Elynmarie is a servant leader whose career spans stage management, international touring, producing, and arts leadership. She began in stage management while in college and went on to collaborate with organizations including Great Lakes Shakespeare, Brooklyn Academy of Music, Stadsteater Stockholm, Ohio and San Diego Opera Companies, Long Beach Classical Ballet, and others. Her international work led to serving as a cultural ambassador between Los Angeles and Stockholm through the Swedish Embassy, culminating in her producing a Los Angeles residency for Darling Desperados of Malmö in collaboration with Santa Monica Playhouse and Los Angeles Theatre Center.

She later transitioned into fundraising and development, leading Weathervane Playhouse through two successful capital campaigns and earning recognition from the Women’s Board of WCP in 2006.

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Most recently, Elynmarie served as Production Manager for the Human Race Theatre in Dayton, Ohio (through December 2025).

A longtime leader within USITT, she has served multiple board terms and founded the Stage Management Mentor Program, supporting hundreds of emerging professionals. She has also volunteered with the Stage Managers’ Association since 1986, serving eight years as chair, and is currently President of the Foundation for Stage Managers. Her commitment to mentorship also includes more than 20 years as a Scout Leader with Scouting America.

Her honors include USITT Fellow (2007), induction into the Order of the Arrow (2011), Outstanding Theatre Artist in Akron (2024), and membership in the National Theatre Conference (2017). She is deeply grateful to her husband, Mark, and their child for their continued support.

Bill Hare is retired from a long career in Stage and Production Management in nearly every kind of public presentation – on and off Broadway, touring,  and regional theater; New York and regional opera and dance, major and minor industrials, music  festivals, trade shows, international press  conferences, and in one case a Papal Mass. He was a founding committee chair of the SMA and in  recent years served on it’s Board. He is very pleased to be joining his esteemed colleagues in the Stage Managers’ Association Foundation.

James Latus has been stage managing professionally now for 42 years. His Broadway credits include The Collaboration, The Kite Runner, Oklahoma!, True West, Farinelli and the King, Time and the Conways, Indecent, Jitney, All The Way, A Time To Kill, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf,  Clybourne Park, The Pee-Wee Herman Show, How the Grinch Stole Christmas, Elaine Stritch At Liberty, Stones In His Pockets, Bells Are Ringing, The Capeman. He has worked Off-Broadway at The Public Theater (21 productions), Shakespeare in the Park (13 productions), Playwrights Horizons, BAM and others plus numerous regional and  international productions. He is delighted to be on the board of the SMAF.

Judy Martel has been a stage manager for around  50 years, a member of Actors’ Equity for more than 40 years, and a member of the Stage Managers' Association for nearly 40 years. She has 200+ shows to her credit in Illinois, New York, Connecticut, and, since 1985, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where she was the Production Stage Manager at Milwaukee Chamber Theatre for 34 seasons. She also worked with many of the other theaters in the state. She studied theater, math, and linguistics at Cornell University, and ended up with a B.A. in theater. She also received an MFA in stage management from the Yale School of Drama. She is an avid theatergoer, seeking out productions wherever she goes. Judy joined the SMA in 1983, and has been an active member since then. In 2020, she was honored at the National Meeting with a Lifetime Professional Membership to the SMA. Judy has served on several Equity committees, including the Stage Managers committee, and she was a delegate to the first two national conventions. She is currently the leader of the AEA Milwaukee/Madison Community. Judy is also a freelance editor. She has two daughters and a grandson.

Franklin Swann is a production manager, strategist, and former stage manager whose career spans Broadway, national tours, live events, and corporate roles. He began his career in stage management after college, working across theatre and events before transitioning into production management. As a Production Manager, Frank has overseen a wide range of projects—including, Hamilton (Broadway, North America, Disney+), CAMP at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the New Year’s Eve Times Square Ball, and work for major theme parks, film/TV companies, corporate clients and most recently, Wicked (Broadway & North America).

Today, Frank is a Production Manager for major Broadway shows, as well as being the Director of Strategy & Production at HUDSON, where he leads complex projects, drives company-wide efficiency initiatives, and oversees strategic growth efforts. He holds an MBA from UCLA Anderson, where he focused on media, entertainment, and strategy, and a BFA in Production & Design from NYU Tisch.

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Frank is passionate about stage managers as multi-talented professionals whose skills extend far beyond the traditional scope of the role. He is committed to creating pathways into the field for people from all backgrounds. Previously, Frank co-founded Until the Lights Come Up, a non-profit dedicated to supporting out-of-work theatre makers during the COVID-19 pandemic through fundraising and awareness campaigns.

Patreshettarlini Adams (she, her) ‘Pat’ is proud to be the resident Stage Manager at the Wilma Theater. She has been with the organization since the theater opened its new home on the Avenue of the Arts in 1996. She has been a member of Actor’s Equity for over 31 years. She is a 2020 recipient of the Del Hughes Award. Pat’s career encompasses work on over 100 productions, including the
Crossroads Theatre Company; Freedom Theatre; New Victory Theater; Ford’s Theater; The National Black Theater Festival and The National Black Arts Festival; the Standard Bank National Arts Festival,
Grahamstown, South Africa. She has also traveled with acclaimed dance company, Noche Flamenca! Thanks be to God!

Robert Sutherland-Cohen has been Production Stage Manager for: Broadway, Off-Broadway, regional productions, New York City Opera, Lincoln Center Festivals, and Entertainment Operations Manager - the Tropicana. For the SMA he was a founding member and frequent chairperson. Robert was instrumental in forming and mentoring USITT’s Stage Management Mentoring Project. He retired as Associate Professor (emeritus) Brooklyn College, Department of Theater. His books include: Tesla for Beginners & Introduction to Production:
Creating Theatre Onstage, Backstage & Offstage. He was been twice nominated by the Jazz Journalists Association for Career Excellence in Photography (2020 & 2022 ). He received the SMA Founders Award (2020).

A 38-year career includes shows on Broadway: Fosse, The Best Man, and Holiday. National Tours: Fosse, ....Spelling Bee, Will Rogers Follies with Larry Gatlin, and Off-Broadway: Head of Passes with Phylicia Rashad (The Public Theater), Julie Taymor’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream (TFANA), MCC Theater, Vineyard Theatre, Signature Theatre, Shakespeare in the Park, Roundabout Theatre Company, Playwrights Horizons, Second Stage Theater, Minetta Lane Theatre, NYTW, NYSAF. mShe has worked on over 60 productions in Regional Theater at: The Guthrie, Children's Theater Company, Ford’s Theatre, Ordway, Hartford Stage, Long Wharf Theatre, McCarter Theatre Center, Alley Theatre, Trinity Rep, KCRep and Papermill Playhouse. She worked in OPERA at: MN Opera, Indianapolis Opera, Opera Memphis, and 2 seasons with New York City Opera as well as many events. She received her B.A. and B.S. from Bemidji State University. 

Bob hails from Flint Michigan. He is a graduate of Central Michigan University and The University of Michigan. He served in Thailand with the U.S. Army. He taught high school English, Journalism and  Theater in New York and Bangkok. Among his credits as a Stage Manager and Administrator
are: RSC Nicholas Nickleby, Peter Brook’s The Cherry Orchard. Broadway: Time Stands Still, Bent, I Love My Wife, Dancing At Lughnasa, Nick & Nora, Awake and Sing!, American Buffalo, Desire Under The Elms, The Coast of Utopia, Stick Fly, The Trip To Bountiful and The Lyons. Tours: La Cage Aux
Folles, Grey Gardens, Sugar Babies, Evita, My Fat Friend, Grease, Shenandoah, Guys and Dolls. OB: Los Otros, Incident At Vichy, Inner Voices, Curse Of The Starving Class, Young Man From Atlanta. Bay Street Theatre, Berkshire Theatre. Tony Nominated Managing Director The Rose Tattoo, Assoc Artistic Director National Music Theater Conference. General Manager BAM. Vice-President Stage Operations Radio City Music Hall.

Sam Caughron grew up outside Chicago and in Las Vegas. While in Vegas she fell in love with theater through her high school theater clubs and the ever-growing Las Vegas community theater scene. She went to college at the University of South Dakota and from there did small summer tours and summer stocks. After college she moved to New York with her best friends, and the “South Dakota Mafia” kept her busy with projects at various small companies until she landed her first job with Spiegelworld for their first Broadway-adjacent show. That show led to a brief contract with Cirque du Soleil in Australia and then quickly back to Spiegelworld for their first Australian tour. After 18 months touring Australia she returned to Vegas for another Spiegelworld creation, followed by the creation of Steve Wynn’s ShowStoppers, created by Steve Wynn and Phil McKinley. After that rewarding experience, she joined her partner on a European tour with Cirque du Soleil. In 2017 she joined Le Rêve (“The Dream”), which was home until it shuttered in 2020 due to the pandemic. During her tenure at Le Rêve, she helped launch their first community outreach project and their first benefit show. Post-pandemic led to two dream jobs: deck manager with the Usher Residency, working with 90+ special guests, and show caller for Gwen Stefani for her post-pandemic make-up shows.

Since the closing of the Usher Residency, Sam has been working for productions like RuPaul’s Drag Race Live, Piff the Magic Dragon, and Wayne Newton, and doing technical management and labor coordination, as well as living her best mom life in whatever moments are left in the day. The best gig is always the gig where her daughter gets to experience the joy that brings us all together in this crazy business. Sam’s been lucky enough to immerse herself in a world of like-minded people who want to bring up the next generation.

Stacy Blackburn holds an MFA in Stage Management from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee’s Professional Theatre Training Program.  A proud member of Actors’ Equity Association for 27 years, Stacy is currently the Production Manager/Assistant Professor of Production and Stage Management at Virginia Tech.  Previous to joining VT, Stacy was the Academic Production Manager/Head of the BFA SM program at Lindenwood University in St. Charles, MO.  Stacy was also the PSM for STAGES St. Louis for 6 years.  Stacy has worked and continues to work for many theatres throughout the country, including Merry-Go-Round Playhouse (now The Rev), Florida Studio Theatre, Surflight, and the Sharon Playhouse.  Stacy serves as the chair of the financial oversight committee for the SMA.

Ira Mont started life acting but stage managed professionally for nearly 40 years. More
than 20 Broadway credits include Jagged Little Pill, Mike Birbiglia’s The New One, the revival of CATS, Rodgers+Hammerstein’s Cinderella, Ghost the Musical, the revivals of Arcadia, La Bête, A Little Night Music, and The Norman Conquests, Young Frankenstein, The Producers, Smokey Joe's Cafe, the revival of The Sound of Music, and Love! Valour! Compassion! Ira stage managed tours of M. Butterfly, Catskills on Broadway, Fame - The Musical, MOMIX Dance Company, and The Boys Choir of Harlem and was Production Supervisor of the Jagged Little Pill tour. Off – Broadway credits    include Full Gallop, I Do! I Do!, shows at Manhattan Theater Club, Playwrights Horizons, Vineyard Theatre and NYCC Encores!. He stage managed concerts for MasterVoices at the Rose Theatre/Jazz at Lincoln Center and Carnegie Hall. Around the country, Ira did Jagged Little Pill at A.R.T. and First Wives Club at the Oriental Theatre in Chicago. He worked at the Pittsburgh Public Theatre, the Cambridge Theatre Company, Theater Factory St. Louis and the Westport, Cape & Ogunquit Playhouses.

He directed Full Gallop at the Philadelphia Theatre Company. He was the Production Consultant for The Sound of Music and Jagged Little Pill in Australia, and for Masquerade off-Broadway. He was Production Supervisor for MCC Theatre for seven years. Now retired from doing shows, he still does events like The Drama Desk Awards and the American Theatre Wing Gala, and he covers for a friend doing Mandy Patinkin’s concerts.
 

Ira is a past Chair of the Stage Managers' Association. He has lectured at Yale, Rutgers
and Juilliard and was an Adjunct Assistant Professor in the stage management MFA program at Columbia University for 15 years.

He joined Actors’ Equity Association in 1987 and has been a Councilor since 1996. He became 3rd Vice President (the Stage Manager VP) in 2003, holding that office until 2022. Ira chaired various AEA committees including Production Contract (10 negotiations; five as a chair), Stage Managers, Constitutional Review and Public Policy (which he co-founded). Ira represented Equity at the AFL-CIO, the Department of Professional Employees, the International Federation of Actors and the Coalition of Broadway Unions and Guilds. He is a director of the Equity Holding Corporation and is Secretary of the Actors’ Equity Foundation. He is a Vice President of Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS (where he is Chair of the National Grants Committee) and is on the Human Services Committee at the Entertainment Community Fund. He is a Trustee of the Equity-League Benefit Funds and the AEA Staff Pension Plan.
 

Ira is a 63-year old native of Brooklyn, NY where he still lives with his wife of 35 years, Jill Cordle (also a retired Broadway stage manager and a Del Hughes Award recipient). He is a Trustee of the Park Slope Civic Council. They have a 29-year-old daughter and a 25-year-old son. He has appeared on HBO’s "Curb Your Enthusiasm" and in the
feature film "The Producers - the new Mel Brooks movie musical."