Beyond the Curtain: An Exploration of Theatrical Production Management

Abstract

This thesis investigates the role of experience and personal qualities in defining a production manager in the performing arts. It examines the roles, backgrounds, and qualities of theatrical production managers by analyzing how non-profit arts organizations describe production management and how production managers describe their jobs and themselves. A definition of production management is created through an analysis of thirty-eight production management job descriptions for non-profit performing arts organizations; a survey of nine directors, designers, technicians, stage managers, and a producer; and interviews with five professional production managers from a presenting house, a producing house, and a university theatre.