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Emma “Em” N. Barnes ’25 and Elizabeth “Liz” A. Resner ’25 first met as stage manager and assistant stage manager of the First-Year Musical in 2022. Although the two have worked in other roles in theater, stage management holds a special place in their hearts.

“It’s a role where you get to interact with all of the cast and all of the staff, so you really get to know everyone,” Resner said. “It’s fun to be at the helm of the production, and it’s a role that is always very needed.”

Since meeting, the pair has worked together primarily as co-stage managers, although sometimes assuming other roles, on shows including “The Importance of Being Earnest,” “Jekyll and Hyde,” “Spring Awakening,” “Anastasia,” “The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee,” and, this semester, “Jesus Christ Superstar” as well as “The Old Man and the Old Moon.” During 2024, Barnes and Resner also served as co-president and co-vice-president, respectively, of the Harvard-Radcliffe Dramatic Club (HRDC).

Despite both being “a little headstrong,” Resner said, Barnes and Resner managed to establish an effective work relationship — something they identify as a key component of successful stage management.

“You need to have two people who can communicate very well and who can back up each other’s decisions,” Resner said. “I always trust Em to make a decision I would agree with.”

Barnes shared the same sentiment, believing their tacit understanding and mutual trust give her and Resner “a lot of confidence” when working together.

Although Barnes and Resner’s cooperation has been relatively smooth sailing, the constraints of student theater present their own unique challenge. In contrast to professional theater, student-run shows have no previews, have fewer dress rehearsals and performances of each production, and do not compensate students — making this a true labor of love.

“It’s a feat anytime a show opens,” Barnes said. “People are students before they are actors or before they are designers, technicians, musicians, etc.”

Resner discussed how the context of student-run theater occasionally requires practicality to take precedence over the whole-hearted pursuit of creativity.

“Sometimes, certain elements of creative vision and dramaturgy do have to take a backseat for the fact that people have classes and things need to get moving,” she said.

However, the challenges of student theater and the numerous opportunities provided on campus to learn the ropes of theatrical productions are part of why Harvard theater is “so special.” Not only are students able to take on different positions in theater, but the shows themselves also provide a spectrum of experience. This becomes evident even just by looking at the most recent HRDC productions that Barnes and Resner worked on — “Jesus Christ Superstar,” which just completed its five-show run, and “The Old Man and the Old Moon,” which will be running May 1 to May 4.

“I think what they do really well in tandem is represent the diversity of arts that we have at Harvard,” Resner said.

Barnes and Resner also fully embrace the inevitable slip-ups and mishaps that occur in live theater.

“Part of what makes theater good, in my opinion, is how they can adjust and distract attention away from any mistakes that happen,” Barnes said.

Although most mistakes go unnoticed by the audience thanks to the quick thinking of students on and behind the stage, the occasional accidental flying mustache can become a humorous highlight of a performance.

Reflecting on these and more experiences of Harvard theater, Barnes and Resner remarked on the bittersweetness of each production’s “fleeting” nature.

“It feels kind of almost like a summer sunset — it can feel like a really long time when you’re putting on a show and you’re putting all this effort into it,” Resner said. “But then before you know it, the shows are done, and the stars are in the sky, and it’s time to do the whole thing again.”

The soon-to-be graduates imagine that theater will play a slightly altered role in their lives in the future. Both concentrating in Human Developmental & Regenerative Biology — with Resner also concentrating in History — Barnes and Resner figure they will have much less time to dedicate to theater. Even so, they still wish to remain involved, such as through community theater, or returning to campus to attend their friends’ shows and becoming more of a “patron of the arts.”

“Theater’s always going to be part of my life,” Resner said.

Looking ahead to the American Repertory Theater’s plans to move from Harvard Square to Allston — expected to happen in late 2026 — Barnes and Resner express their concern that the HRDC is facing “a bit of a scary time.”

Even so, the duo remains largely positive about Harvard theater’s enduring legacy continuing into the future.

“Harvard dramatics and Harvard arts have always been a part of Harvard history,” said Resner.

“One of the natural parts of a college campus is that there will always be people who want to do theater,” Barnes added.

—Staff writer Nicole L. Guo can be reached at nicole.guo@thecrimson.com.