With Cherokee Theatre department’s fall show, “Annie”, approaching its opening night, Stage Crew has announced its leadership roles for the exciting events that go on backstage. Behind the scenes, there are many important roles that make a show run smoothly, and all of the credit goes to the Stage Crew Department and their fantastic leaders.
This fall, the stage manager position has been given to Junior Jessica Raio. Jessica has been in the crew for three years and was a part of “Cinderella”, “Mary Poppins”, “Elf”, “Addams Family”, and is currently in “Annie”.
“Stage manager is the person who is in charge backstage to relay whatever the director’s vision is for the show. We call everything that goes on between flies and set pieces moving,” says Jessica about her assignments as stage manager.
She was also stage manager for the 2023 spring production of “Addams Family”, as well as wing manager for Cherokee’s 2022 production of “Elf”.
Apart from the role of stage manager, there are also wing managers to manage each separate wing. Senior Andrew Casey is the manager of right wing for “Annie”. He has been in Stage Crew for two years and been in four shows. He has been a part of stage crew for “Mary Poppins”, “Elf”, “Addams Family”, and currently “Annie”. His additional leadership roles in past shows include Special Effects manager in left wing in both “Elf” and “Addams Family”.
Each wing manager controls the crew members and set pieces in each wing that go on and off stage. This year, Junior Evan Scarpulla will be the left wing manager, and Junior Lila Zink will be one of the right wing managers. Since this is both of their first roles in leadership, Evan will be working under Jessica to manage his wing, and Lila will be working under Andrew. This setup will help them to gain experience for their senior year.
Freshman Noah Pirrotta was assigned the role of lighting technician and will be in the booth during shows. While the action is happening on stage, from the back of the house, Noah controls cues and lights.
Controlling the two spotlights are Ilynd-Bree Simones Johnson and Callista Hunter, both sophomores at Cherokee.
Ilynd describes the role as, “To move around the spotlight on stage, and when the main characters walk around, I’ll be following them up in the cove.”
During the shows, both are stationed in the cove, the area above the stage where the spotlights and strip lights are hung from.
Senior Mackenzie Browne has been assigned the role of Fly Captain. She has been a part of “Cinderella”, “Mary Poppins”, “Elf”, “Addams Family”, and is preparing for “Annie”.
During the shows, she is positioned on the Fly Rail and explains her job to be “in charge of telling people when to pull certain backdrops in or out or signs and anything that’s flying throughout the whole entire show.”
Senior Samantha Donato has been the Art Director since starting Stage Crew in her sophomore year. She’s had this role through the shows “Cinderella,” ”Mary Poppins”, “Elf” and “Addams Family”.
For this year’s fall show “Annie,” Samantha describes her job as, “I manage the art department. I give people painting roles, detail roles, and people come to me with questions about how to do things, and what they should do. I’m always ready to give them an answer, and help them out with whatever questions they have.”
Each set is beautifully painted and designed under Samantha and Stage Crew’s impressive artistic skills.
“Annie” is approaching its opening night fast, so get your tickets soon for December 1, 2, 8 & 9 to see everyone’s months of hard work in action, and support Cherokee’s amazing cast and crew! Tickets are available at https://www.cherokeedrama.org/
