What I learned from a Stage Manager at the most successful children’s show in TV history

This semester, I’m very lucky to be a Production Intern at a very famous children’s program (which I won’t name in this Medium post — but think legendary children’s TV and an iconic…road). Most of my days consist of typical intern duties — picking up lunch orders, delivering scripts and hard drives, and giving set tours to guests, but I occasionally have incredible, life-changing opportunities like the one I got last week.

Last week, for an entire day, I shadowed the stage manager of this iconic show. For eight hours, I followed the stage manager (let’s call him Joe) around set, asking questions and observing how he led the production of an episode from start to finish. As stage manager for the show for over 20 (!) years, Joe had an incredible wealth of knowledge about production, careers in entertainment, and leadership in general — knowledge that he was more than generous in sharing. I found out later in the day that it had been his idea to create shadowing opportunities for the show’s interns, offering up his own valuable time to start. Now, shadowing is a treasured aspect of the Production internships.

Here is just a sample of the takeaways from my day shadowing Joe:

• On finding success: “It’s very simple, especially in this industry. Work your ass off. That’s it. Which is hard, but it is simple, and completely in your power. Work your ass off and do good work and you will stay employed.”
• On leadership: “When I walk onto a new production, I don’t show up and tell people that I’m there to lead them, I just start telling people what to do. People don’t care who you are or what your title is, just show up and start acting like a leader and they will follow.”
• On starting out: “How do you seperate yourself as a leader when you’re at the bottom? Take the small stuff seriously. For example, you’re organizing the fridge. Take pride in it. If people see you’re great at the small stuff, they’ll start thinking you’re great at the big stuff too. You learn to be a leader by being a servant.”
• On leadership: “Your job as a leader is to protect the people under you. I had a cameraman who didn’t have his headset on while the AD was in the control room telling him his shot. Instead of calling him out for everyone to hear, I moved my headset mic away and went over to him to tell him the shot. He rushed back to his camera right as the AD asked if he had heard the shot. He adjusted and no one had to know he had slacked off for a second. Now I’ve shown that guy that I have his back, and he’ll have mine.”
• On being a producer: “Anyone who wants to be a leader in TV should do as many different things as possible. You’re telling a bunch of people how to do a bunch of different jobs — you should know how they’re done. You don’t have to be an expert, but you should be aware of their different skills and priorities.”

My day shadowing Joe gave me an incredible amount of confidence in my future in production. I found that my own beliefs and values lined up with the ones he described as being necessary for success in the entertainment industry, and with his advice, I look forward to finding more mentors and eventually being generous with my time to help up those younger than me, as Joe has.