With her mum a music teacher, and having spent her early years honing her craft in dance and music, Georgiane Deal’s path to a career on stage had a great foundation. The artist is a woman of many talents, and her passion for stage management may be the most interesting of all. She graduated from Excelsia with a Bachelor of Dramatic Art and has since climbed the competitive ladder of the arts, working across a range of productions in both Australia and abroad.
‘I really enjoyed my time at Excelsia,” she explains. ‘It was such a buoyant, vibrant, tight-knit community with lots of energy and empathy. I dedicated a lot of time and effort to my studies. I put my hand up for every opportunity there was to be a part of a show or event. The lecturers became my friends, my friends became my family, and the stuff we put on (and pulled off!) was brilliant and incredibly rewarding.’
Deal is a woman who exudes a very grounded, down-to-earth, honest, and brave approach to her work. She began working on very small-scale independent productions in makeshift theatres and spaces in Sydney. Much of this was for very little pay or on a profit-share basis – opting to work in hospitality and retail at the same time. Deal earned her stripes doing this for a while before being offered better contracts by generous producers who gave her a chance at bigger, longer-running, more technically advanced shows, including a few small tours.
“After a few years, I came into contact with mainstage state theatre companies and worked with some of Australia’s best theatre makers on some very cool shows for people such as Bell Shakespeare, Belvoir St and Sydney Theatre Company,‘ she explains. ‘In the last year or two I’ve moved into a commercial theatre environment, meaning big-budget, large cast and crew, and larger capacity venues.’
Deal is currently putting her deep love for the arts to good use – working as a professional stage manager for the award-winning production of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child in Melbourne. A gig Deal calls a dream come true.
‘It was a very daunting, very exhausting transition into working in this capacity, but I haven’t looked back since,’ she says. ‘I still have lots to learn and perfect on this show and that will take a while! It is a five hour play, after all.’
With a true talent for managing mainstage production, Deal has caught the attention of the theatre world. It’s fair to say that she is having a moment. When you sit down with the talented professional, you quickly learn that she isn’t afraid of hard work or real talk.
‘I’ll accept that I am in an incredibly enviable position with a very cool job title, working alongside some of the best, most talented people in this industry,” she says. “Particularly in a post-Covid world, where I’m lucky enough to be back at work in a theatre on a large-scale show, I just feel immeasurably grateful for the people that have offered me opportunities and vouched for my skills and ability to get me to this place. I also feel very humbled by the job and its demands in the sense that I’m constantly learning new things about theatre by encountering unique challenges every day.’
The future appears bright for Deal, who has several projects in the pipeline. So, what does she wish she had known before learning it the hard way?
‘I wish I had learned about balance,” she explains. “I’m still learning about balance! This means saying no to offers that your gut is saying aren’t right for you or your situation. It means choosing to make time for things and for people that make you happy but might have absolutely nothing to do with theatre or your work. I wish I’d learned not to take criticism so personally. And I wish I’d learned to laugh at my mistakes and stuff ups. It would have made the whole journey a lot less fraught! Only now am I feeling really affirmed in my ability and carefree when I make earnest, one-off errors.’
In the fickle world of theatre, it can be hard to stand out. Deal has some solid advice for aspiring stage managers who want to make sure people know they are seriously committed to making this a career.
‘See lots of theatre, get familiar with the industry, write a good CV and then apply for internships and secondments’, she advises. ‘Nothing compares to real-life rehearsal room exposure as a learning environment. Also, realise that there is no ‘model’ stage manager personality. Successful stage managers come in all different varieties. There is no better or worse approach to stage management when it comes to your natural way with people. But you do have to have a way with people – just be friendly and you will be halfway there.’
