Biographical Note
Maxine Julie Glorsky was born on October 26, 1940, in Toms River, New Jersey. She began dance studies in New Jersey at age 11 and started to work with local theater troupes shortly thereafter. She attended Toms River High School before pursuing studies in speech therapy at New York University, from which she graduated in 1962. Prior to graduation, she began a career in stage management, starting at Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival, where she served during the summers of 1960 to 1963. During this same period she pursued dance studies at the Martha Graham studio. Glorsky began to work with lighting designer Nicola (Nick) Cernovich (b. 1929) in the early 1960s, who was a regular collaborator through the early 1980s. During the 1960s Glorsky also worked with the American Ballet Theatre and the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater. In 1970, she began her association with the Lar Lubovitch Dance Company where she continues to work as production stage manager at the time of this writing in 2019.
Glorsky co-founded and directed the Technical Assistance Group (TAG) Foundation, Ltd. in 1971. Her partners in this endeavor were Beverly Emmons and William Hammond. TAG was a non-profit service organization dedicated to assisting the dance and theatrical communities in locating rehearsal and performance spaces, identifying equipment sources, obtaining dance floors, and contracting with qualified production personnel. In addition, TAG served as producer for Dance Umbrella and the New York Dance Festival during the 1970s and early 1980s.
Most of the material in this collection derives from Glorsky’s position as stage manager for the Martha Graham Dance Company from 1976 to 1981, although her collection also incorporates a substantial group of lighting designs, cue sheets, and associated material from Jean Rosenthal (1912-1969) who was associated with the Graham company starting in 1940. Glorsky began working with Rosenthal in 1966 and continued to work with the pioneering lighting designer until her death in 1969.
During Glorsky’s tenure as stage manager for the Graham company, she worked on all of the following: 1977 season at the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre, which featured performances by Rudolph Nureyev; 1978 and 1980 seasons at the Metropolitan Opera; 1978 appearance at the Ravinia Festival; 1979 tour of Europe and the Middle East; 1981 visits to Mexico and Frankfurt, Germany; domestic tours from 1978 through 1981. This period included the premières of works such as O Thou Desire Who Art About to Sing and Shadows (1977), which opened at the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre; The Owl and the Pussycat , Ecuatorial, and Flute of Pan (1978), which opened at the Metropolitan Opera House; Frescoes (1978), which opened at the Metropolitan Museum of Art; and Acts of Light (1981), which opened at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Preforming Arts.
In addition to her work with Graham, Glorsky held stage management positions with Les Grands Ballets Canadiens, 1970-1983; Maria Benitez Teatro Flamenco, 1970-1999; Mikhail Baryshnikov’s White Oak Dance Project, 1996-2000; and Gala des Étoiles, 1986–2004, among others. Glorsky also served as stage manager for The Juilliard School at New York’s Lincoln Center from 2003-2012. Materials from the school’s 2003, 2004, and 2008 productions of Graham’s Appalachian Spring during that period are also included in this collection.
Glorsky’s work beyond the dance community included positions with the Dallas Civic Opera, Kansas City Opera, and the American National Opera Company under the direction of Sarah Caldwell. In the realm of musical theater, she assisted Tom Shelton on Peter Pan , Bob Fosse on Chicago and Pippin , Michael Bennett with Seesaw , Mike Nichols with Apple Tree , and stage managed a revival of Showboat for the New York State Theatre.
On September 17, 2018, the Stage Managers’ Association presented Glorsky with its Del Hughes Award, recognizing her lifetime achievement as demonstrating the "finest qualities of stage management: patience, diplomacy, organization, and a sense of humor." Choreographer Lar Lubovitch observed the following about his longtime production stage manager: "Stage managers are the unheralded heroes of theater. They hold more things in their heads at once than any ten people put together. They are masters of logic; psychologists by nature; mommies and daddies when necessary; and stoics at a time of crisis. They are the antidote to chaos. The best of them have the rare ability to extinguish the flames of hysteria that frequently rise in the unstable characters known as 'artists' who rely on them for things beyond the call of duty."