We recently connected with Nikki Hyde and have shared our conversation below.

Nikki, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today We’d love to hear about a project that you’ve worked on that’s meant a lot to you.

A large portion of my career as a stage manager has been working on community-engaged projects. I am an ensemble member of Cornerstone Theater Company, which has been creating theater with communities since 1986. Additionally, I have stage managed for Houston Grand Opera’s HGOco, Los Angeles Opera’s Connects, the First People’s Fund’s 25th anniversary celebration at the Kennedy Center, and the Public Theater’s Public Work program. After starting my stage management faculty position at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts in 2022, the university produced the Public Works musical version of As You Like It, which engaged an ensemble of local community members along with student performers, designers and technicians. I felt very fortunate to advise student stage managers through that unique and rewarding production process. It was a wonderful convergence of my past and present.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

My name is Nikki Hyde and I am a theater and opera stage manager, as well as an Assistant Professor of Stage Management. My parents are musicians and teachers in West Michigan, so I grew up around the arts and was encouraged to participate in the arts in many different ways. As most children do, I pursued performance at first. I took dance and guitar lessons, I was ina children’s chorus, and I acted in plays. Once I got into high school, I started to realize my passion was not necessarily in performance but I still loved being part of the creative process.

My first stage management position was working on a children’s show during a summer. I had no idea what I was doing but I had the support of a local director who became a mentor and friend. In college, I took a stage management course at University of Southern California and I started stage managing. I pursued production internships, which led me to working for Center Theatre Group and Cornerstone Theater Company.

Cornerstone is a nationally-recognized community-engaged theater company and my time as an intern inspired a core aspect of my career: making art with community. I have been an ensemble member of Cornerstone for almost 15 years and have expanded my community-based work into special events, regional theater and opera.

I have been able to read music for as long as I can remember, so once I learned that was the only prerequisite for stage managing for opera, I pursued that genre. My opera career took off quickly after working for the Merola Opera Program in San Francisco and Opera Grand Rapids, the professional company in my hometown. I spent several seasons as part of the staging staff at Los Angeles Opera and San Diego Opera.

While I was the Production Stage Manager at San Diego Opera in 2019, I was invited to teach a course on opera stage management at University of California San Diego. I had always wanted to teach but did not plan to start that early in my career. However, that experience was so fulfilling, I took that next step. I taught for three years at California Institute of the Arts (almost half of which was online due to the Covid-19 pandemic) and have returned to UCSD almost every year as a guest faculty.

My public profile grew during the Covid-19 pandemic when I started serving on committees as part of the Stage Managers’ Association, I joined the founding board of the Stage Managers’ Association Foundation, and I became a board member of Notch Theatre Company. I contributed an essay called “Stage Managing a Beautifully Complicated History” to the book Off Headset: Stage Management Work, Life and Career in 2022. I became more aware that my identity as a Black mixed race stage manager and my atypical career trajectory was unique and important to share with up-and-coming stage managers.

Since 2022, I have taught stage management at University of North Carolina School of the Arts. The move from Los Angeles to Winston-Salem was a big one, but I have been able to maintain my west coast connections (I stage managedStew at the Pasadena Playhouse in 2023) while creating new ones all over the country (I am stage managing at Des Moines Metro Opera in the summer of 2024). I am grateful to be able to leverage my network and experiences to connect my students to the industry. Teaching is also one of the most creative endeavors I have pursued so far and I cannot imagine doing anything else right now. Is this the final destination of my career? I have no idea. But I am enjoying the ride.

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

I am inspired by stories that illuminate parts of our society that don’t often get seen: stories about parts of our history we don’t learn in school and stories about ordinary people doing extraordinary things. I have always wanted to be part of the telling of these types of stories and I have focused my career on shows that are meaningful to me, force me to grow, confront parts of my identity, and challenge my preconceived notions. If the shows I work on have that effect on me, I am sure they will have an impact on an audience.

Have you ever had to pivot?

The Covid-19 pandemic forced my entire industry to pivot, since the purpose of live performance is to bring large groups of people together to share an experience. Fortunately for me, I started teaching in 2019, so I was employed even as my freelance work dried up. The pivot I had to make during that time was how I taught my students. While I taught in person, I was able to lean on my ability to improvise and “read the room.” When we went fully remote, I could no longer rely on those interpersonal skills. I had to learn on the job how to structure interactive lessons in the virtual space, use media resources, create mechanisms for verbal and non-verbal feedback and evaluation, and simply be more intentional about how I deliver content. It was a great period of exploration, triumph and failure as a new teacher. It was during that time I discovered teaching is a true passion of mine and that was a exciting career pivot.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: hydie585
• Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/nikki-hyde-sm

Image Credits
Dillon G Artzer Katie Falkenberg/Los Angeles Times