Biography

Elsbeth M. Collins is a veteran stage manager who serves at the USC School of Dramatic Arts as the head of production, a position she has held since 2008, and professor of theatre practice. She is the production manager for over 20 productions per academic year, hiring support staff and guest artists, as well as working with professional theatres with whom SDA is partnering. Prior to coming to USC, Collins worked as a professional stage manager for over 25 years.

Her credits include the acclaimed Gospel at Colonus at the Ebony Repertory Theatre; The Royal Family, An Enemy of the People and James Joyce’s The Dead at the Ahmanson Theatre; Hughie, August Wilson’s Jitney and Unfinished Stories at the Mark Taper Forum; ART, Falsettos, Conversations with My Father, Jake’s Women, A Little Night Music and The Vagina Monologues at the James A. Doolittle Theatre; I Just Stopped By to See the Man, Franny’s Way, Rose and Walsh, Under the Blue Sky, Oscar and Felix, Defiled and Uncle Vanya at the Geffen Playhouse; Bogeyman by Reza Abdoh and Latins Anonymous at the Los Angeles Theatre Center; Blame It On The Movies, After Play, Tin Pan Alley Rag, Equus, Lettice and Lovage, Camping with Henry and Tom, Breaking Legs, The Lion in Winter and On Borrowed Time at The Pasadena Playhouse; Stephen Sondheim’s 75th Birthday Celebration and Amadeus at the Hollywood Bowl; Songs for a New World and ART at the Alpine Theatre Project in Whitefish, MT; The Lion in Winter at the La Mirada Theatre; and T.S.E. and Come In Under This Red Rock with Robert Wilson in Gibellina, Sicily.

Collins has worked with such noted artists as Sir Ian McKellen, Al Pacino, Jane Alexander, Alan Alda, Bea Arthur, Victor Garber, Alfred Molina, Peter Falk, Roger Robinson, Wren T. Brown and Doug Wright. She currently relishes collaborating with the next generation of theatre artists: actors, designers, stage managers and technical directors. She received her AB in Art History from Princeton University. She is a proud member of Actors Equity Association since 1986.