This story was first published in Classical KC's "Take Note" newsletter. You can sign up to receive stories like this in your inbox the first Wednesday of every month.
The Kauffman Center, T-Mobile Center, and venues of all sizes across Kansas City are able to bring productions to life through a team effort that begins far before the curtain rises. The unseen work of stagehands may not be at the forefront of your mind when watching your favorite music, theater, or dance performance, but the show can’t go on without them.
In Kansas City, members of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE) Local 31 are the invisible force behind many of your favorite shows and concerts. Jacob Hobbs, the union’s business agent, first started work as a stagehand when he was eighteen years old, providing technical assistance for the 2013 Michael Buble concert at the T-Mobile Center. What started as a one-off job turned into a career full of variety, problem-solving, and creativity.
“Every day is different,” he says. “You get a new boss, a new project. If you want a new job every day, you can have a new job every day.”
More than moving equipment
The scope of responsibilities for a modern stagehand is broad. In addition to building sets and physically moving equipment, IATSE Local 31 members are skilled technicians who rig motors, hang lighting and sound systems, operate video boards and tune audio systems for stadiums and small theaters alike.
Kansas City’s Local 31 supports productions of all varieties, from Broadway series at the Music Hall and Kauffman Center to trade shows at the Overland Park Convention Center. For outdoor venues, like Starlight Theatre, inclement weather can require crew members to haul power lines from backup generators and urgently cover sensitive equipment with tarps.
Tracy Davis-Singh, Director of Production for the Lyric Opera of Kansas City, notes that crew members build sets on-site for some of the opera’s productions: “Since we build a lot of our scenery in-house, on shows like ‘Aida,’ stagehands are a part of the [creative] process right from the beginning and stay involved all the way through opening.”
A team effort
Presenting organizations in Kansas City produce a mix of locally-created shows and touring productions. Touring shows often bring in their own equipment and gear, but the talent to rig and stage a production is hired locally. The Kansas City Ballet’s Director of Production, Amy Taylor, directly supervises IATSE members when in the theater. For the KC Ballet, the relationship between their team and IATSE members is “indispensable”
“I am so fortunate that we have had longtime members of our crew. It brings a stability to the process that is invaluable,” Taylor emphasizes. “Our lighting programmer has been working with us for a little over 30 years. We have many in the group that have been consistently working with us for 10, 15-plus years.”
Davis-Singh echoes the value of stagehands’ institutional knowledge, sharing that “even generations of "families” working together helps create a sense of continuity between shows and a culture of teamwork.
Communication and trust are crucial to the process of staging performances big and small.
“When we are putting on these massive shows, it is both physically and mentally exhausting, given the many hours spent in the theatre,” Taylor shares. Even so, the shared experience and love of the work makes it worth it.
“Everyone is working toward a common goal of giving the audience a wonderful experience in the theater.”
The invisible skills
Musicians and performers hone their craft over years, putting in the hours individually and in rehearsals to make sure they are ready for opening night. The same is true of stagehands, who continually train to be on top of technical advancements.
Hobbs noted the importance of skill-sharing within IATSE. There have been crew members who have “broken out” of Kansas City to work in different markets or on a national scale.
“[They] really lead the industry, but they don’t forget where they came from,” Hobbs says emphatically.
Stagehands are also often the first ones in the building before a show opens and the last ones to leave at night.
Hobbs stresses this diligence: “The true skill is to be able to wake up every day after being up until 3:00 a.m. to be back at the stadium at 8:00 a.m. to set up that concert and let your livelihood take over your life.”
The show must go on. In Kansas City, IATSE members make sure it does.
To learn more about IATSE Local 31, visit to kansascitystagehands.com.
Additional relevant unions include IATSE's statewide Missouri Local 49, a film union based in St. Louis, and Local 810, whose wardrobe, makeup, and hair artisans work alongside stage and film crews.
