Patricia Gutiérrez Arriaga: Lux Aeterna.
Skene Staff
Lighting and scenic designer Patricia Gutiérrez Arriaga on theatre, spirituality, minimalism, and finding meaning through light.
Lighting and scenic designer Patricia Gutiérrez Arriaga on theatre, spirituality, minimalism, and finding meaning through light.
Jay Duckworth explores theater’s sacred origins, tracing how performance began as ritual and endures as humanity’s oldest art.
In-depth interview with director Rebecca Miller Kratzer on collaboration, intuitive process, and redefining leadership in theatre.
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Explore how meditation and mindfulness can support theatre artists with focus, presence, emotional regulation, and creative sustainability.
Ada Zhang’s path into stage management was shaped by a deep belief in the power of human connection. Early in her career, she didn’t fully grasp the significance of her role, but over time, as she immersed herself in the theatre industry, she discovered that her true strength lies in bringing people together. For Zhang, the heart of theatre is collaboration, and as a stage manager, it’s her job to ensure that all voices are heard and that creative ideas come to life seamlessly.
Her career took a defining turn during the Kinky Boots Asia Tour in 2018, when she unexpectedly stepped into a leadership role, which reinforced her confidence and taught her the importance of advocating for herself. As she continues to grow, Zhang reflects on how both her successes and challenges have influenced her leadership style. Now, she’s excited to see more women and people of color rising in stage management.
In this edition of PROFILES, we explore Ada Zhang’s journey, her evolving leadership, and the impact she hopes to have on the industry.
The spark through my journey is the connections between people. It wasn’t what inspired me when I just started, or at least I wasn’t aware of. Over the years, as I work in the theatre industry as a stage manager, I keep trying to find the essence of my job, what is the most important thing and what makes me a good stage manager. Then I find out that it is connecting people with each other. Theatre is an industry that no one can absolutely achieve anything without collaborating with the others, and it is my job to make those interactions happen, to connect the dots and bring magic ideas into life. Whenever I see the beautiful bond starts to emerge during a creative process, I’m always thrilled and excited, and that is something that keeps my spirit up.
The most exciting story always happens on the first job. I was the ASM on the Kinky Boots Asia Tour in 2018, then bumped up to be the sub PSM due to a medical emergency of the current PSM. However, the fact was that I wasn’t the first choice of upper management because I was still a student, I created the opportunity myself. I still remember that with everything happening so fast at that moment, there was a firm voice in my head — I needed to ask for an opportunity. So I did, and I got it. This memory is still so vivid in my head, as I feel like it’s a fundamental moment in my career, proving to myself that I have the instinct, courage and capability to be a leader, and that is so important for a young stage manager. Also, it taught me to always advocate for myself. Not all the opportunities come only when you are fully prepared, you got to take the chance, trust yourself and do the leap of faith. If you are a true leader, you’ll catch yourself on the other side, and grow so much from it
I think for me, as a stage manager, the challenge is always how to help create connections between different personalities, backgrounds, and mentalities, and most importantly, how to let people trust me as a leader. Every company is so different, what works in the past doesn’t mean that it’ll work in the future. And of course, as someone who’s not born into the American culture, I have to deal with language barrier, cultural difference, and all those kinds of fun things. I need to always keep my sensations open and active to find the best way to blend the people in this particular company together, and then guide the ship from there. With this being a consistent task I work on for pretty much every single project I did in the past, it has shaped me into someone who’s more open-minded, flexible and empathetic. In my opinion, a leader is never about yourself. You must always listen to your people, find what their needs are, then take it from there. You are never forcing the ship to go in a specific direction, instead, you use your tools and knowledge to guide it towards where it supposed to go.
My success and failure. Success boosts up your confidence, proves your value and keeps you moving forward, while failure makes you know more about yourself — your limitation, what you really want and sometimes even just how life works in the reality. One thing I found myself very lucky about is that I have great teachers and mentors along my way, as well as some really terrible ones (lol). I learn from those who have great work ethics, lovely attitudes and exceptional skills, and those who project their defects on others. For how those impact my own work, when I was younger, I would say that I (don’t) wanted to be like them and I would (not) act like them. However, now, I’d say that I’m taking the parts that they inspired me into what I created and kept in my own legacy, and be a better version of myself. You may see the shadow of someone I used to work with in some moments, but all in all, I am me, and I’ll always be me.
There are more and more female and people of color stage managers that get seen by the industry, and our voices have got to be expressed. I never thought that we are ever less than any of the people who have historical privileges and naturally have more right of speech. While changes take time to happen, I’m glad to see some new scenes emerge in this industry that has it’s history and traditions.
While life doesn’t always go as how we wish, it shouldn’t stop us from making the good. Keep going, don’t give up, and don’t stop believing.
Honestly, I just hope that people who have worked with me will say that they enjoyed their time, that’s all. And on top of that? Maybe one Asian kid who sees my name on the Playbill as a stage manager, will have more courage to pursue their theatre dream, instead of obeying their parents’ wish to be a doctor, a lawyer, or a teacher.
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