Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Nathan McNiff. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Nathan, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today When did you first know you wanted to pursue a creative/artistic path professionally?

I started the mobile theater in response to working with non-profit theaters after college. We were doing important shows that were extremely well done but we constantly lost money due to theater rental cost. I knew I wanted to create The he Wandering Stage as a means to solve that.

Nathan, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

The wandering stage is a 20 ft mobile theater. I say theater and not staged because it comes equipped with onboard lighting, sound, and two-fold dressing rooms that have access to the stage. We wanted to be able to bring all arts outdoors including theater.

We have been able to take our mobile theater to not only major events at the MFA, BU, and Boston City Hall Plaza but also to places that don’t have brick and mortar theaters of their own and are often overlooked for outdoor artistic events.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

After 2 years of fundraising, 3 years of planning, and a year of fabrication The Wandering Stage finally launched in the fall of 2019. Almost immediately we were shut down by the pandemic. While I was lucky enough to have the support of my friends, family, and significant other I lost almost all of the momentum I had built with clients and when events finally started to return many of my contacts had moved to other jobs.

2021 and and the beginning of 2022 was a significant struggle financially. I had to work other jobs while trying to still take meetings for the theater as well as try and keep up on any grants that might be available. I’m happy to say that many contacts that I made in those years ended up paying off this year in 2024. It is amazing how sometimes I’ll call you made so many years ago comes back to pay off dividends.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

On the actual days of events seeing communities come together is absolutely the most magical part for me.. we’ve been lucky enough to be part of some great arts festivals and seeing how happy and excited people are to celebrate their community and their neighbors is such a great feeling. I do believe production value matters in this type of situation. When people show up and they see a full mobile theater with professional lighting and sound and their friends getting ready in a dressing room makes it such a huge difference in people’s outlook of the event.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.thewanderingstage.com
• Instagram: @thewanderingstage
• Facebook: @thewanderingstage
• Linkedin: @thewanderingstage