – to those involved over the last 15 months, and to those who’ve attempted to do this previously – thank you.

How can people get involved and what are the benefits of membership?

We’re a not-for-profit organisation lead by volunteers, so we need members who actively support what we’re doing. We have several membership categories currently available to individuals who either work in, or have a connection to stage management in Australia. You could be a professional, student, community or former stage manager; an educator or employer of stage managers; or someone else interested in stage management.

It doesn’t matter what sector of the industry you work in, how you identify, or where in Australia you live or work, or if you’re located overseas currently. There is a place for everyone in our association.

By signing up, our inaugural members can be part of the conversations to decide the future of the association. Members can have a say in our strategic plan and the development of our membership benefits programme. You can also volunteer to be part of a committee that will run these activities.

We have reduced our membership fees for the first year to account for the hardship experienced by many at the moment. Funds raised will be used to cover the many costs associated with setting up and running an organisation of this nature, such as IT infrastructure and systems, website development, and insurance premiums, as well as running our membership benefits programme.

What does the future look like for SMA AU?

We have developed an amazing vision for what the organisation can be in future, but right now we have to start small. It’s very much a ‘work in progress.’ The Working Group and Board have built strong foundations and frameworks, but now we need members to help decide what comes next. Where do we start? Are there any new ideas that we haven’t thought of?

I know I want to fast-forward five years to an organisation that’s established and recognised across Australia; has built a strong, diverse community of stage managers; has great education and talent development programmes; maintains a library of relevant, up-to-date resources; runs mentorship programmes for early- and mid-career practitioners; delivers social and wellbeing initiatives to help stage managers lead balanced lives and have long, sustainable careers; hosts networking and social events across the whole country; honours and celebrates the work of stage managers; awards scholarships for stage managers to undertake development opportunities; and is doing important advocacy work across the industry.

We also plan on undertaking research into trends, needs, practice, innovation and process so we can help improve the work of stage managers and subsequently better the wider industry. But all this takes time and resources to make it happen.

And finally, how has the experience been launching SMA AU, and what can we look forward to next from the organisation ?

Last year I definitely said, “how hard can it be!?” I can tell you now the answer is, “harder than I ever imagined.” The world of business is very different to arts and events. As stage managers, we are used to working through a clearly defined process and ending up with a finished product to present to the public.

This process hasn’t been straightforward or clearly laid out. I know I’ve learnt a lot, and been thrown in the deep end multiple times. We’ve also realised that we will never have an opening night. This will always be a ‘work in progress.’

As an organisation we will shift and evolve as stage managers needs change and as the industry grows, and we want to work with stage managers across Australia to lead that change from the front.

For stage managers, by stage managers. We encourage all stage managers across Australia to support us by becoming a member of Stage Managers Association Australia Ltd. In the coming months, we will be undertaking a phase of membership consultation to better understand what our community needs right now and what they want from us going forward, to feed into the development of our strategic plan.

Anyone wanting to find out more or to sign up as a member can visit www.stagemanagers.org.au and follow on social media to hear the latest news.

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