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Accomplished
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Janet has worked at the highest levels of the stage managing
profession, calling big Broadway musicals and the Radio City
Christmas Spectacular (complete with camels, sheep, donkeys and a
horse-drawn carriage).
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The groundbreaking ceremony for
the WWII Memorial in Washington, DC, with President Clinton, three
children’s
choirs
and numerous dignitaries –on a blustery November
day.
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Ushered onto the stage such
celebrities as, Maya Angelou, Walter Cronkite, Bob Hope, Katharine
Hepburn, Cher and The Smothers Brothers.
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Served six years
on the Council of Actors'
Equity Association; Founding member and past chair of the Stage
Managers' Association.
Flexible
- Corporate meetings
with no rehearsal.
- Stepping in to
manage a Broadway performance just barely learned, running the
show with no backup after a snow storm prevented the other two
stage managers from reaching the theatre.
- Flying off to
Florida with 12 hours notice to fill in for a colleague who had
a family emergency.
Fun to work with
- After a long day
when everything went beautifully, sitting at the bar telling
some of my favorite jokes.
- Asking the producer
on a show in Hawaii if we could pause a rehearsal to run down to
the beach for the sunset (she said “yes”!).
- Standing in for Mary
Lou Retton at an IBM rehearsal in Orlando, and when asked by the
real executive what was next for me, answered: “I’m going to
Disney World!”
- When escorting the
Russian Army Choir and Balalyka Band onto the stage at Radio
City for the MTV Awards, announcing to everyone in our path:
“The Russians are coming, the Russians are coming”.
A
funny thing happened on the way…
Janet arrived in NYC in the spring of 1979, having already procured
a job at the Manhattan Theatre Club (mopping the stage, running
props and wardrobe for a very low wage). After those initiation
rites, she earned a living as a stage manager every year from 1980
to the present. After a few years Off Off and Off Broadway, she made
the move to Broadway with the original David Merrick production of
42nd Street, followed by stints on major shows
such as Cats, City of Angels, The Grapes
of
Wrath and M Butterfly. In 1987, when the corporate world
called, she welcomed the challenge. Since then, she has happily
alternated between business theatre and Broadway. She has lived in
Chelsea, NYC, for the past 32 years and is the widow of mentor and
fellow stage manager, Barry Kearsley, who died while they were
working together on M Butterfly in 1989. Following her
husband’s passing, she established the Barry Andrew Kearsley
Memorial Scholarship at Hofstra University, where they both attended
the University Theatre Program.
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