Caitlin Parrish recently took some time off from her Redmoon production duties to moonlight as a stage manager… read on for details of her adventures:

What can you say about stage managing for the International Gay Theatre Festival? You can say that no matter how cool something sounds if you put the word ‘International’ at the front of it, there will always be the same brand of fun involved in theatre production.

Fun No. 1: Doing a show at one of the oldest theaters in Western Europe is gorgeous. With a burnt out back wall and generous stage visions of apocalyptic Beckett and Pinter shows dancing through your head like the best, most depressing parade ever. “Oh My Effing God, this space would be perfect for The Dumbwaiter!” You can feel the existential street cred in every ancient stone and chill, damp wall. Then you try to work the sound equipment and discover it’s about the same age as the building, has a problem when it comes to differentiating between ‘Pause’ and ‘Skip’, and may have consumed cocaine before the show, as there is a light powder dusting the sound deck and no one is claiming it. For a show with 27 scenes and cross fade sound transitions for each, one begins to understand why so many people in this country cross themselves on a daily basis.

Fun No. 2: Speaking of Catholicism, and doing a festival with the word ‘Gay’ in the title, have any of you heard of Sinn Fein? They’re a delightful group of individuals also known as the IRA. Although I was assured by my many Irish compatriots at the festival that there wasn’t anything to really worry about, I ended up having to escort a member of said organization from the play before mine (a Terrence McNally piece depicting Jesus as a gay man in 1950s Texas) who treated me to a thoroughly interesting lecture on how our festival was infringing our rights and we should expect a protest at some point. After helping the TD for the festival check the space for any mysterious packages that may have been left beneath seats, we were in fact treated to a, granted, rather tame protest of about three people holding signs that probably took more crap from entering patrons than they handed out. As Chris Nugent, the excellent administrative head of the festival put it, “These protesters are quite sweet, really. They didn’t even bring rocks.”

Fun No. 3: Upon arriving in Dublin a day early to acquaint myself with the theater space and get a leg up on tech, I encountered one of the heads of the Festival itself. Very excited, I introduced myself and expressed my happiness at being involved and working in Dublin. From behind his Robert Evans sunglasses and tan he grabbed my hand, eyed a cute young man that had entered behind me and inquired if I was the stage manager for the Chicago show. Having just told him that, I nodded.

“Grand. Your show isn’t selling as well as I’d like. The picture on the poster is quite artistic, but you can’t tell that your lead’s a good looking guy, which he is. What you have to do is dress the cast up posh and take them to The Dragon. It’s a bar on Georges Street. Have them hand out fliers, buy a few drinks, and, you know, really PUSH the show.”

“Do you mean whore them out a little?”

“Exactly. You’ll be fine.”

I will now by including ‘American Pimp with EU experience’ under the special skills section of my SM resume.

And now, show closed, off to do research and work in Oxford, Cardiff, and Aberdaron, I look forward to heading back to the US and Redmoon with my newly acquired skills in talking sound boards off a ledge, sweeping a house for bombs, and ordering non-equity actors to shake that ass.

Slainte! (Good health) And see everyone soon.

Caitlin Parrish