My USITT Story: Gina Kleesattel
June 19, 2020
Gina Kleesattel and a group of her former students at the 2015 Annual Conference & Stage Expo in Cincinnati.
By: Gina Kleesattel, teacher of Stage Management, Cincinnati, Oh
I teach Stage Management (SM) at a performing arts high school in Cincinnati. When USITT came to Cincinnati, I knew I had to get my SM students there. The school would not approve the "field trip," so I took a sick day and told my SMs if they were also going to be "sick" I would meet them in the lobby at 9 a.m. Well, of course, they showed up. And it was an amazing day on the Expo floor, where my students realized that they were part of a much larger group of people who love to create theatre. Their minds were opened to technical concepts they had never considered, colleges where they could study - they talked to other stage managers. It was life-changing for them, as I knew it would be.
Last year, I took my SMs to Louisville and that new group had the same mind-opening experience. And this year, with distance learning in fourth quarter, I had my SM students "attend" USITT webinars. Thank you for that!
![Gina Kleesattel and Students](/sites/default/files/inline-images/MyUSITTStory%20Gina%20Kleesattel.jpg)
The above photo features my first group of SMs to attend USITT. They are high school students in this picture. I am proud to say, that of these five students - four are professional Stage Managers now and the other one is an Arts Administrator! I will always believe that attending USITT that year gave them the final push of encouragement to pursue their dreams.