Olivia Johnston has had an on-again, off-again relationship with theater. Olivia was involved in theater in their youth but drifted away as she moved away to college and found other interests and paths to wander down. In 2018 Olivia reentered the theater world and was met with open arms. Since then, Olivia has settled in the role of stage manager and enjoyed lending her talents to North Coast theatres until 2023, when she left the area to pursue a professional stage management internship at Kalamazoo Civic Theatre.

While at the Kalamazoo Civic Theatre Olivia not only enhanced their stage management skills, but their production stage management skills as well, by tracking and distributing scripts, creating conflict calendars, generating emails to the company, and first rehearsal paperwork including contact information, accommodations, allergies, etc. Also helping to develop paperwork and procedures to ensure consistency among productions. One project of note is the Stage Manager Handbook they developed with their Civic Supervisor to provide to the Volunteer Stage Managers at the Civic.

At the Kalamazoo Civic Theatre Olivia worked with and assisted other departments, allowing them to have some experience with hanging lights, operating an ETC console, mixing (a musical, voices only), assisting actors with body mics, (adjective) QLab, and operating spotlights.

Olivia has experience operating in proscenium, thrust, and in the round stages with a variety of cast and crew sizes ranging from 1 actor to over 30. Olivia’s work with The Ten Fifteen Theater (highlighted) the workings of a smaller scale theater, one where the Stage Manager does a few jobs at once.

Olivia loves being able to provide a theatrical experience that results in the audience enjoying the story in front of them, while her or the crew’s presence is never considered. By providing structure throughout the rehearsal process, she gets to see the actors come into their characters and provide outstanding performances for audiences to enjoy. Her work in developing run sheets and materials ensures that the audience enjoys the production without disruption. Her dedication to the production process and its consistency results in the audience being able to enjoy the magic of the stage and provides the reward of an excellent show to each cast and crew member, night after night.

While Olivia’s career is still in its infancy, they could not be more excited to continue to grow in this community and produce high quality art of any genre.