@ Mamma Mia! — Winter Musical 2026
As a Director
Leadership and Responsibility
For Mamma Mia!, I did the work of a technical director. We had no official one. Our former technical director had a medical emergency midway through the previous winter’s season, and the position was never filled. I took on budgeting, drafting floor plans, organizing tools, and running the construction crew, while also working as stage manager, scenic designer, and master carpenter. Those jobs overlapped constantly, and I handled all of them.
The work demanded constant decisions. Materials ran short, schedules changed, and pieces didn’t go together as drawn. Each problem meant balancing safety, budget, and the design without slowing the build, and I checked that everything was safe and functional before anyone stood on it.
I did much of this on my own, with Mr. Rath treating me as an apprentice, not a student. That trust was earned, and it pushed me to work with more independence and take responsibility for the results.
I also trained the crew. I taught younger members the skills they needed, encouraged questions, explained the reasoning behind design decisions, and kept safety first, so they could learn without being afraid of making mistakes. I’m proud of the set, and prouder that I turned a group of beginners into a crew that could build it.
Leadership Through Planning
This was the master plan developed by our director, our technical director, and me, and I led it. Drawing on my research into Greek architecture, I shaped the visual identity of the set, with arches, stone steps, and whitewashed walls that capture the atmosphere of a Mediterranean taverna. The design went through multiple revisions as we turned ideas into a practical stage environment.
Each revision meant balancing the artistic vision against real-world limits. Budget, materials, labor, and time all decided what could be built. I listened to what each department needed, adjusted the plan, and made sure the crew understood both what we were building and why it mattered to the production as a whole.
Leadership is not simply giving instructions. It is coordinating people, ideas, and resources toward a shared goal. By the time construction was complete, the crew took pride in the finished set and in the process that produced it. Mamma Mia! was the culmination of my high school theater experience.
Staging Notes
Take notes
This is my script for Act One, Scene Two, where the Dynamos meet again. My notes are a mix of things I wrote down during the table read and personal reminders. One reminder was to tell the actors not to throw their suitcases, as the script has them do. I also wrote the stage directions in the margins, so the script worked as both a reading copy and a working guide for the set. The orange highlights mark everything related to actor movement.
Keeping movement and safety notes in one place let me check the script against the build. When an actor had to cross the stage, climb, or handle a prop, I could see what the set had to support and where the staging needed to change.
This is my script for Act One, Scene Three. The orange highlights mark key points for stage directions or set design. I used a letter code in the margins: “S” for sets and “P” for props, so I could find what each moment needed at a glance. The rest of my writing falls into three groups: spotlight directions, proposed ideas, and actor choreography.
Marking the script this way turned it into a working checklist. For each scene, I could see which pieces the set had to supply, which props had to be ready, and where the lighting and choreography would affect both.
This is my script for Act Two, Scene Four. The notes in blue ink are my directions for the two spotlights. The orange highlights mark all of the stage directions. The rest of my writing is a set of short, personal phrases that remind me of key details and guides to keep in mind for the scene. Splitting the notes by color kept the page readable during a busy scene. Blue meant lighting, orange meant stage directions, and the shorthand reminders filled in the rest, so I could find what I needed at a glance while the show was running.