Fossil Ridge High School senior Emily Monaldi has qualified in the Technical Individual Event Showcase for Stage Management (Tech IE) for nationals after winning the Critics’ Choice Award in Stage Management during the state competition in the fall. An extremely driven student in both her studies and theatre, Monaldi is attending nationals in June with seven other students from FRHS.

ThesCon is an annual competition in Colorado where high school students convene and compete in numerous events. This past year was the first time that Monaldi competed, although she attended her junior year to watch some of the competitions. For Tech IE at the state’s competition, Monaldi competed against 12 students and will be competing against a similar amount at nationals. “Surprisingly, the amount of attendees for nationals are less than they are at state, and Colorado is one of the top three conferences in the nation with about 4,000 attendants,” Monaldi said.

For her competition, Monaldi’s main struggle was “the binder.” Each contestant must have a professional binder called a Stage Management binder that has marked scripts of plays that they managed, copies of their schedules for the rehearsal period and show week, a costume plot (when costume changes happen in the play), scene shift information and a prop plot (where props are), among other documents. This year competitors also had to create a digital presentation for Colorado’s rules and participate in a five minute Q-and-A. “Colorado is the only state to have done it,” said Monaldi about the new digital presentation rules.

To place, competitors had to receive two “superiors” from three total judges, among other specific qualifications. “We are judged on our interpretation, execution and presentation,” Monaldi said. The three judges evaluating Monaldi each scored her with “superiors” in every category that she competed in, giving her an overall superior ranking.

At nationals Monaldi will be presenting the same Stage Management binder covering FRHS’s fall play, Metamorphoses, which she presented for ThesCon. She will compete in traditional rules with 10 minutes for an oral presentation and five minutes for questions. When asked why she went through so much work for nationals, Monaldi commented, “I wanted to do this because I love stage managing and it helped give me a drive and focus to bring my Stage Management to. It also gave me the opportunity to showcase my talents and to receive acknowledgement for the work I do.”

Monaldi has been working on her binder since the end of her sophomore year, learning from her mistakes and improving after each show. “I spent about 50 hours researching how to do a Stage Management binder and, initially, setting up how I wanted to organize mine,” she said. She also spent nearly 350 hours per show learning and experimenting on her binder until FRHS’s last show, Metamorphoses. She spent off periods and nights working on her binder, as well as the show. “In total I spent almost 500 hours on Metamorphoses [including the prep time during the summer],” she said. She spent another 50 hours or so filming and creating her digital presentation. “In the end my work filled a four-inch binder.” For nationals Monaldi and the other seven students will be traveling to Lincoln, Neb. They get to attend multiple workshops and clinics of their choosing from different industry professionals around the country and are able to see two shows per night.

Monaldi is very excited for nationals. “I am prepared but there’s always more I can do, more practice saying it, cleaning it up more, etcetera,” she explained. She believes that winning at nationals will help with her future goals and give her a very solid ground to build her future success with. She will also qualify for a few scholarships from the Educational Theatre Association (EdTA) and grants, as well as the honor of being the best Stage Manager in the nation among high school students. “[I will be able] to show in front of a few really big industry professionals,” said Monaldi about the honor of winning.

Monaldi is not managing this year’s spring musical. She has decided to step down for other students who want to learn about Stage Managing. “I knew I was going to do this for the rest of my life and that other students would probably not pursue anything in theatre after high school, and I wanted to allow them the opportunity to try something they wanted to,” she said.

Monaldi plans on graduating from Colorado State University with a degree in Stage Management and work for the Denver Performing Arts Center for a few years. She hopes to travel with Cirque Du Solei or work on a Disney cruise for a while to save for graduate school. “In the end, I want to make it big in the film industry.”