Name: Lindsey Kaine, East Liberty
Work: Production and artistic coordinator, Attack Theatre
What do you do at work?
I work with the company dancers and artistic directors Michele de la Reza and Peter Kope, especially when we have productions, commissions, or collaborations.
Are you in rehearsals?
I normally sit in with a laptop: taking notes, noting music, working on contracts, scheduling, sending emails, whatever I can. Peter and Michele will have these great ideas, and I can pull things out of them to then communicate with designers to make things happen without having to pull them away from the process. I was a dancer through college and a little bit intuitive sometimes about what they’re doing or what they need just because I’m familiar with how they think or how it works.
Is a dance background necessary for what you do?
I don’t think it’s necessary, but it’s so helpful. There are times when I see someone going through a step and getting stuck and can look up and go, “Oh! Turn left there!” And they’re like, “Yes!” I’ll stage-manage shows, and it’s easy to go through lighting cues because one, I’m in the rehearsal process; and two, I have a dance background, and I think those things go together to gel and make it happen.
So you’re really going back and forth between creative and clerical.
They say I’m the bridge between the artistic side and the administrative side. I can see the process happening, but I can also step out if needed to share what’s going on.
Do you have a preference between the two?
I love that I’m not at my desk or at a computer 100 percent of the time; that I can get up and do things and be active without walking away from work. But there are times where it’s just, “OK, let me focus, and let me get this task done.” And that’s when I really enjoy the structure of the admin side of things. They involve slightly different brain sides, so I love that I can have both of them really going strong.
Are you ever able to just be an audience member and watch?
It’s so hard. I think the times that I can really just let it go is possibly when outside companies come because I don’t feel the connection to anything personally. I feel like I know so many people in the Pittsburgh dance community. I normally turn off the technical side of my brain, but it’s hard to turn off the personal connection.
What’s your favorite part?
Getting to stage-manage. They’re onstage, and I’m definitely behind the scenes and happy that way, but I’m still part of it, and we all did this together. It always feels like it’s not going to happen — the final dress rehearsal right before the show, you’re like, “How are we going to pull this off?” It always comes together, and it’s gonna work and it’s kind of like magic sometimes when it does. I love that there are nerves and there’s excitement before it happens and then it’s such a good payoff.
I work closely with all of our dancers and I love being a person that they can come to. Peter or Michele might be doing the hundred other things that they’re doing, and they know that they can call me. I think part of it is, they respect me, I respect them. They know that I get it, and I really appreciate being able to be that person for them.
