Having danced all his life, Kasson Marroquin ('12) suffered an ongoing joint disorder, forcing him to quit in 2007. In his freshman year at UNT, he was assigned to the crew for a dance concert.

"I vividly remember listening to the stage manager calling the show while watching from backstage and realized I could be just as intimately involved in the entire process as a stage manager as I could be as a performer," the theatre arts graduate says.

Marroquin is now stage manager for the dance company Pilobolus, based in New York and Connecticut, and is a freelance stage manager in New York City.

He stage managed numerous productions in Dallas-Fort Worth before earning his master's degree in stage management from the University of California-San Diego, and he has worked in regional and off-Broadway theatre and in the opera and music worlds.

"I love bridging communication and connection amongst collaborators," he says, "and helping to make sure that everyone has what they need within the process in order to do their best work."