Job Title: Stage Manager
Production: Franklin’s Key
Position Dates: May 5 - June 29, 2025
Location: Philadelphia, PA
Salary: $829/week
Status: AEA
The Obie Award-winning Pig Iron Theatre Company is seeking an AEA Stage Manager for its upcoming premiere of FRANKLIN’S KEY.
About Franklin’s Key
Franklin’s Key is a family-friendly adventure that celebrates young, ingenious outsiders who must save Philadelphia from shadowy forces. In an alternate universe where Benjamin Franklin’s undiscovered technology has been hidden for centuries underneath Philadelphia’s landmarks, a mystery is unfolding. Two high school prodigies—Temple, a self-taught scientist, and her brother Arturo, a brilliant musician—find themselves caught in a struggle between secret societies dedicated to safeguarding Franklin’s most dangerous discoveries. Familiar and more esoteric pieces of Philadelphia’s history—including the Museum of Art, City Hall, the Waterworks, and the Wanamaker Organ—become a series of puzzles to be unlocked as the duo embarks on a Goonies-style journey to unravel the truth. With twists reminiscent of Stranger Things and The Da Vinci Code, FRANKLIN’S KEY is Pig Iron’s sci-fi love letter to Philadelphia.
About the Position
Stage Manager (SM) will be responsible for effectively collaborating with the Director, Designers, Writer, Movement Director, Creative Collaborators, and Production Manager. Stage Manager is responsible for scheduling the actors in rehearsal, in association with the Director. SM is responsible for keeping rehearsals running smoothly: calling breaks in consultation with the director, working with Production Manager to make sure that props and costumes, as appropriate, are available for actors, and working with the Director to make sure that rehearsal needs arrive in time for rehearsal. SM is responsible for taking detailed notes and keeping a thorough and accurate written and recorded record of rehearsals. SM will arrive early before every scheduled rehearsal. SM will be responsible for keeping rehearsal spaces clean and will organize clean-up of rehearsal space. After each scheduled rehearsal, SM will prepare a detailed report. SM will email this report to the appropriate staff within 24 hours of the end of rehearsal. SM will participate in meeting and design sessions which may be called outside of rehearsal hours. SM will prepare, in consultation with PM, a detailed schedule for technical rehearsals and will distribute the schedule to the entire production team. SM will run technical rehearsals. SM will run performances by scheduling actors and crew, facilitating pre-show prep and warm-ups, calling the show each performance, and sending out performance reports following each performance.
About the Applicant
Pig Iron is committed to maintaining an inclusive community. All collaborators must be comfortable with diverse populations. There are no specific degree requirements for this position, but applicants should be able to demonstrate expertise leading a stage management team and calling a technically complex show. Applicants should be able to demonstrate a working knowledge of theater and should be highly organized and proactive. Experience in new play development or devised movement theatre is strongly preferred. Applicants should be local to Philadelphia, PA.
Schedule
Rehearsal process: May 5 - 20, 2025
Tech: May 20 - June 1, 2025
Previews and performances: June 3 - 29, 2025
Contract includes one paid week of prep prior to May 5.
About Pig Iron
Founded in 1995 as an interdisciplinary ensemble, Pig Iron Theatre Company is dedicated to the creation of new and exuberant performance works that defy easy categorization. Pig Iron has emerged as a leader in the alternative theater movement, and the company is now a platform for unusual performances that scale up and down, from gallery to nightclub to proscenium theater—creating complete performance worlds with a shifting roster of remarkable actors, designers, and writers. Pig Iron’s work has toured to 15 countries on 4 continents, with notable stops at the Humana Festival, the Public Theater, La Jolla Playhouse, Woolly Mammoth, TR Warszawa, and the Tokyo Performing Arts Market. Notable collaborators include acclaimed playwrights Toshiki Okada and Will Eno, Emmy-award winning composer Troy Herion, celebrated designers Machine Dazzle and Macarthur Fellow Mimi Lien, and visionary filmmaker Josephine Decker. The company has won 2 OBIE Awards, the Total Theatre Award at the Edinburgh Fringe, and been nominated for over 50 Barrymore Awards here in Philadelphia, winning 10.
In 2011, Pig Iron launched a 2-year graduate program in physical and devised theater at a new home in North Philadelphia. In 2015, the company partnered with University of the Arts to offer both a Graduate Certificate and an MFA in Devised Performance. The program is on hiatus due to UArts’ collapse in June 2024, but Pig Iron plans to reopen this program in 2025 with a new academic partner, Rowan University. In addition to offering an MFA and Certificate, Pig Iron School also hosts professional workshops in physical theater and devising practices every winter and summer.
To apply, send an introductory note and resume to [email protected]
