Sending out rehearsal schedules, checking attendance, calling cues for lighting and scenic changes during shows is all in a day’s work for head stage manager and Thespian President senior Charlotte Adair. Since her sophomore year, she has made sure the school’s theater productions run without a hitch. Similarly, she helps keep the Thespian program running smoothly, sending out information about all shows, socials and the improv troupe, PNG.

Adair has been involved in stage management since her freshman year, starting off as an assistant stage manager and eventually becoming head stage manager her sophomore year. She plans to attend the University of Texas at Austin and will major in theater and dance with a specification in stage management. 

“It’s definitely a little scary because theater is very well-known for not being a super stable path,” Adair said. “There’s only so many regional and big productions out there, but the opportunities that I hopefully will be able to receive are going to be really awesome, fingers crossed. We are very lucky at Cedar Park High School to be able to do so many shows and have a pretty good budget for most of them, but then you go and see Broadway shows and they have crazy projections and moving set pieces. The possibility of being able to help with that is something that I’m very much looking forward to.”

In her junior year, Adair won her first Heller award, a Tony Awards-style program that highlights students and staff in performing arts across over 30 schools, in the Student Achievement Stage Management category. Nominated again in her senior year, she said she didn’t expect to win the category twice and was in New York on her senior trip at the time of this year’s award ceremony.

“Since there are so many people that can be officially nominated, I was like ‘there’s no way they’re going to pick me again.’ I haven’t really changed much from what I’ve done, and there’s probably someone out there that has also done a really good job in stage management,” Adair said. “But I was sitting in my hotel room and I got a bunch of texts like ‘you’ll never guess what happened. You really should have moved your flight.’ That was really nice to hear and see. Now I have two awards in my room.” 

Adair has been involved in theater since elementary school and continued on past middle school with her older sibling. She became more involved in the technical side of theater in seventh grade and said she feels more comfortable in that position.

“I was originally thinking I was going to be like an actor, but then I realized that I really don’t like being on the stage,” Adair said. “I like being involved in theater, but you will not catch me up on that stage having to memorize things. I’m not a part of that.”

Beyond involvement in most theater productions at Cedar Park, Adair’s also involved in stage management outside of school. She participated in Summer Stock Austin with Impact Arts for two years and worked with professional stage managers in her second year. She has also gained experience at Zach North, where she first learned how to call shows.

“It was really nice to be able to see and learn from those experiences,” Adair said. “I’ve tried to take some of that and put that into my own stage management to help things go smoothly here as much as it can.”

One of her most memorable productions was “Titanic,” where the longer rehearsal schedule allowed her to get closer with other students in the show. She’s also been friends with many of her current theater friends since middle school.

“I think that [experience] really allowed me to grow,” Adair said. “I feel really close with this group of people that are currently in theater. All of the underclassmen are really nice and enjoy theater in the same way that I do. It’s just a nice thing to be able to put on a production and then also be able to joke around.”

Along with her involvement in the theater program, Adair is also a member of the National Honor Society, Mu Alpha Theta and Science National Honor Society. 

“I’ve become a lot more confident,” Adair said.  “I still am very socially awkward, but stage management has given me the tools that I need to speak in front of the entire cast and crew and have them do stuff. I’ve become a little bit more comfortable doing that. Not yelling at people, but talking with other people that I may not know. That’s definitely something that has helped me and I hope will continue to help me so I can become better.”