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[0:00] Martín Acuña: Hi, everyone. I am Martín Acuña, and you are listening to Backstage Talk.

[0:18] Martín Acuña: Hello, everyone. Welcome back to another episode of Backstage Talk. Today, my guest is Faith Maria Porter. She has a bachelor's degree in arts, entertainment, and media management from Pace University, and she has four years of experience working at over eight professional arts organizations in New York and D.C. She has also worked with a variety of Broadway and off-Broadway theater organizations and has a strong focus on strategic management. Faith, thank you so much for coming over. Welcome to the show.

[0:52] Faith Maria Porter: Thank you so much for having me. I'm so excited to be here.

[0:57] Martín Acuña: Faith, I want to start getting to know you a little bit more, so why don't you tell us about your journey in the arts? How did you start? Where did it take you? And finally, Pace.

[1:11] Faith Maria Porter: Yes, I think I have a very interesting story when it comes to company managers or theater managers, and that I think I was pretty clear on what I wanted to do pretty early on. Growing up, I performed. I was always a singer doing musical theater. That was my thing, and I thought, I'm going to go to school for musical theater. I'm going to be on Broadway on stage. That's my plan. But my senior year of high school, I was elected the performing arts prefect at my school. We didn't have typical student government, so there were leaders in each specific area of school. I was over performing arts, so I got to help plan the concerts. I started a lot of really cool initiatives at my school. At that point, I was like, oh, this is actually really interesting.

Not only do I like performing, but I kind of like gathering all of the things and creating spaces for other people to perform, which was very special for me. Then I was already looking at Pace for musical theater, for performing. Then I think Pace was the only school, at least at the time, I think in North America, that had an arts and entertainment management program. But I was like, Pace is where I want to go. I wanted to be in the city. I was like, I'm going to do this. I want to be in the action where everything is. Also, I'm not a big school person. It's never been a point of joy for me, I guess. I really liked Pace because it was very focused on getting internships and going out. Yeah, go to your classes.

The classes are great. All of my professors are great. But I think that the mentality of Pace was very much like, get what you need in class and learn, and then take it and go out. Even during school, my professors were very open to internships, things like that. While I was at Pace, I started an a cappella group there. I was president and group manager, so I got all of that experience. I did a bunch of internships. I started working with Create Her, which is a part of SheNYC, a nonprofit organization. I got to meet so many amazing women working in theater, from directors to company managers to dramaturgs, to all of that. That's what really, especially exposed me to company management and brought me to Dear Evan Hansen, the company manager of Dear Evan Hansen, Holly Sutton. She was a speaker at Create Her, so that's originally how I met her and how I got here, where I am now. That's the five-minute overview of my life.

[4:07] Martín Acuña: I love it. I love it. That's amazing. I want to double-click a little bit on the internship parts. Where did you intern? What was the biggest lesson or challenge there?

[4:13] Faith Maria Porter: I think I had 10 internships while I was at Pace.

[4:24] Martín Acuña: I know. That's a lot.

[4:26] Faith Maria Porter: It's a lot, because I always needed something outside of school to keep me motivated for school. Like I said, being in my classes, it would be hard for me to get motivated to get up out of bed, but when I had an internship and was doing other things, it really helped me remember what I was there for and what I was doing and keeping me in perspective. I interned at—let's list them all. My first internship was at Kids Creative, which is an after-school nonprofit program for kids in the city. I also interned at the Theater Center, which is an off-Broadway theater. I interned at a startup app. I interned at Moon Jelly, which is an artist management agency that's based out of Amsterdam. Moon Jelly, the Theater Center.

I interned at Six Flags America. I was the marketing research supervisor there, which was really, really cool. One summer, I interned at Tadah Youth Theater, which is a really, really great youth theater in the city that has a lot of famous people's kids go there, which is so interesting to see. I also interned at Ju Jemisin, which was amazing getting that experience. That was my first real job working at a Broadway theater company, which was really great to see. The biggest thing I learned was—or the best thing about getting internships was learning not only what you want to do, but what you don't want to do. I really thought I wanted to get into music management, being a music manager, but from interning at a company like that, I realized, oh, I'm not really crazy about that industry.

At some point in my life, maybe, but that's not really what I wanted to be right now. Then the biggest takeaway that I also learned was I got so used to the application process and interview process. By the time I got out of school and actually started interviewing for real full-time jobs, it was a breeze. It was so easy because I had been doing it in the process of applying. You found me on LinkedIn, making connections on LinkedIn and all of that. I started that while I was in college. When I graduated, I felt like I could really hit the ground running, which was great. Then I also really learned just how easy it is. If you're in the city or in any city, honestly, it's really easy to get internships if you just reach out to places, if you just look.

There are so many great small theaters or nonprofit organizations or things that are looking for people and that need people. You can get your experience there, learn so much, and then use that to get your next experience, which is something that I really focused on when I first joined and started interning. I was like, I don't really have much experience. I'm just going to apply for small theater organizations and just get to know them and start learning and building there.

[7:41] Martín Acuña: That is a wild, wild ride. I think that internships build you up with a lot of skills. As you said, it teaches you what you want to do, but also what you don't want to do. That's very important.

[7:54] Faith Maria Porter: Yeah. One thing, it also just taught me to just show up for everything because there's so many opportunities that I got through people I met at internship fairs that it might not have amounted to anything at that moment, but then when something did come up, that person would reach out to me for something, things like that. It was very, very helpful. CreateHer, I originally interned for. Now I'm a co-director at CreateHer, but I first started as an intern. That was really great because I found that through, I did a, it was just like an informational session, panel talk back at UTA. My school did the arts and entertainment program and did a talk back with UTA and one of the theater agents there I spoke to and we ended up getting coffee.

It was really, really great. He was friends with a woman who was over CreateHer and introduced me to her for an internship. I started interning there. It was my last semester of college. I met so many great women. Like I said, that's how I ended up honestly working at Dear Evan Hansen because of the connections I made through CreateHer, which I got from just showing up at this UTA information session. Really just showing up to things and putting yourself out there also will always help get internships and help you learn.

[9:36] Martín Acuña: I agree with you. Absolutely. I want to dive deep into company management. I've had on the show stage managers, show callers, producers, production managers, but I think you're the first company manager that I've had. I am really excited to know all about what do you do and what does a company manager do?

[10:01] Faith Maria Porter: A company manager essentially manages everything from when the stage stops. The stage manager manages everything that happens on stage. Everything else that happens off stage is the job of the company manager. What that really means is managing payroll, doing HR things, making sure that everything is set up for rehearsals. They're really also the liaison between the producer and the general manager and the rest of the company, the cast and everything. The company manager also has to have really great people management skills in communicating with the cast, certain things from their contracts and deals, different things like that. All of the business things that need to get done for the company, which is all of the crew, to the cast, to the musicians, to the associates and directors, all of that.

The company manager is really the one who gathers all of them, makes sure that everything they need is cared for and really does all of the logistics for all of those people and the entire show. It's really an interesting, what does a company manager do? I'm still trying to figure that out myself. I think the needs also very greatly depend on the show. Of course, whether it's on tour or on Broadway, whether it's a non-profit show or commercial theater, definitely makes a big difference, whether or not it's a long-running show or a show that's just starting to open up. Now, as we are planning on reopening, I think the job is a lot different. I'm excited to see how things also start to change once the show does open, because Dear Evan Hansen, we do not open until December 11th.

I think we are the last reopening show to open, so the last show that closed before COVID to open. I think a lot of the job will change once we start to get into the theater. It's really just managing logistics, business contracts, HR, all of that fun stuff.

[12:27] Martín Acuña: Everything, basically.

[12:29] Faith Maria Porter: Everything. Also, responding to fires as they come. Each day, oh, this person needs this, or we need to put this in the theater. Also, now, company management is also, we are also hiring a COVID safety manager. Everything needs a COVID safety manager, but the company managers are also kind of like the second COVID safety manager, or before you bring a COVID safety manager on, company managers are also the ones really having to make those processes and make sure everything's in line.

[12:59] Martín Acuña: Yeah. That is great. You mentioned the word skills with people management.

[13:08] Faith Maria Porter: Yes.

[13:08] Martín Acuña: Which other skills do you think a company manager needs to be successful in their job?

[13:14] Faith Maria Porter: Very great question. Yeah, definitely people management and patience. Patience is very, very key.

[14:24] Faith Maria Porter: And also being accommodating because the company manager, at the end of the day, is also the person who anyone in the cast or crew goes to, to complain about anything. You know, if they're having issues with someone else in the cast, or if they're having issues with their dressing room and they want, you know, this thing to get changed. If they don't feel comfortable about this, or they're leaving the stage door and they don't know if they feel comfortable getting on the subway without, you know. They go to the company manager. So you also have to be someone who is willing to listen to, I don't believe there's any stupid questions, you know, but to field all of those questions, all of the wacky things that come up. So you really have to have a cool head to be able to manage all of those things and speak to all of those different kinds of people. I love it. I love it. That is, yeah, those are strong skills that are very much needed in this industry.

[15:23] Faith Maria Porter: Yeah, and especially in the theater industry. It's so much of people, I think, regardless, even if you work in accounting, but you in theater, you still, you know, it's still so, so much different from anywhere else. So yeah. Tell us a little bit about your work with Dear Evan Hansen and Waitress, because you told me off mic that you will be starting with Dear Evan Hansen as their company manager assistant, am I right?

[15:51] Faith Maria Porter: Yeah, so I am the house seats coordinator and company management assistant. So right now what I'm doing is mostly assisting the company management team on us and general manager and the producer in any of the things that they need. And with house seats, which will be most of my job once the show opens, essentially, I'm managing all of the house seats requests for all of the cast, co-producers, creatives, the writers and everything. They all have a certain amount of house seats that they get once the show opens that they have to make requests for, the special nice seats that we save for them and all of the people who come for them at the front of the house. But a lot of that is coordinating with the ticketing team in the box office, making sure we have those seats available.

I have not started doing that part of my job at all because the show hasn't opened yet. So even as much as I'm talking about it, I don't fully know exactly what I'm gonna be doing with the specifics because of course we haven't opened. But once the show starts or we get closer to opening, that'll be most of what my job does as well as assisting the company manager and the associate company manager. So there's the company manager, the associate company manager, and there's me, the company management assistant who also helps out with that. But yeah, most of what I'll be doing will be in house seats.

[17:28] Faith Maria Porter: And I just started working for Dear Evan Hansen about a month and a half ago, maybe two months at this point. So it's still pretty fresh, which is really exciting. And I am going on tour with the Waitress, the Waitress tour. I'm leaving for that in just two days, actually. And I'll be there for just a month. I knew I had that before I came on with Dear Evan Hansen. So coming onto the job, I told them I was gonna have to leave for a month to go do Waitress. This is really exciting because I've always wanted to go on tour. That was definitely one thing that I really wanted to do. And I'm actually just gonna be working with them for their tech and for a portion of opening. So yeah, I'm just going on for that.

And there I'll be the company management PA. And again, exactly what I'm going to be doing there, we'll see. But that's the exciting part of it. From what I gathered from speaking to them, a lot of it will be just assisting the company management team on all of the things, tasks, errands that they need to get done.

[19:01] Faith Maria Porter: So yeah, and the reason why I also really like company management with Dear Evan Hansen and what I'm going to be doing at Waitress is that I like juggling a lot of things. I like having a lot of things going at once. And that, I think, is a key for a company manager, being someone who can do multiple things at once and interacts with everyone. Like the company manager interacts with every single person who has to deal with the show. Even the marketing and ad people, like I said, all of the cast and creatives to the ushers, to the dressers and the hair and makeup, everything the company manager has to deal with. And the company manager really helps manage. That's also why I really, really love it.

[19:37] Martín Acuña: And that sounds exciting. It sounds very exciting to get to know the work by doing it and not prior to starting it. That's great. That's great. And I'm excited for you. And I mean, touring must be a very crazy experience and very different experience from being in a theater, like constantly in one single place.

[20:02] Faith Maria Porter: Yes, very, very different. And that's what I want, especially after COVID, and being locked in for so long. I needed this. I was like, I need to get out, get away, meet some new people. And that's the other great thing that I love about theater and even company management specifically is it's kind of a freelance job. You work for the show specifically. So when your show closes, you go on to the next show. And I like that because you get to meet so many different great groups of people. So while I'm meeting everyone in the Dear Evan Hansen team, which is great, I love that I get to go and meet the entire Waitress team or the Waitress touring team, which is completely different. Because like I said, I'm a people person and I really thrive off of that. So that's the exciting thing.

[20:54] Martín Acuña: Yeah. And I'm happy for you to get to have that experience right after COVID. Well, right during COVID-ish.

[21:07] Martín Acuña: Faith, what would be the best piece of advice you would give to someone that wants to go into arts and entertainment management?

[21:11] Faith Maria Porter: I would say two things. Number one, create your own opportunities. The best experience that I got was the experience that I created for myself. Like if you're going into arts and entertainment management, like be a self starter. Like I said, when I was in school, I started Frequency, our acapella group. And that was such a great experience because I got to, I was really the company manager for the group, right? So we traveled and things. I coordinated all of the travel. I did all of the scheduling for the rehearsals, dealing with anyone in the group who had the issues. I was the one who they came to and talked to about that. I planned all of our concerts and events. And that was really like a micro, it was like micro company management essentially.

And any interview I have or whatever, that's always the biggest experience that I talk about because it shows my passion. And in times when it can be really hard to find a job, if you are a theater maker, you can make theater wherever you are. Even, and that's one thing we learned over COVID, with all of the TikTok musicals and things that have come up, just make something for yourself and learning growth from there, because that is where you learn what you really like to do and you learn to really, really build your skills.

[23:49] Faith Maria Porter: And then secondly, I would say, just show up and apply for everything and work in everything. If you are in stage management, I don't know. If you're in stage management and you're like, I don't know, I wanna get an internship for this semester. I can't find any good stage management ones. Do something in company management, do something in marketing, do something in like, just do something, because also one thing that I'm learning is that the industry is so small. It's so, so small. So contacts that you build or experiences that you build, even if it's in a separate area, can still be so easily transferred because everybody works so closely together. So yeah, just get started and put yourself out there.

[24:49] Martín Acuña: I love it. That is amazing advice. Thank you so much, Faith. Before we close, what are your top five favorite musical theater shows?

[24:56] Faith Maria Porter: Ooh, top five. Oh my gosh. Les Mis, number one, I love Les Mis. That show has a really special place in my heart. Les Mis, Dear Evan Hansen, and not just because they're paying me, but also because they're paying me. I love Dear Evan Hansen. Waitress, You're in Town. I love You're in Town and the music in that show. This is such a hard question. See, this is why you can't ask me. You can't ask me things like this because I'll just go on forever. I said Les Mis, Dear Evan Hansen, You're in Town. You mentioned Waitress. In the Heights, yeah, yeah. In the Heights, 100%. And I've actually never seen Waitress live, so that's why I'm also really excited to go. I've heard her soundtrack so many times and there's no reason that, it's embarrassing that I haven't seen it live.

So I'm gonna put Waitress on the list preemptively because I already know I love it. So I can sing the songs back and forth to you. So seeing it live is just gonna hit so much difference. So Waitress will be my last one.

[25:09] Martín Acuña: I love it. I love it, Faith. If people want to contact you with, yeah, like get in touch with you, where can people find you?

[25:19] Faith Maria Porter: Yes, definitely you can find me on Instagram at Faith Maria, two As, F-A-I-T-H-M-A-R-I-A-A, yes. Also follow and find me on LinkedIn at Faith Porter is my name. And you can email me at faithmporter98 at gmail.com. My email inbox is always open to reach out. I love speaking to people and helping anyone interested in working because I love my job so much and most people don't know about it. So I love telling people about it.

[26:07] Martín Acuña: Faith, thank you so much for coming over. This has been wonderful. And I cannot wait to see all of your pictures and memories from touring and then Dear Evan Hansen.

[26:18] Faith Maria Porter: Thank you so much.

[26:19] Martín Acuña: Thank you so much for having me. It was great.

[26:25] Martín Acuña: Thanks everyone for listening to this new episode of Backstage Talk. Remember to follow us on Facebook and Instagram at Backstage Talk Podcast. Thank you.