Name: Zoë Golub-Sass
Occupation: Associate Artistic Director, Hartford Stage
Location: Hartford
Website: https://www.zoegolubsass.com/about
I love that what we do is get to study people. I think getting to work on plays and sharing them with other people, we learn about each other and ourselves in making them. Theater makes our world bigger, and it allows us to encounter a stranger. But to watch [characters] grow and change on a scale that merits a story is really exciting. That tells us, “hey, maybe we can transform too.”
I started in the middle of the pandemic, so it was a really wild time to join the staff of a theater, as we tried to figure out what we could do for our theater and what we could do for our community, as we re-emerged. Our artistic director, who has assistant directed for many years since graduating college, was looking for someone at Hartford stage just as I was [looking] for a job. I’ve had a few different positions here, going on six years.
Community cards
This is actually one of the things I’m most excited about; you give these to people that are working on shows, when they’re out at a restaurant or in a taxi or getting a haircut or at the gym. If they strike up a conversation with someone, they can share them, and it will give them free tickets. We give them to all the members of the creative team, and staff can get them as well.
We started doing this here a few years ago. You just go to the box office and get right in. It’s a way of making folks feel more a part of the community. A student that came to see the Death of a Salesman this morning will come back and see more theater, and will make theater going part of their life, and maybe even want to become an actor, a stage manager, or a playwright.
Computer
Gotta have my computer. Can’t travel anywhere without it. You never know what’s gonna come through, when you’ll have some time to read a play, [or] catch up on emails, so I gotta have my computer all the time.
Chargers
Gotta have the chargers. If I have a meeting off site, I could post up at a coffee shop, charge up, and do some work. Or if we’re on auditions in New York, making sure that I can sit in the hallway or find a conference room, and plug in to join Zoom meetings, design meetings, or catch up on anything that’s happening.
Playbill & Copy of The Cottage
I have a playbill from a new version of Tartuffe, and it had a killer cast. I got to see it in previews when we were in auditions for The Cottage, which is the play that I just directed. I have a playbill from The Cottage. I just kept a copy in my bag. I also had my larger script, so that way I can just kind of do quick references. Right now we’re starting rehearsals for our next show, Native Gardens, on Tuesday. It is a really fun comedy, something very different than the Death of a Salesman. It’s a contemporary comedy. And then we’re finishing up casting for Sweeney Todd, which will be our final show of the season. We’re gearing up for next season by getting audition notices together, so we can start hiring and building teams.
Notes & Pencils
I love to handwrite, but digital has taken over, especially during the pandemic. I’ve always got notepads and scratch pads, but then if I’m working on a project, I’ll have a separate pad. You gotta have two different sizes. You never know what you’re gonna need or what your brain is gonna need. I also take notes on sticky notes, so I usually will have them packed in my bag. These are erasable colored pencils. Erasable colored pencils are great for a script, because sometimes you want to have different sets of things going on, and the different colors kind of help you to differentiate.
Deon Vieira is a staff writer for Blue Muse Magazine.
Header image courtesy of Deon Vieira.
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