Katie Basu ’17

Roles within BareStage:
Technical Director, 3 years, Lighting Designer of 4 musicals, and various plays/BareTroupe showcases

Current Role:
Operations and Production Manager at Stereogram Films

What was your professional path after college?
It’s been a bit of a winding road! I worked in lighting design and arts management post college for a bit before transitioning to freelancing as a stage manager full time. Then I moved to Paris, France and lived there for a year, working as an au pair. I came back to the states in 2019 and worked as a freelance stage manager in Los Angeles until the pandemic, at which point I pivoted to a series of positions in admin roles at startups (Kicksnation and PensionPlus). BareStage alum Riley Bathauer started a creative agency/production company in 2022 and reached out to me with a role in mind, and I was delighted to join his team in February 2023.

What fills your time now – professionally and personally?
These days my job is pretty all-consuming: I run ad shoots, coordinate creative projects, and help Riley, Stereogram’s founder, to run the business side of things. When I’m not working on Stereogram projects, I still take occasional gigs in the theater space in both LA and the Bay Area. I’m also making concerted efforts to travel more post-pandemic, and when I’m not doing all of that, I’m trying to enjoy my time with friends (many of whom are BareStage alumni), and/or with my cat, Penelope.

How did BareStage impact your college experience? Has BareStage had an impact on your post-grad life?
The positive impact of BareStage on my personal life and career both during and after college truly cannot be overstated. Participation in BareStage transformed my career goals, resulted in countless meaningful relationships in my life, many of which endure today, and landed me more professional opportunities than my actual major did. Even now, 6 years post-grad, I have a full time job doing creative work because someone remembered me from our shared time in BareStage. The level of enthusiasm and community I remember from many BareStage projects has actually become an internal metric for me, a high bar against which I’ve often found myself measuring professional opportunities.
When I was still a student, BareStage gave me a place to try new roles and push my skills. It was my work in BareStage that gave me the confidence to move into more technical and leadership roles, and it was a story about my time on BareStage board that landed me my first-ever equity contract several months after graduation. I may not have slept much during college (largely BareStage’s fault), but I participated in one way or another in almost 20 productions/showcases in the CRH during my time at Berkeley, and the friendships I made during those projects remain at the center of my life today.

What’s your favorite BareStage memory?
I handmade a lot of neon for our production of Heathers, and I did it wrong a lot before I did it correctly. It was a ton of work with new equipment we had just installed and I had a very ambitious vision for the lighting design that I was not willing to compromise on. As a result, I found myself working very late into the night many nights in a row to get all the wiring and programming done, and one memorable night, I made a little nest of blankets under the stage right platform and simply slept under the set to resume tech in the morning. Of course, that happened to be the morning that the then-head of Student Musical Activities (and coincidentally my boss) was giving some prospects a tour, so I stayed perfectly frozen under the set while I desperately hoped that no one spotted me. Luckily, they didn’t, my boss was none the wiser, and Heathers went on to become one of my favorite shows I have ever worked on.

What advice do you have for someone entering your field?
Celebrate the small wins. Striking a balance between working in the arts and obtaining any sort of financial/quality of life stability is a constant negotiation and requires a lot of emotional stamina. So, when you get a win, no matter how small, celebrate it!
Also, theater- and the arts in general- is a fundamentally collaborative field. Knowing as much as you can about every position on the team will always work to your benefit. There tends to be a narrative that if you love the arts you should be on some sort of linear path to prove you’re dedicated to your specific talent, but I would encourage diversifying your experiences as much as possible. The well rounded candidate beats out the laser-focused one, in my experience, so embrace career detours and curiosities.

Hometown:

Pasadena, CA

Current City:

Hollywood, CA

Major:

Theater and Performance Studies

Minor:

French General Studies