Machinal

The production and my role:

Machinal appeared on the spring line-up as the week 4 weekend show, with performances from March 6-8th, 2026.

On this project, I worked alongside a first time ASM. We had a great experience working together as I taught her the ropes of stage management for the venue. We worked together to source the many props and manage it alongside our given budget, which were tracked via spreadsheets. Some notable props that we needed to source were office "machines" (I was able to find a working vintage adding machine for £15), the infamous lily bowl, creating evidence bags for the trial scene, as well as handling food and drinks onstage. Besides constructing the props table, we also were tasked at clearing backstage in order to store set pieces. This was particularly necessary due to the many set transitions that took place, and that we would have to execute. We worked alongside the set designer to perform these set changes. Often times, this would overlap with the presetting/hand-off of props to actors, so during these often busy scene changes, we constructed a list of what the backstage team of three would complete to ensure all was properly set. Although working in the space as a stage manager multiple times at this point, this was actually the first time I was asked to perform set changes during a show. Although intimidating at first, once we had distinguished what each of us were doing I felt very confident in our abilities to execute them. I was very thankful to work alongside a truly stellar team!