COLUMBUS, Ohio — For most of the month of October, the touring production of the Broadway musical "Hamilton" has been one of the hottest tickets in town. Fans have flocked from all over the state to the Ohio Theatre for their shot at seeing one of the most beloved plays in recent memory. But, for one of the production’s crew, Columbus isn’t just another stop on the tour; it’s home.
Eric Mayer is one of the production stage managers for the show. As stage manager for a touring musical, one of Mayer’s primary responsibilities is to manage the travel, vacation, rehearsal, and sick leave schedules of the 75 people – half actors and half staff – that travel with the production.
“We work with a lot of different artists,” explains Mayer, “and everybody has their own unique challenges in life. And, being on the road, you want to make sure that they’re trying to get the best opportunity and having the best experience as possible. [It’s] managing what’s to come while still managing what’s going on every day.”
Born in Columbus, Mayer moved around with his family before returning to the capital city to attend The Ohio State University. Once at school, he wanted to be involved in some way with the university. When he discovered The Ohio State University Marching Band (OSUMB) and its student staff, Mayer knew he had found where he wanted to be.
“It really interested me because it was a way to get involved with the big Ohio State traditions like football Saturdays.”
Mayer started as one of the band’s uniform managers before becoming the head manager with the responsibility of overseeing the entire student staff.
“One of the things I was in charge of was moving the band,” Mayer says. “Little did I know at that point that what I was doing then was going to make my life later on a lot easier because of some of the challenges I experienced.”
The OSUMB has roughly 250 people that travel as part of the band – 225 marching and playing members with the remainder made up of faculty and staff. Mayer was responsible for stowing and shipping all of the uniforms, instruments, suitcases, and equipment the entire group would need every time the band traveled away from Ohio Stadium.
Originally a business major, Mayer switched to theatre after realizing that there were many opportunities to make a good career in the backstage aspects of the business. And, once he discovered the position of stage manager, he knew exactly what he wanted to do.
“I wanted to be the person who calls the shots,” he explains.
And he means that literally. In a theatrical production, every time a piece of scenery or equipment moves and every time the lights change, a stage manager is calling for the execution.
“We want everything to time out. We’re watching the conductor. We’re watching what’s happening on stage, we’re listening,” he says. “I am the one that sits with them through these rehearsals to make sure that what you see tonight is the same thing that the director set when the show opened, whether it was six months ago, ten years ago – we want to make sure that everybody is seeing exactly what the creative team wanted you to see.”
Mayer’s love for musical theatre started long before his arrival at Ohio State.
“My grandparents were really into musical theatre and had a lot of them on VHS tapes,” he says. “So, we would often watch a different musical every night that I spent with them.”
Touring since 2014, it was a thrill for Mayer to finally bring a show back to Columbus when he visited with the "Hamilton" tour in 2019. A year later, he returned to Columbus again with a tour of "Hello, Dolly!," a musical which, for Mayer, held a special place as one show he had watched on repeat with his grandparents as a child.
“That meant a whole lot for me for them to be able to see that [and] to be able to share that experience with them.”
And it’s that special connection to the stage that Mayer hopes to inspire in others through his work.
“Not everybody gets to go to Broadway,” he says. “I love just being able to bring a piece of New York, a piece of the Tonys or what you might watch on TV or the big movie musicals around the country.”