Board Biographies
Bob Bennett - Board member at large (2010)
Robert Bennett has been stage managing since leaving The University of Michigan in 1973. Among his most memorable productions in New York have been the recent DESIRE UNDER THE ELMS, AWAKE AND SING!, THE COAST OF UTOPIA, DANCING AT LUGHNASA, Peter Brook’s THE CHERRY ORCHARD, THE LIFE AND TIMES OF NICHOLAS NICKELBY. On national tours he has headed two companies of EVITA, LA CAGE AUX FOLLES, GREASE, SUGAR BABIES, SHENANDOAH. Among the theater companies for which Bob has worked are The Ogunquit Playhouse, The Acting Company, The Berkshire Theater Company, The Goodspeed Opera and The Royal Poinciana Playhouse. Bob also served as General Manager at The Brooklyn Academy of Music and as Vice President of Stage Operations for Radio City Music Hall. He worked a number of special events from The U.S. Open to the recent visit of the Pope to NYC.
Sandi Bohle - 1st Vice Chair
Born and raised in that City by the Bay, San Francisco. She first fell in love with this business as a 7 year old on one of many field trips to the San Francisco Opera. It was Tosca. Was she watching the singers???? NO, She was watching the lights and sets move in their choreographed chaos. She listened to her parents for a short period of time regarding going into the sciences. But quickly changed majors after her first semester in college. She found her true calling.
Sandi has been a professional Stage Manager and lighting designer for almost thirty years, in all areas of our industry, in venues of all sizes and under contracts of all types. She came up in this business on the West Coast in Los Angeles and San Francisco. Sandi holds a BA in Lighting Design from Cal State Hayward, attended USC for a year in their MFA Stage Management Program, and graduated from CALArts with a MFA in Stage Management in 1986. She has had the pleasure of being involved with many world premieres with some legends of our business. One of her fondest memories is frantically typing rewrites with Lanford Wilson watching over her shoulder during previews of Burn This at The Mark Taper Forum before it premiered on Broadway. Ask her sometime about her John Malkovich stories from that same show. Or taking care of Georgia Brown during Roza. Sandi has been a member of Actor’s Equity since 1990, getting her card for a summer season at The Woodminster Amphitheatre in the hills of Oakland, California. A stage management position where she never called a cue!
Sandi considers herself lucky for having been in the right place at the right time and gotten to work with such giants of our industry as Hal Prince, Georgia Brown, Lanford Wilson, Michael Peters, Joe Chakin, Ken Billington, Marjorie Bradley Kellogg, and Jennifer Tipton among others. Currently, She is on staff at Eisenhower Hall Theatre at West Point, the second largest theatre east of the Mississippi after Radio City Music Hall.
Sandi and her partner, Pati Dynes, have been together since 1991. Along with Peanut and Winky, they own a 1919 Folk Victorian in Kingston, New York which sits 5 minutes from the Hudson River and 10 minutes from the Catskill Mountains. Paradise!
Robert I. Cohen - Board member at large (2010)
Robert I. Cohen, Associate Professor of Stage Management/Production Manager, Brooklyn College has been production stage manager for numerous Broadway and regional productions, as well as New York City Opera. His diverse career in live performance presentations includes: Entertainment Operations Manager for the Tropicana, Production Coordinator for Lincoln Center Festivals, and Associate Producer/Writer for Westinghouse TV. He currently serves on the Executive Board of the Stage Managers' Association, of which he was a founding member and former Chairperson. Prof. Cohen holds a B.S. in mathematics from Northeastern University and an MFA in directing from Boston University. He has previously taught at both Emerson College and Stockton State College, and has delivered guest lectures at Yale University, SUNY Purchase, and West Chester University. Prof. Cohen has served as a stage manager mentor for three USITT conferences. He has also participated on numerous panels at professional trade conferences, including USITT and Advanstar East Coast conferences. Included in his publications are recent articles on "Living in a Techno World: modern communication technologies for stage managers" published in Stage Directions, "Theatre in Cuba" and "Stage Management use of Computers in Rehearsal," published in issues of Focus (published by the British Association of Lighting Designers), and Cueline (published by the British Association of Stage Managers), respectively.
Richard Costabile - Chairman
The Bronx was where he was born and grew up. His parents were also native New Yorkers – Dad (d. 1985) from E. 120th in Harlem, Mom (d. 2009) from Valentine’s Avenue in the Fordham section of the Bronx. He graduated from St. Ann’s on Bainbridge Ave. at Gun Hill Road; Regis High School on 84th between Park and Madison; and from Fordham University at Rose Hill (The Bronx) with a BA in Mathematics. He thought he wanted to be an Electrical Engineer, but realized very quickly that his interests lay elsewhere – but exactly where, he wasn’t sure. His guitar lessons and great interest in singing, music and literature (and fun) were hints of what was to come.
After almost a year of teaching math for a traveling high school, he was hired by IBM in Westchester and trained as a computer programmer. That’s where he met his wife, Carol (d. 2005), and became involved with theater for the first time. With Carol’s support and encouragement, Rich “retired very early” from IBM and spent 2 years training as an actor at Sanford Meisner’s Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theater. He trod the boards (and many audition rooms) for several years before a director friend, Kent Paul, encouraged him to try stage managing. He bought Bert Gruver’s book, The Stage Manager’s Handbook (this was LONG before Tom Kelly wrote his fabulous tome), and he learned as he went.
Many triumphs and mistakes later, Rich counts himself very lucky to have a career that has taken him to lots of wonderful places, geographically and artistically. One of those places was Cleveland, Ohio, where he spent 11 seasons at Great Lakes Theater Festival (following in the footsteps of former long-time Board member Andy Feigin). There he met three people who have had a great and lasting influence on his personal and professional lives – Gerald Freedman, the Artistic Director for all those 11 years; Hal Holbrook, with whose Mark Twain Tonight! he has toured since 2000; and Randy Wilcox, who’s been his partner in life since early 1992. Rich and Randy share a beautiful home on the Palisades cliffs in Weehawken, NJ, and a beach house on the Jersey shore that helps them maintain their sanity. They love to take camping trips, the most fabulous of which was their 18-day honeymoon to Hawaii in 2004 – 4 islands in a tent. Paradise!!
Rich is very proud of, and grateful for, his association with the SMA, for through it he has made many, many friends across the country.
Marci Glotzer - 3rd Past Chair
I am rarity, a born and raised New Yorker. My parents still live in the city and see theater at least once a week, from Broadway to the Fringe. About a year after I graduated I had my first major job disappointment -- the theater I had expected to work at for the entire season unexpectedly announced they were turning non-Equity. I told my parents that I was going to leave the business, move back to NYC (I was in PA at the time,) get a full-time job and maybe do theater in my spare time. My father said, "Are you crazy? Why would you do that?"
"Maybe you didn't hear me," I replied, "I said I was leaving theater and getting a real job. You're supposed to be thrilled."
My parents smiled. "This is something you like to do and you've been training to do it for years. So many people in this world don't get the chance to pursue the career they want. You have that chance. Don't throw it away just because you hit a roadblock."
That's what keeps me going when times are tough. I hope it helps you, too.
Robin Gray - Board Member at Large (2012)
ROBIN GRAY has worked for Music Circus, B Street Theater, and for the Sacramento Theater Company. She last toured for Kansas City Starlight with Hello Dolly starring Michele Lee. Regionally, she stage managed Phantom of the Opera in San Francisco. Before moving to Sacramento, Ms. Gray lived in New York City and worked on Broadway and off Broadway productions, including national tours of Annie, Evita, Jesus Christ Superstar, TapDogs, David Copperfield, and Man of La Mancha. Opera credits include The Aspern Papers for Dallas Opera, which was filmed for the PBS Great Performances series, and Dead Man Walking with Frederika von Stade for Cincinnati and Pittsburgh Operas. She has stage managed over 20 productions for Sacramento Opera, including Carmen, La Boheme, Faust, La Traviata, Tales of Hoffman, Hansel & Gretel, Romèo et Juliette, Don Giovanni, La Cenerentola, Madama Butterfly, The Barber of Seville, Die Fledermaus, Turandot, Così fan tutte, and Aida. She spent last Christmas with friends in Minneapolis doing The Sound of Music, and began teaching at UC Davis this fall.She has been a member at Large on the SMA board, and a member of the organization since the 1980’s.
Katrina Herrmann - co-Secretary
Katrina hails from western central Illinois. After attending the Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy, and surviving the jungles of BC Calculus, she decided theater was the career for her, and went on to become a stage manager. She attended DePaul University, living and working in Chicago for 5 years, until she decided to pursue her dreams of working on Broadway and moved to NYC. Since moving, she has gone on three paid road trips with Theatreworks/USA and worked for Rattlestick Playwrights Theatre, Naked Angels, and Playwrights Horizons.
Her life experiences include (in no particular order): a sleepless night in Australia due to a snoring brother, walking all over Paris looking for a crepe place simply to find a stand on the street by her hostel, watching the penguin parade at the Edinburgh zoo, reading Harry Potter 7 in less than a day, running up and down hills in San Francisco in an attempt to get her van out of a locked parking facility, playing the oboe for 6 years, and dissecting a cat named Maleficent in Human A&P.
Zoya Kachadurian - Board Member at Large (2011)
Zoya has coordinated or stage managed theater and corporate events for over 30 years. A sample of unique events include: Paul Simon’s first Central Park Concert, the 75th Anniversary for Planned Parenthood, NY Life Insurance’s 150th Anniversary, and the Equitable AXA World Ride. She also coordinated the first international conference for PEN which took place in three venues simultaneously over a week in New York. Zoya is proud to have been the Production Stage Manager for V-Day 2001, which took place in Madison Square Garden with 75 stars performing THE VAGINA MONOLOGUES.
Theater credits include ALL MY SONS (Tony winner), ANNIE and LION KING (tours), LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS and WEST SIDE STORY (international), AN INSPECTOR CALLS, 42nd STREET, CATS, ME AND MY GIRL and STONES IN HIS POCKETS.
In television, Ms. Kachadurian’s production background ranges from SESAME STREET, to Soap Operas and commercials for Time Warner, and Nickelodeon. She also served as a talent coach for the ABC-TV pilot GIRLFRIENDS (which later became THE VIEW)
Her theatrical directing credits include a critically acclaimed production of STONES IN HIS POCKETS, KING O’ THE MOON, THE COCKTAIL HOUR, THE RIDE a new musical, and THE MIRACLE WORKER in various theaters in Massachusetts.
She is a member of the Lincoln Center Directors’ Lab, the EST Director Lab and LaMama’s Umbria Directors’ Symposium. She belongs to the Directors’ Guild of America, the Society of Stage Directors and Choreographers, and Actors’ Equity Association.
Hope Rose Kelly - co-Secretary
Hope was born and bred in Woods Hole, MA - an old fishing village that now
has several scientific institutions and the ferry to the Vineyard. Coming
from a family of scientists, she had intended to become an Oceanographer
until she was drafted to be the Stage Manager for "South Pacific" during
her sophomore year of high school. She loved it! Since then, Hope has not
turned her back on Stage Management. She attended Ithaca College for
undergrad and, on a whim, went to grad school at University of Toronto for
an M.A. in Theatre History. There had been a desire to get a PhD but after
completing the Masters program, Hope missed the practical side of theatre
and so came back to the States to stage manage to her heart's content.
George Street Playhouse, McCarter Theatre, Hangar Theatre, New Repertory,
Public Theatre in Maine, and Shakespeare & Company are companies that she
has had the honor of working for. Besides being a Stage Manager, Hope is an
Anglophile, Sherlockian, and Tea Fiend. She enjoys Sudoku, Terry Pratchett
novels, horseback riding, and traveling. And if you're feeling down, she
will grab a post it note and create something that will make you smile!
Marguerite Price - 1st Past Chair
Grew up in Stony Brook, New York. Undergrad studies at Stony Brook and Binghamton, NY. Headed to George Street Playhouse in 1987 and fell in love with the guitar-playing Electrics Intern, Dave Mermelstein (IATSE 534).They are the "parents" of nine-year old Tycho McCoy, a Labrador Retriever. They have a pretty blue house, with four gardens in Yardville, New Jersey. With a financial grant from her parents, she joined Actors' Equity in 1992, stage managing a production of DRIVING MISS DAISY at Foundation Theatre in Pemberton, NJ. On the simple recommendation of Cheryl Mintz, joined the SMA in 2000. After a three year sabbatical in production management under the tutelage of David-Michael Kenney, she returned to stage management and has been given an artistic home: Act II Playhouse outside of Philadelphia (Bud Martin, Producing Artistic Director, is also one of the producers on The Story of My Life and Nine to Five in NYC). Margie is a former Philadelphia Liaison for Actors' Equity Association, and currently the SMA's Regional Rep for the Philadelphia area. Special Thanks to George Loizides (Ward Melville H.S. Director), Lilian Caron (acting & vocal coach), Tom Clewell (an inspiration and excellent stage manager), and to every cast, every lighting designer, every stage manager with whom she has worked, collectively, they are her mentors. Margie enjoys camping, collecting match books and making paper-crafts.
Erin Joy Swank - 2nd Vice Chair
If you ask me where I’m from, I tend to stutter a bit... I think I will always consider Ohio home, though I've filed taxes for too many states and moved to Denver in 2006. I freelance when I can, but mainly pull double-duty for Central City Opera as Education's Prod./Stage Manager and Marketing's Website Content Coordinator. Becoming a true Coloradan, I'm also a canoe river guide! This non-sporty chick from the Midwest has found herself in the great outdoors and loves it. You'll also find me taking photos in random places with a blue stuffed donkey. He's got his own photo album, an "SMA fan" nametag, and looks great in a headset.
Additionally, I spent 5 wonderful years with camels and a real donkey, touring with the Radio City Christmas Spectacular... and really, how many people can say they’ve worked with 3 adorable camels? Sheep are a whole other deal. Ask me about it sometime. Hint: it’s much better to push a sheep than to pull it.
And yes, one CAN be involved in the SMA and not live in NYC! Join in the online chats that I initiated in 2007, or start up or join a topic on the Forums. Start your own local drink night like I did - as of this writing, Denver’s vying for the most active region. If you're feeling left out, contact a board member and find out how to get more involved. We always need assistance and fresh ideas. And if you find yourself passing through Denver, give me a shout!
Jeremy Ward - Eastern Regional Rep (2010)
Jeremy has an extensive almost twenty year background in stage and production management with a number of theatres in Arizona and New York. He has been involved with The Hollow, Sweeney Todd, The Vagina Monologues, High School Musical, Bushwa, Corpus Christi, Frozen, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Peter & The Wolf, The Eight Reindeer Monologues, Eastern Standard, Jack and the Beanstalk, How I Learned to Drive, Angels in America: Millennium Approaches, Jesus Christ Superstar, Evita, Kiss Me Kate, Bent, Victor/Victoria, Men on the
Verge of a His-Panic Breakdown, Pageant, Children of a Lesser God and many, many more. He has worked with Confetti Stage, The Mac-Haydn Theatre, The Green Cat Theatre Company, Theater Works, and PlayWright's Theatre. Jeremy runs Community Arts United, an organization dedicated to the promotion of opportunities for both established and grassroots organizations in order to create a collaboration between artistic genres. Jeremy is on the executive board of Soul Rebel Performance Troupe, a new upstate NY based group seeking to promote theatrical productions about people of color. Jeremy loves to spend most of his free time trying to exhaust his energy filled cat, Dice, and cooking. For more information, please visit www.jeremyward.info.
