SETH SKLAR-HEYN, from West Hartford, Conn., landed his first Broadway job freshman year--production assistant for The Visit, starring Angela Lansbury. After that, it was pretty much nonstop. He worked on Seussical, Josephine's Song, Thou Shalt Not, Phantom of the Opera. Weekends and breaks, he was on the train to the City, stage managing for Phantom, assisting the choreographer for The Producers. He admits, "It was a major challenge to stay in school." Now that he's in New York full time? He says, pretty convincingly, that there's nothing he likes better than to skip town on the weekend, head up to Vassar to visit friends, and spend the weekend with a book in the Vassar library.
Give me an update. What are you doing now?
I'm living in the West Village in Manhattan in a tiny, tiny, very tiny apartment--you have to turn sideways to get into the bathroom--and loving it. I recently finished a contract with Taboo, which is the Boy George musical Rosie O’Donnell produced. I was the script assistant to the author, Charles Busch. And then I landed my first contractual job as a stage manager, working on A Christmas Carol at Madison Square Garden. And now, they’re flying me to Orlando, Florida, to stage manage Phantom.
Wow. Back way up. How did you land that first gig?
I went to public high school in West Hartford, Connecticut, and we had an amazing performing arts program. So I knew I wanted to work in theater. Senior year, I did an independent study on Ragtime, which was on Broadway at the time, and I interviewed the assistant director. We became friendly, and then kept in touch. The week before Thanksgiving my freshman year, he called and asked me if I wanted to work on The Visit, starring Angela Lansbury. It meant leaving school a week early, so I had to talk to the dean, and I had to reschedule my finals.
What was your reaction when you got the call?
Oh my god--I thought I was the most famous person in the world. I thought I was a star. And you want to know what my job was? Every day, I'd go get lunch for Kander and Ebb, the composers. Someday I'm going to write a book about all the lunches I've gotten. Every day, John Kander would eat a peanut butter and jelly, with lettuce and mayonnaise, on rye bread. And he'd have a coke--no, half coke and half milk in a cup. The people in the deli across the street would just stare at me. But to walk through the stage door, and for the doorman to know that I was allowed to walk in and go up the stairs, and to stand in the wings and see everything happen--it was just awe inspiring.
And now? Are you still inspired?
I wake up every morning, and I pinch myself. But I also want more. Every day I'm at work, I think to myself, you want me to photocopy something? I wrote a thesis on Oscar Wilde's fairy tales, for God's sake! I've read Freud! I've read Jung! I'm a Vassar graduate! So stage management is a great next step for me right now, but there's no way I could settle for just being a stage manager. I still have people telling me they think I should perform. Will that happen? I have no idea. At this point, I feel that everything is a means to an end, and I think that end, ultimately, will be directing.
So...are you glad you went to Vassar? You probably could have skipped college altogether!
Are you kidding? I love Vassar! Actually, sophomore year was a really tough year. I almost dropped out. I wasn't doing too well. And it wasn't Vassar--it was me. I was chomping at the bit to get out into the real world. But then I began to broaden my horizons a bit. I took Professor Epstein's course on Religion in the Arts. I remember sitting in a dark classroom with six other students, looking at slides of paintings for three hours. How awesome is that? Your job is to sit there, and voice your opinion, and analyze these paintings. So I started seeing the light, and it wasn't on stage. I took more religion courses with Epstein, because I found him captivating, and then I took art history, and psychology, and I loved every minute of it.
What did Vassar give you that you couldn't have gotten elsewhere?
I see the world in a different light. I walk around the streets of the city, and I notice the moldings on the top of buildings. I read. I read all the time. I was an English major. I was a really half-hearted English major. But if the English Department could see me now, they'd be proud--because I started reading and now I can't stop. So--thank you, Vassar.