Description

Amanda Spooner is an accomplished stage manager and educator.  Amanda talks with us about all things backstage.  She is now working on Purple Rain The Musical, a dream come-true that she manifested years before.  

Amanda Spooner is an AEA Stage Manager and Educator, who came to Ithaca from New York City. She has worked on and off-Broadway, regionally, on tour, in events, on immersive experiences, on opera, dance, countless readings and workshops, and in television. Her specialty is in the development of new works and their world premieres, including Rebecca Tyke-min and Paula Vogel's Indecent as well as the musical Sing Street. Amanda has stage-managed for Producer Daryl Roth, Lincoln Center Theater, Berkeley Rep, Playwrights Horizons, Signature Theatre, Soho Rep, BAM, Ars Nova, Sundance Theatre Lab, The Public Theatre, American Repertory Theater, La Jolla Playhouse, Yale Repertory Theatre, Actors Theatre of Louisville, and Westport Country Playhouse among others. She is the founder of both the Year of the Stage Manager campaign and Tandem, a peer-to-peer education program for theatre makers, in addition to serving on the Board of Directors for the Stage Managers' Association. Amanda is a former TONY voter and works closely with Actors’ Equity Association -- she was recently the youngest stage management AEA councillor in the nation. She advocates for economic equality in professional theatre, for families in the arts, and for greater visibility for Stage Managers and spends a great deal of time on research and in discussion regarding these topics. Amanda was named an American Theatre Magazine “Person to Watch” and was featured on the cover of Equity News with her son, among countless other articles and interviews. She received her MFA from the Yale School of Drama, her BA from San Francisco State University, and her AA from Las Positas College. 

Backstage Breakdown answers those big questions like:

1. How did we get here?  
2. When did you decide to join the union? How did your career change once you did?
3. Should AEA include Actors and Stage Managers? 
4. What are some of your favorite credits? 
5. How did you start teaching? 
6. What would you advise young people to do in order to prepare to become a successful stage manager? Is college necessary? 
7. You created “Year of the Stage Manager 2020” can you tell us about that facebook group and the use of social media? 

@spoonforbetter on Instagram

@sminsta2020 on Instagram  

Theme music by Barrett Riggins.

BARRETT RIGGINS is a composer and lyricist based in Brooklyn. He won the 2025 Richard Rodgers Award for HELSINKI (Upcoming; The New Group, Selection; NAMT). He is represented by UTA and the Hybrid Agency.