Elsbeth M. Collins

Assistant Professor of Theatre Practice and Director of Production

Elsbeth M. Collins received her A.B. in Art History from Princeton University in 1982 and continued her lifelong love affair with the theatre. Els began stage managing professionally in Los Angeles in 1986. She most recently stage managed the 75th Sondheim Birthday event at the Hollywood Bowl, starring, among others, Barbara Cook, Josh Groban, Angela Lansbury and Bernadette Peters. Els has had a long relationship with Center Theatre Group, beginning as a production assistant in 1986, and ultimately stage managing The Royal Family, assistant stage managing An Enemy of the People and James Joyce’s The Dead at the Ahmanson, Hughie directed by and starring Al Pacino, August Wilson’s Jitney at the Mark Taper Forum, and ART, starring Alan Alda, Victor Garber and Alfred Molina, as well as Falsettos, Conversations with My Father, Jake’s Women and A Little Night Music all at the James A. Doolittle Theatre. Els was the Production Stage Manager for over a year for The Vagina Monologues at the Canon Theatre and spent four years at the Geffen Playhouse, stage managing I Just Stopped By to See the Man, Franny’s Way, Rose and Walsh, Under the Blue Sky, Oscar and Felix, Defiled starring Peter Falk and Jason Alexander, and Uncle Vanya. She also spent three years at the Pasadena Playhouse working on ten different productions. She has been the production manager for the USC School of Theatre since January of 2005, where she takes joy from working with the next generation of theatre artists: actors, designers, stage managers and technical directors. In her current position, Els oversees 18-20 productions per academic year, assisting with hiring of production support staff and monitoring the budgets for the School of Theatre productions. She works closely with the stage management students and that is the greatest joy of all.