Skip to content

Acquavella Honored for Production Management

Woman with short grey hair, glasses, wearing a yellow top, hugs a woman with dark hair, glasses, wearing a black top
Performing Arts Senior Stage and Production Manager-in-Residence Deb Acquavella, left, and former student Ashley Rose Galligan ’12, who was in town to stage manage a workshop in Cambridge at the American Repertory Theatre. Courtesy photo

The United States Institute for Theatre Technology (USITT) will recognize Senior Stage and Production Manager-in-Residence Deb Acquavella for Distinguished Achievement in Management at its annual conference in Columbus, Ohio on March 6.

“To say I am honored and grateful for this recognition from USITT does not adequately express my feelings,” Acquavella told USITT on hearing of the award. “I am so delighted, and so humbled as well.”

Acquavella has led the Stage and Production Management program at Emerson since 2007, joining the College after years of working as a production stage manager in Broadway, off-Broadway, and regional theaters.

She began her career in New York, working at off-Broadway theaters, before joining Studio Arena in Buffalo, and Actors Theatre of Louisville (Kentucky), where she spent 15 years and cultivated a love of new plays. She credits ATL with providing her “true education as a theatre artist,” according to USITT.

She eventually moved back to New York, where she worked on Broadway shows including Jane Eyre, the Musical, the Tony Award-winning Metamorphoses, and ‘Master Harold’ … and the Boys.

She spent four seasons as Resident Stage Manager of Baltimore’s Centerstage, and since 2005, has worked with Contemporary American Theatre Festival, a summer new play festival held in Shepherdstown, West Virginia.

Acquavella told USITT: “‘To lead the people, walk behind them,’ Lao Tzu has said. That’s all I have wanted to do, inspire and support others in their endeavors. That’s how I’d like to continue on into my third act, whatever that may be.”

USITT awards achievement in all their disciplines, including scenic design, lighting design, sound design, technical direction, costume design and technology, theatre architecture, theatrical consulting, production management, stage or arts management, entertainment technology, education, or a combination of any of the above.

(Visited 113 times, 1 visits today)