Alix Claps

Production Manager/Production Stage Manager/Entertainment Law Student
At this very moment, Matunuck, Rhode Island, PSMing FOREVER PLAID at Theatre By The Sea

What’s your favorite line from a play?
You could seriously pick almost any line from ARCADIA and I could claim it as favorite, but if I had to pick one: “We shed as we pick up, like travellers who must carry everything in their arms, and what we let fall will be picked up by those behind. The procession is very long and life is very short. We die on the march. But there is nothing outside the march so nothing can be lost to it.”

What play or production changed your life?
I did a production of ASSASSINS in college, and the experience of that production, as much as the play itself, really showed me how magical and inspiring the rehearsal process can be. It isn’t something you suffer through to get to performances, it has magic of its own.

Is there anything you still dream of doing?
Calling the opening ceremonies of the Olympics.

What is your best escape?
A good book.

Alix Claps is the Production Manager for New York University’s Program in Vocal Performance, and a student at Rutgers School of Law – Newark. She has worked extensively in New York, and regionally at Music Theatre of Wichita, Ogunquit Playhouse, Theater By The Sea and Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey.

Judith Binus

Stage Manager, Director-in-Training
New York, New York USA

What’s your favorite cocktail?
Brandy Alexander (my Aunt Dorothy’s recipe)

What play or production changed your life?
Louisville Children’s Theatre production of Tom Sawyer. I had five lines, saw a big black box with levers offstage right, said “What’s that?”, was told it was the light board, ran the board for the next production and never set foot onstage again.

Is there anything you still dream of doing?
Directing

I feel most like myself when …
…I’m working in a theatre

Where do you look for inspiration?
Smart directors; smart, well-written plays and smart, professional actors

What is your best escape?
Doing the New York Times crossword

Judith Binus: My original ambition was to be a lighting designer but fell in love with stage managing. To participate in the development of words on a page to a full-fledged, brilliant production brings me great joy. After a sabbatical, I am looking for plays to direct, beginning a new chapter.

Sandra M. Bloom

Actor, Stage Manager
New York, New York USA

It’s Wonderful to Know Where You Belong.
A financial adviser recently asked me, “When do you want to retire?” “I don’t,” I said. “No, you don’t understand,” he said “When do you want to stop working?”  “No, YOU don’t understand. They’re going to have to carry me off stage.”

I’ve always known I would wind up somewhere in this business.  I can’t conceive of doing anything else.  I was always writing poems and short stories, but it wasn’t until I was 12 that I discovered I had an ear for dialogue and wrote my first play, an event that was to change my life.  My teacher, who was studying for his Masters, used our class as his guinea pigs.  Creative ideas abounded. What started out as a simple class project soon fell apart.  Everyone else found a more enticing project, except me.  I worked on the play until it was finished. Submitting it, I was asked which role I wanted to play?  Horrified, I said “I wrote it for the rest of the class.”  In an effort to involve this strange quiet child, to interact with others, the teacher suggested that I direct the play.  Not knowing I didn’t know how to direct, and with the bravado of innocence, I proceeded to do just that, producing it as well. I was very good at that. It was a success. Thereafter I wrote other plays, directed them and branched out to direct other people’s plays. I probably would have gone on in that vein if something hadn’t happened.

My senior year I was directing when a teacher asked for my help.  Someone cast in the upcoming production refused to learn her lines.  Would I take over the part? To this day I have no idea why I said yes. But somebody had to do it.  Perhaps I knew that the play must go on. My moment onstage was enlightening.   In an instant I knew this was where I truly belonged.  Within this world all the parts of me would come together.  I would find my niche within this field.  And I did.

Sandra M. Bloom While currently I have a dual career as an actor and a stage manager, I started as a playwright and director.  Currently: finished one benefit as an actor and working on another as a stage manager.  I served 25 years as an elected representative on AEA’s governing body, the Council.