About Theatrical Intelligence…

AnnFrom the time I was 6 years old  I knew I wanted to be an actress. Performing felt like magic to me, and I’ve worked in the professional theatre since 1967. In order to get here, I…

… did every play possible while growing up

… studied drama at Carnegie-Mellon

… moved to NYC following graduation 

….built a career working on new plays.    

Somehow, it worked, and for about 20 years I played leading roles on and off Broadway and in resident theatres across the country. Then, strange as it seemed to me at the time, I began to crave something different: I wanted to work ON a production, not IN it. 

In the meantime I had fallen in love with Roger Morgan, a Tony Award-winning lighting designer and gifted theatre artist; we married in 1970. Many of Roger’s loyal clients hired him as their design consultant during the theatre-building boom of the 80’s, and before he knew it, he’d launched his own design firm. One problem: Roger has never had any interest in business, and nobody was “watching the store”… meaning the Studio wasn’t generating as much money as it was spending. So in 1992, Roger asked if I would join him in the Studio. (Me? I’d never really been able to balance my checkbook!)  So, having ZERO experience in this area I gritted my teeth, “followed my fear” as we say in the world of improvisation, and said yes.

We quickly discovered that the multiple roles that Roger hated  (communicator, negotiator, marketer) were the very ones I’d been craving, and over the next two decades I worked as President and CEO of a company I admired, with a partner I adored, alongside a staff of talented and dedicated professionals. Roger focussed on designing theatres that worked for their owners, their patrons, and the theatre professionals that worked in them, and I got my wish to work ON the project, not IN it.  

Together, we built the Studio into a profitable enterprise, and by 1998, Roger persuaded me to put my name on the door next to his: Sachs Morgan Studio. (Note the billing: ladies first, a gallant gesture by my husband, yes?)

I learned so much during those years! Studio projects ranged from rural community theatres in tiny towns to historic movie palaces in city centers to state-of-the-art concert halls in many state capitals. The cast of characters for each project shared their thoughts about what the theatre meant to them, and through the eyes of others I experienced again the “magic” I’d been drawn to as a child.            

Eventually I stepped down from the Studio, because I was compelled to write about what I’d learned. (The book is in process… please don’t give up!)  

So, welcome to the Theatrical Intelligence Blog: the culmination of living my life on and off the stage.

Skip to toolbar