Stage Managing A Global Future

Just two years after graduation, Tamryn Liddle (Class of 2024) has taken her nascent performing arts career to the global stage. As a theater major at Pepperdine University, she has been involved in a string of productions that have strengthened her stage management skills — from Stud Terkel’s The Good War to the student-directed The Half-Life of Marie Curie. One of her most recent projects has taken her to one of the world’s biggest performing arts festivals, giving her “an exciting opportunity for learning and growing as an artist”.

Throughout August 2026, Tamryn served as a stage manager for Lifelong, a new production by British playwright Lynda Radley, at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. During its four-week rehearsal period in Glasgow, her role included scheduling, organizing and tracking technical elements, and serving as a bridge between the directing team, designers, and cast. Once the show reached the stage, she was responsible for calling the production — tracking lighting, sound, and set changes and cueing operators throughout each performance.

The opportunity combined her love of backstage work, her growing experience at Pepperdine, and the global perspective she fostered at JIS.

“One of the most exciting elements of this process has been the cross-cultural collaboration between Scottish and American theater-makers,” Tamryn explains.

“The international nature of it was wonderfully familiar to me from growing up attending various international schools.”

It was at JIS, she adds, that her perspective broadened to view theater as more than an extracurricular pursuit — it could even become a career. She still remembers her debut as a stage manager for the High School Fall musical, Into the Woods, directed by Erica Cali.

“While I was quite new to all of it, I was able to learn so much from this experience and from Mrs. Cali, who always encouraged me in my theater journey throughout all of my time at JIS,” she recalls.

Tamryn continued building her skills through IB Theater and Theater Tech II, gaining practical experience through productions and a broader understanding of the theory and technical elements behind the scenes.

She would gain further inspiration in her Senior year, after working with Technical Director Chris Donelson.

“She was a big part in both inspiring me to really see how I could pursue technical theater as a career and teaching me a lot of the logistics involved with backstage theater.”

Of all her JIS experiences, however, Tamryn points to IASAS Tech as particularly valuable preparation for Edinburgh.

“Loading in and out of the venue quickly, sharing a venue with many other performances, having a very limited tech rehearsal, and everything that comes with traveling with a show,” she elaborates. “I am so grateful for all my experiences at JIS and how they were able to help me grow as and into a theater artist.”

With two years still to go at Pepperdine, Tamryn plans to keep building her experience and connections before graduation. She expects to remain in the Los Angeles area for a while afterward, where she will already have a network and opportunities to pursue.

“With regards to what kind of work I would like to do, that’s also pretty open, as I have found that I enjoy so many different aspects of theater. I know I definitely want to stage manage, and I am open to that being plays, musicals, dance, even the circus!” she says. “I am sure that my future, as is the case with many theater people, will include a grand variety of shows and roles as I continue growing my theatrical toolbox of skills and knowledge.”