"It may not change theatre . . . but it will certainly help a lot more people understand it."


                      
                                                              
     Prior to his retirement, Bo Metzler was involved in some form of theatre activity for over 40 years. He spent 10 years doing theatre as a pastime in high school, college, community and regional theatre in Ohio. Six of those 10 years were spent at Kent State University as an actor, scenery builder, lighting tech, propman, stage manager, publicity director, writer and director—on over 40 shows—first as an undergraduate math major (of all things!), and then as a graduate teaching assistant working on a Master's degree in theatre.
    In 1974 he began a 32 year career in New York where, all in all, he plied his trade on over 2 dozen Off-Off Broadway and Off Broadway shows and in over 20 different Broadway theatres on over 30 Broadway shows throughout the years.
His work on Broadway has spanned the jurisdiction of 3 labor Unions anywhere from a few days (on load-ins & load-outs) to months and even years on such shows as "42nd Street," "Jekyll & Hyde," "Sweet Smell of Success," and the four of the five longest running Broadway shows: “Cats,” “Phantom of the Opera,” “Les Miserables” and "The Lion King"  (His work on Broadway as an actor, stage manager, dresser, electrician, carpenter and propman may very well be a singular professional achievement.)
     Mr. Metzler has also worked on various TV shows, most notably 5 years on Sesame Street (3 times earning Emmy Certificates for his contribution to Outstanding Lighting Direction), as well as various sporadic days on Donahue, Letterman, Today, Later, Jane Whitney, Howard Stern, Jane Pratt, Dudley, Inside Moves and Family Edition. 
    He has traveled as a company manager, road manager, stage manager, actor and scenery van driver on three tours throughout the U.S. (once even assisting with hair & make-up); supervised the wardrobe and dressed Harry Belafonte in Canada, Germany, Italy, Spain, Zimbabwe as well as in Vegas, Atlantic City and other U.S. cities; designed for a Modern Dance Company which performed in Israel, South Korea, Japan and New York; worked as a stagehand on 15 rock concerts in Omaha; stage managed or crewed Tributes & Benefits at: Lincoln Center (MET & Avery Fisher), The Waldorf Astoria and Giants and Yankee Stadiums; worked at the CBS carpentry shop, E.L.T., La Mama ETC, the Orpheum, Theatre of the Open Eye, Lion Theatre, Harold Clurman Theatre, The Public Theatre, Manhattan Theatre Club, The New Victory Theatre, The Actor's Studio, The Kennedy Center, The Spoletto Festival and Lincoln Center State Theatre and was a staff stage manager at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts on more than a dozen full productions.

       Mr. Metzler has also worked in Dinner Theatre and Children's Theatre and even helped build houses for Habitat for Humanity. He is  the author of a play about the Lincolns entitled "Abraham and Mary," which he appeared in as well as directed, and is working on a new book based on a journal chronicling his last two years on "The Lion King," titled "Behind the Lion's Roar"
       He retired after a fall and neck injury in 2006, at the age of 55, and says: "
It has been an amazing journey filled with equal parts of hard work, great experiences and exceptional rewards—not to mention all the fun! I wouldn’t change any of it. And I’d like to say to everyone that I have worked with: actors, directors, producers, musicians, designers, dressers, stagehands and ushers — thanks for the memories.”







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WHAT WE DO - Working in the Theatre
©2008, Bo Metzler
2nd Edition published June, 2021
ISBN:  
978-1-64719-498-7
258 pages - including glossary
|| softcover: 5 1/2" x 8 1/2"
$16.95

Illustrations by Rob Hamilton
all rights reserved

https://booklocker.com/11995

Contact:  bometzler@gmail.com