UC San Diego

The prevailing metaphors in In the Red and Brown Water are wind and water, and I likened my work on the production to a river. Water can be strong, and also gentle. It can adapt to terrain or transform landscape. During this collaboration I focused on flowing with the production process, as ideas emerged and evolved and decisions were fluid. It has been a huge breakthrough to trust my instincts in a new way to serve the production, and discover that I cannot default to my impulses to impose rigidity and structure. A production, like a river, is going to keep flowing and a group of artists cannot be controlled. I guided and adapted to the process, but I could not change it, because it was bigger and stronger than me.

During my graduate studies, I have learned that there is no "right way," there is only the way I am working right now, and my approach can be different for each project. As someone who enjoys structure and routine, the open-ended possibilities are challenging to accept. But as an experiential learner, flexibility has been my journey, and through many theatre and dance productions I have developed my personal stage management style to be open to the needs of each project. With the culmination of my formal training, my style is to be more like water: finding the flow and guiding others through the production.