Today we’d like to introduce you to Katie Pelkey.
Hi Katie, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
I was originally born and raised in Appleton, Wisconsin. I became interested in Theatre after I participated in a summer school program called Summer Shakespeare Theatre just before my freshman year of high school. Against all odds, I applied and was accepted at prestigious New York University (NYU). My family all thought I’d move to New York and be home within the first six months, but in actuality I LOVED New York and never moved back to the Midwest. At NYU, I was the Stage Manager for most of the Educational Theatre’s productions, personal Assistant to the founder of the program, office assistant, and served as the Series Stage Manager for a Theatre for Young Audiences (TYA) script development series in the summer called New Plays for Young Audiences. I held that position until 2015 and returned each June to live in New York for the month. I graduated with a degree that would allow me to teach K-12 Theatre, I ultimately chose not to take all of the certification exams when I had made the decision to not stay in New York.
I moved to Georgia in 2008 after graduating from NYU with a B.S. in Educational Theatre and. a Minor in Dramatic Literature. I moved here to be with my boyfriend (now husband). Aurora Theatre was in need of a Stage Manager for their fall production of Dracula when Co-Founder & Associate Producer Ann-Carol Pence found my profile on AtlantaPerforms.biz. I was hired to my first Aurora Theatre position as the Assistant Stage Manager. By the winter of 2009, I was promoted to the position of Resident Stage Manager and held that role until 2013 when I transitioned to the role of Company Manager. As Resident Stage Manager, I was responsible for Stage Managing all 6 of Aurora’s Mainstage productions as well as the 2 TYA productions each season.
In 2013 I moved out of Stage Management at my own request as I saw a need and the transition aligned with both company and personal goals – I became the first Aurora Theatre Company Manager. Knowing that I was getting ready to move onto a new role, I created the Stage Management Apprentice program that runs in conjunction with Aurora’s Acting Apprenticeship program (AppCo). I hired our first SM AppCo, Katie Chambers, and she was on a yearlong job interview to take my place as Resident Stage Manager. I based the program around a program I had considered applying for at Juilliard before I decided to move to Georgia.
Prior to the 18-19 season, I was approached by Alan Yeong, a local costume designer, about creating a Costume Apprentice program for a graduating student he had. So we added the Costume AppCo in July 2018, and I worked closely with Alan Yeong and our Designers that season to mentor and guide our Costume Apprentice, Rachael Ottinger-Karas. The program continued in the 19-20 season, and we plan to resume that AppCo track in the 22-23 season in our newly built costume shop at the Lawrenceville Arts Center.
In 2016 I had my first son. In the spring of 2018, my husband was diagnosed with cancer. In July 2018, I found out I was pregnant with my second son and at the same time, my husband started chemotherapy. I would spend much of the fall of 2018 working remotely from chemo treatments or hospital rooms, all while keeping the treatments and my pregnancy private. I am a super private person and so I didn’t want to let what was happening at home overlap my day-to-day work life (**I am not sure if this is relevant to your article, but it was a significant part of my life and career**)
In July 2019, I became the General Manager. I had been out on maternity leave with my second child when asked to step into the role of General Manager. In August 2019, I fully assumed the role of General Manager after three weeks of rotating between shadowing our out-going General Manager and having my 3-month old in my office while carrying out the duties of Company Manager.
In June 2020, in the midst of Covid, I was promoted to the role of Managing Director and that is my current title. In October 2021, in partnership with the City of Lawrenceville, the Lawrenceville Arts Center, home of Aurora Theatre, opened to the public. I, along with several other members of the Staff, had been in meetings for the project since Fall 2017, so to finally see it open to the public was a huge moment of celebration. I choose to think of it as the beginning of the marathon though! The next three years will be a very busy time as we continue to return from Covid and take on this new chapter of operating the LAC Campus.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
The road has certainly had its bumps.
When I started with Aurora in 2008, we were in the midst of the recession. The learning curve of transitioning from educational college theatre to resident stage manager of a professional theatre at the age of 22/23 was certainly a hurdle to personally overcome.
I had my first son in 2016, and on a personal level I worked really hard to prove to myself that I could be a working professional and a mom.
As I mentioned earlier, during the 18/19 season I was dealing with my husband having cancer and having our second (and final) baby. I am extremely private and fiercely protective of my son, so I was very insistent that I kept as much of what was happening at home out of the office. I know it’s silly, but I didn’t want people to feel sorry for me and at the same time, I didn’t want to let my co-workers down by not being able to be the Katie Pelkey that everyone knew. The “KP” who helped to keep the pieces together and kept things moving. I’d like to hope that I did a pretty good job of keeping the pieces together.
Certainly navigating the Covid-19 pandemic after less than a year in the job of being General Manager was unexpected, and working closely with Ann-Carol, Anthony, and our staff to navigate the months that followed our shutdown was not always the smoothest road.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I am the Managing Director of Aurora Theatre. We went from about a $3.5 million dollar budget (pre-pandemic) to about $4.5 million. We have a full-time staff of 16 with an awesome support from our part-time Box Office Associates, actors, designers, and artistic contractors.
I am extremely proud of emerging on the other side of the pandemic. I am proud of the work that I did to secure the Shuttered Venue Operator grant for Aurora, those were a LONG couple of months waiting for the release of the application, the portal, and all of the supporting materials that went along with applying for the grant.
I found it helpful to have the background that I did in the creative aspects of theatre. I understood how the choices being made on the production side affected the bottom line when I moved into the business side of producing. It helped to identify the places where we could be a little leaner and have more fiscal control over spending on productions.
In 2014 Aurora produced Mary Poppins, we setup a makeshift Costume Shop in an office suite of one of our sponsors, Peach State Federal Credit Union. The show was designed by Sydney Roberts, and through the generous support of a $75,000.00 Angel Gift, we were able to bring on a costume shop staff to build the show in its entirety. That show really pushed me to see what is possible with a fully realized costume shop. With the guidance of several designers and an Aurora donor, I was able to create a small but functional costume shop in the basement of Aurora’s historic home, the Bobby Sikes Performing Arts Facility. As we began discussions for the Lawrenceville Arts Center, keeping the costume shop in the plans is one of the things I pushed the hardest for. That completed Thurmon Family Costume Shop was truly a labor of love. I had a lot of help and guidance along the way with the design and layout from local designers, and I am really proud of the room we built. We have brand new sewing machines and sergers, cutting and patterning tables, storage and organizational systems, a fitting room, laundry room with the ability to dye and do multiple loads of laundry at the same time, a brand-new room for costume storage, a spray booth for crafts. It’s truly spectacular!
What’s next?
Professionally I’d like to find the time to travel and meet more of my colleagues in the field. I didn’t really have the opportunity to attend conferences when I took over as GM because I was still learning and I had two kids under the age of three at home…..and then we’ve been in pandemic.
I was grateful for the Metro ATL Arts Best Practices group that Lara Smith created, it gave me an opportunity to meet fellow leaders in Atlanta and was an awesome support system to have during the past (almost) two years.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.auroratheatre.com
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AuroraTheatre/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/auroratheatre
- Other: https://twitter.com/LvilleArtsCtr
Image Credits:
Headshot: Casey G. Ford LAC Thurmon Family Costume Shop: Chris Bartelski
