From L.A. to Columbus, Stage Manager’s Career Comes Full Circle

November 3, 2014

From L.A. to Columbus, Stage Manager’s Career Comes Full Circle

Sherée Greco is back in Ohio. Recently, Greco was hired as production manager for the Department of Theatre, where she manages and oversees the day-to-day production process and teaches and mentors students in stage management. Before being hired at Ohio State, Greco worked for regional theaters and spent 11 years in television production in Los Angeles.

Greco, a Cincinnati native, received her BA in theatre from Otterbein University and her MFA in stage management from the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music. She chose stage management because she enjoyed experiencing a play come to life and found it rewarding to organize and coordinate the process.

After graduating from CCM and working as the production assistant for two shows at Goodspeed Opera House in Connecticut, Greco decided to seek opportunities out west. While stage managing in San Diego, Greco was encouraged by a former CCM professor and Disney imagineer to give television in Los Angeles a try. She blindly sent out hundreds of résumés to many production companies before being hired one year later as an entry-level production assistant for a new CBS pilot show called CSI. One month later, it aired and quickly became the No. 1 show watched in America. Greco continued to work freelance as a production secretary and set production assistant for shows that included The O.C., The West Wing, Entourage and The Sopranos.

From there, Greco took a job as an executive assistant for a senior vice president of production at 20th Century Fox, where the corporate studio system gave her more stability, influence and responsibility assisting in coordinating the day-to-day operations for shows such as How I Met Your Mother and Modern Family. At Fox, she often had the opportunity to mentor young, aspiring television writers, actors and production crew and helped them get started in the industry.

“L.A. was fast-paced and exciting, and it’s a town focused on who you know and connections made. After a while, something was missing for me. I wanted to get back to my theatre roots and honestly, I was ready to come home and be closer to my family; my priorities had shifted,” Greco said.

Greco very much enjoyed the mentoring and teaching aspects of her job as executive assistant, and knew she couldn’t pass up the opportunity to be a production manager at Ohio State.

“Ohio State gave me the perfect blend of having a career in the theatre through production management and providing me the wonderful opportunity to teach and mentor. I am thrilled to be a part of such an amazingly talented group of people in the Department of Theatre,” Greco said.

The upcoming performance, City of Angels, is Greco’s first main stage production as a staff member in the Department of Theatre. She explains that the show gives the students involved great experience because it is very technically and scenically complex. City of Angels will be performed Thursday, Oct. 30, through Sunday, Nov. 9.

Greco is teaching her first class at Ohio State in the spring. She aims to put her own stamp on stage management and use her connections in Los Angeles to help students who wish to pursue working in television production. Greco has also been asked by Alpha Psi Omega, the undergraduate theatre group on campus, to do a workshop in November on working in television and she hopes to break down the barrier that exists between the television industry and the theatre industry.

“There is a myth that you cannot do both. I want to teach students that you can work in any medium whether it is theatre, corporate events, concerts, television or film. If you want it, you can do it. Don’t limit yourself,” Greco said.

By Molly Kime, ASC Communications Student