From the blog The Producer’s Perspective about stage managers:
THE SUNDAY GIVEAWAY: A FREE PASS TO THE BROADWAY STAGE MANAGEMENT SYMPOSIUM
Who’s your favorite Stage Manager and why?
Definitely Katie Kavett. Calm under the most intense circumstances, great communicator, juggles working on tons of shows with grace and poise. —Colleen Toole, April 18, 2015
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From BroadwayWorld’s review of Blank! The Musical:
BLANK! THE MUSICAL is Truly Your Musical
By David Clarke, November 18, 2014
Just a few blocks north of the heart of Times Square, the vastly talented improv actors, orchestra, and crew of BLANK! THE MUSICAL are treating audiences to the opening and closing night of a musical. […] With the input from the audience, the dexterous and energetic cast of six, the skilled musicians in the pit, and the versatile crew all work together to create an original and rib-tickling musical on the spot. So, unlike other shows that may have the cast create new words to familiar tunes or only have one lighting cue, BLANK! THE MUSICAL features a band that creates music on the fly, a stage manager improving with the cast, and technicians improving on the sound and light boards too. The end result is a splashy new musical that works both technically and artistically.
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From StageBuddy’s review of Blank! The Musical:
Review: Blank! The Musical
By Karen Elliott, November 18, 2014
The improv fun doesn’t end there. The stage manager is calling cues on the fly, the lighting and sound technicians are adjusting and crafting moment by moment. It’s a theater full of artists at the top of their game and on the razor’s edge of performance art.
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From Entertainment Hour’s review of Blank! The Musical:
Blank! The Musical @ New World Stages Stage 2
By Alex Lipari, November 18, 2014
What exactly is Blank! The Musical! about? Envision your fondest memory of the long standing Whose Line is it Anyway? Now, make the cast younger, with musical talent. Next, throw in an adept lighting designer, sound designer and production stage manager. Then, sprinkle a three piece band able to create seemingly timeless music from four simple notes and you have the backbone for Blank! The Musical! […] Production Stage Manager Katie Kavett was in-tune with the unscripted and unpredictable performance. Somehow they made our created musical special and believable to be worthy of its New World Stages venue.
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From Musical Theatre Review’s review of Blank! The Musical:
Review: Blank! The Musical
By Ron Cohen, November 22, 2014
The first ten minutes or so of Blank! the Musical are spent in convincing the audience that everything we will see and hear will be “made up on the spot”. The host for this Off-Broadway offering assures us of this several times and furthermore solicits testimony as to the truth of this claim from the production stage manager, Katie Kavett. […] while Kavett’s validation comes from off-stage via loud speaker.
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From an interview with Rob Ackerman about Volleygirls, a show I assistant stage managed in the 2013 New York Musical Theatre Festival:
The Way You Move: A Q&A with VOLLEYGIRLS Book Writer Rob Ackerman
By Emerging Musical Theatre, June 27, 2013
What are you most looking forward to about this NYMF production?
Rob: The NYMF opportunity is a gift. This summer will be our first real production. … Our group has gained strength by adding great talents. Sara Barnes and Katie Kavett make Stage Management into a joyful art.
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After I won the New York Innovative Theatre Award for Outstanding Stage Manager, they published a short interview with me on their website and newsletter:
Spotlight On: Katie Kavett
By Chrisopher Borg, November 19, 2012
“Kate of my consolation; hearing thy mildness praised in every town, thy virtues spoke of, and thy beauty sounded, yet not so deeply as to thee belongs, myself am moved to woo thee” ~ Wm. Shakespeare
Stage Managers, arguably the most unsung and yet indispensable members of the theatre producing team, are, themselves, outstanding. And Katie Kavett is the fourth person ever to be honored with the New York Innovative Theater Award for Outstanding Stage Manager.
Kavett was a theatre lover since she first watched Annie Get Your Gun on Broadway at age 10, but she was halfway through a Bachelor’s Degree in Mechanical Engineering at Olin College before she realized that there was indeed a home for a super-organized brain with engineering skills in the theatre.
Katie was recognized in 2012 for her work on the Attic Theatre Company’s The Time of Your Life. However, she has worked on dozens of other Off-Off-Broadway and Off-Broadway productions including Don’t Go Gentle (MCC), Lonely I’m Not (Second Stage), Then She Fell (Third Rail Projects), Sky-Pony: Raptured (The Play Company), and Odyssey the Epic Musical (Araca Project). She has also worked on four NYMF shows, the West Village Musical Theater Festival, the Frigid Festival, and the Fringe Festival. She has her sights set on one day calling a show on Broadway.
I caught up with this busy stage goddess to ask her a few questions!
BORG: So, Katie: was it a surprise receive the Outstanding Stage Manger’s Award at the awards ceremony this year?
KATIE: It was incredible! Awards for stage managers don’t really exist, and that’s something I’ve known since I started working in this field. To actually receive an award, to be recognized for my work in a field that’s all about making sure everyone else can do their jobs, is such an honor and a thrill. I was incredibly nervous during my speech, since I’m not used to being the one onstage with all eyes on me, but it was wonderful to get to publicly thank some of the people who were so important in helping me succeed as a stage manager.
BORG: As a stage manager what irks you the most?
KATIE: When people are late to rehearsal!
BORG: (gulp!) Noted! And what makes you happiest?
KATIE: Too many things to name…calling a perfect show for the first time…using all the Word and Excel tricks I learned while going to engineering school to make better charts to track information…
BORG: Ha! Of course…the engineer that turned to theatre –
KATIE: I love working with amazing theater artists who inspire me and who I love to watch perform/direct/design! Every show creates a new family, since you all spend so much time together and everyone is working towards the same goal of putting on a great show. I love the load-ins where I can be working side-by-side with the director and one of the producers is painting the set. I love the camaraderie that results from everyone on the show helping everyone else.
We love that too. This Thanksgiving I say let’s give thanks for Stage Managers. And pie. Stage Mangers and pie.
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My college’s biweekly newsletter to all community members included a mention of the award:
The Link: Olin’s Campus-Wide E-Bulletin
October 5, 2012
Katie Kavett Receives Outstanding Stage Manager Award
On September 24, Katie Kavett ‘09 received the 2012 New York Innovative Theatre Award for Outstanding Stage Manager! The Innovative Theater award program is in its seventh year and this was the fourth year a Stage Manager was recognized. The award was presented to Katie in front a full audience at the Kaye Playhouse at Hunter College.
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I was given a brief shout-out in BroadwayWorld’s review of Then She Fell:
THEN SHE FELL: All Mad Here
By Duncan Pflaster, November 30, 2012
“As you enter, a kindly nurse informs you that there will be food (vegetarian) and drink (alcoholic, except for the tea), and not to speak unless spoken to.”
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From an interview with Sivan Hadari about 1,934 Days, a show I stage managed in the Times Square International Theater Festival:
1,934 Days: 4 Things To Know About The Show Before You Go
By The Happiest Medium, January 20, 2012
What emerged as the greatest challenge during the development of this production?
Sivan Hadari: Martha Graham once said: “There is only a divine dis-satisfaction.” To me that says that an artist’s work is never done. There is always one final touch you’d like to put on something before it goes out into the world. Luckily, we’ve had the opportunity to work with … a production team that any producer could only dream of, and a stage manager, (Katie Kavett) that has gone above and beyond for our production.
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From a review of The Andrews Brothers at the Theater Barn:
40’s Style show a cockamamie idea but it’s a joy
By Paul Lamar, The Daily Gazette, August 13, 2011
“Katie Kavett’s stage management is the way it should be: imperceptible.”
KATIE KAVETT | Stage Manager 