For junior Amber Hooper, stage managing was not something she had planned on doing, but she couldn’t be more well suited for it.
Hooper came to EMU to major in theater, but instead of looking to act or direct, she came to create and design. “I was interested in sewing,” Hooper said. “I came for costumes and costume design.”
And that’s what she did for her first two shows. In the first one, “The 39 Steps,” Hooper was the costume assistant and went with the rest of the cast and crew to perform the play they were invited to present at the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival. Only a handful of productions are selected each year to perform there, and Hooper helped make the production which achieved this great accomplishment.
However, Hooper is not the costume assistance in EMU’s current production, “The Spitfire Grill,” but rather the stage manager. Hooper found that she was interested in different facets of theater after all.
“I am not disinterested in [costume design] now,” Hooper said, “but now I’m also interested in stage management as well. Stage managing is such a bigger role that I can’t do that and costume assistance at the same time.”
While she didn’t expect to begin stage managing, Hooper said, “I love being stage manager because I can be there at all of the rehearsals, see the show progress, and get to know the cast. Some of them I knew already, but there are some other people that I have met for the first time, and I’ve gotten to know them.”
The cast enjoys working with her as well. First-year Lucas Wenger, who plays Caleb Thorpe in “The Spitfire Grill,” said, “Amber is fantastic. She’s always on top of everything, making sure everyone is well-informed and knows when to be where. She often solves problems before we even realize they’re problems.”
Justin Poole, assistant professor of theater and director for “The Spitfire Grill,” appreciates Hooper’s work ethic and disposition. “She’s calm under pressure, and she sees what needs to be done, even before I do.”
Part of what Hooper is enjoying most about theater is the variability and surprise behind each production and performance. “It’s live and in front of you. The same shows happen and the audience probably can’t tell the difference, but [the cast] can feel it. It happens different every night.”
This past semester was rough after a series of budget cuts lead to the Theater Major to be cut from EMU’s curriculum. “While we were raising money to go the Kennedy festival, we highly suspected that theater would be cut,” said Hooper. “This was our chance. We were invited to show our show… only six to eight plays were invited. We were doing fantastic [work], and then they killed us.”
Despite the cuts, the theater department is enriched to have Hooper leading behind the scenes, and Poole describes her as “add[ing] great vitality to the program through her dedication and creativity.” Whether as a costume assistant or stage manager, EMU is made better with Hooper leading the way.
