Kim Osgood, a production stage manager, is celebrating 25 years at the Goodman Theatre, Chicago's oldest and largest not-for-profit theater.
An Edgewater resident who married her partner of 27 years, Patricia Kane, Osgood is approaching 100 productions as a stage manager for her career, which elicited a four-part reply splashed with a bit of humor. She said:
"Wow, that's kind of a lot."
"Good Lord, I'm old."
"Time flies."
"How fortunate I am."
Her first time as production stage manager was at the Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park for "Inherit the Wind," with 48 actors … and a monkey.
Osgood said she was led to being a stage manager "the moment I realized that trying to earn a living as an actor would drive me crazy."
"I don't think the role has changed, but technology has certainly changed the way we do things," she said.
Osgood has been stage manager for approximately 70 productions at Goodman Theatre since 1990, including Buzzer, Smokefall, The Happiest Song Plays Last, Fish Men, Dartmoor Prison, The Seagull, The Long Red Road, Ruined, Talking Pictures and more.
She also has been involved with productions for Steppenwolf Theatre Company, Northlight Theatre and Court Theatre. Osgood spent eight years with Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, where she was director of the Intern Company and production stage manager.
"I've been able to do a lot of 'firsts' at the Goodman, [such as] the first production of Marvin's Room,'[which] also [was her] first at the Goodman; Robert Falls' first production of The Iceman Cometh, Mary Zimmerman's The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci, Phillip Seymour Hoffman's production of The Long Red Road … I could go on and on."
One production Osgood always will remember was held on Election Day 2008, for Ruined. "It was pretty amazing to be able to announce to the predominately African-American cast that Obama was our next president," Osgood said. "The play went on to a successful New York run, and Lynn Nottage won the Pulitzer Prize."
So what does being a stage manager involve?
"I 'call' the show, meaning, I cue almost everything you see happening onstage during a performance," Osgood said. "I also watch to make sure that, after the show opens, its natural growth remains true to the director's intent."
The most challenging part of her job is "getting enough sleep," she said, laughing.
And the most rewarding part is "the people I get to work with," she added.
The 11th annual New Stages Festival of new American plays started Oct. 29 at Goodman Theatre, with a developmental production of Feathers and Teeth, a dark comedy by Charise Castro Smith directed by Henry Godinez. New Stages continues through Nov. 16. Appearing in repertory alongside Feathers and Teeth is The Magic Play by Andrew Hinderaker.
Osgood is stage manager for Carlyle, one of three new plays in the Goodman's New Stages Festival.