Originally from Atlanta, GA, Vaswani spent the last 18 years working as a production stage manager and production manager in New York City. She currently serves as the director of production at Sarah Lawrence College. In her freelance career, she has worked on a wide range of shows, including Mabou Mine’s Peter and Wendy and Mine’s Song for New York by the late Ruth Maleczech. She has stage-managed the majority of Basil Twist’s repertoire, including, Arias With A Twist, Master Peter’s Puppet Show, Petrushka, Dogugaeshi, La Bella Dormente nel Bosco, and Sister’s Follies. Other credits include The Adventures of Charcoal Boy, Wind Set-up, Don Cristobal, and Wind-up Bird Chronicle, which was presented at the International Edinburgh Festival and the Singapore Arts Festival. Vaswani’s work in the theatre has brought her all over the United States, as well as overseas to France, Stockholm, Edinburgh and Singapore. Currently, she is also a member of the Alphabet Arts collective, whose focus is to continue arts education through poetry and puppetry—specifically to underprivileged communities. And when not working in a dark theatre, she is the project manager for Emdee International, a textile company where she designs, builds, and does all the visual merchandising for six annual trade shows. SLC, 2016–
Previous Courses
MFA Theatre
Internship Conference
Component—Year
For students who wish to pursue a professional internship as part of their program, all areas of producing and administration are possible: production, marketing, advertising, casting, development, etc. Students must have at least one day each week to devote to the internship. Through individual meetings, we will best determine each student’s placement to meet individual academic and artistic goals.
Faculty
Stage Management
Component—Fall and Spring
This course is a hands-on laboratory class in the skills, practices, and attitudes that help a stage manager organize an environment in which a theatrical team can work together productively and with minimum stress. Classroom exercises and discussion augment the mentored production work that is assigned to each student. Script analysis, blocking notation, prop management, and cue writing/calling are among the topics covered. Knowledge of—and practice in—stage management are essential tools for directors and useful supplements for actors and designers.
Faculty
- Greta Minsky
- Neelam Vaswani