COMPANY MANAGER or DESTRUCTIVE FORCE?
MARIA HAYDEN: ENDSTATION MAINSTAY
"One who witnesses the birth of a company will, inevitably, desire its ultimate and final demise."
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Early in the year of 2007, Maria Hayden joined Endstation founders, Geoffrey Kershner and Krista Franco, in the company's meager beginnings as stage manager to its first production, The Tell Tale Heart and The Mind of Poe. The Blue Ridge Summer Theatre Festival was only in its first trimester, and not yet born. As stage manager to the company's first production, Maria was a vital element of the team, Maria took up task after task and before long, she was indispensable. Maria committed herself to the company and did everything necessary to help it grow. Maria was one of the first cogs in the great wheel that is ENDSTATION. All was.. rolling... along rather smoothly. A theatrical home was being built in the depths of Virginian Appalachia.
No one saw the mastermind and saboteur that lurked within.
Maria matriculated quickly through the ranks. She always wanted more. By the start of the 1st Annual Blue Ridge Summer Theatre Festival, Maria was stage managing both The Bluest Water: A Hurricane Camille Story AND Romeo and Juliet, in repertory no less. She seemed to consume every new task and return to the dinner table for seconds. She was a machine. Endstation needed a machine and so Endstation asked no questions. Even when Maria became intimate with the financial underpinnings of the company, Endstation asked no questions. They gave her control. 
By the start of the 2nd Annual Festival, Maria Hayden, a silent cancerous, rebel force, stage-managed the remounting of The Bluest Water. She found a minion and stool pidgeon intern named Melissa Porcaro and installed her as conduit stage-manager of My Brother's Knife: A Madison Heights Odyssey. This maneuver was necessary strategy, her grip was tightening and she was simultaneously cast as Snug the Joiner in our production of A Midsummer Night's Dream. No longer saddled as sole stage manager, her horizons expanded. She understood the inner-workings of the company, captained its productions, basked in the limelight of the stage, wrangled actors, cooked the books...
The next step was obvious.
SHE WOULD BECOME COMPANY MANAGER and CONTROL IT ALL. For those of you unacquainted with the role of Company Manager within a theatrical enterprise, this person is not only one of the central pillars of the ensemble, she can bring it all tumbling to the ground in a tell-tale heartbeat. ENDSTATION is playing with fire, ladies and gentleman, and it doesn't have an up-to-date accident insurance policy. I, Michael Stablein, Jr., am reaching out to our loyal blog audience. THIS IS NOT A CONSPIRACY. I can't stop her alone, she's too powerful, she signs my checks. I need your help. Ask not what ENDSTATION can do for you, but what you can do for ENDSTATION. After the jump, you'll know what to do.
SHE WOULD BECOME COMPANY MANAGER and CONTROL IT ALL. For those of you unacquainted with the role of Company Manager within a theatrical enterprise, this person is not only one of the central pillars of the ensemble, she can bring it all tumbling to the ground in a tell-tale heartbeat. ENDSTATION is playing with fire, ladies and gentleman, and it doesn't have an up-to-date accident insurance policy. I, Michael Stablein, Jr., am reaching out to our loyal blog audience. THIS IS NOT A CONSPIRACY. I can't stop her alone, she's too powerful, she signs my checks. I need your help. Ask not what ENDSTATION can do for you, but what you can do for ENDSTATION. After the jump, you'll know what to do.m.
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Michael Stablein, Jr.
Head of Playwrights' Initiative
5 comments:
Stablein......there are no words.....
Spoken like a true sociopath.
It's always the quiet ones. On stage you think she's sleeping...but really, she's watching....always watching. *shudder*
Haha. This is charming.
I always knew she was too awesome to be true! This explains everything! :)
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