SPOTLIGHT: Caitlin Body

20_SPOTLIGHT

SPOTLIGHT: Caitlin Body

A DMPA internship set thestage for Caitlin Body’s future.

PHOTOGRAPHER: KEVIN SERNA

CAITLIN BODY

Des Moines Performing Arts serves as launching point for stage manager’s career.

Caitlin Body and theater have

been intertwined since she was a young child. She first performed on stage in first grade at a children’s community theater in her hometown of Osceola, Iowa, a small city about 45 miles south of Des Moines. By second grade, Body’s mother, a longtime Des Moines Performing Arts subscriber, regularly took her to shows at the Civic Center.

“I’ve always just had this love of the stage,” Body says.

Her fascination and childlike wonder with theater carried throughout her teenage years. As a junior in high school, Body reached out to DMPA. She wanted to tour the Civic Center offices and get a feel for what it takes to put on world-class performances.

But what started as a day-long tour turned into a springboard for her career. From the outset, Body felt a connection to life behind the stage, and that day in the office became an internship in the summer of 2009 before Body’s senior year of high school.

It was that experience that led Body to pursue a career in stage managing. She attended DePaul University in Chicago, studying theater arts, and came back to DMPA as a summer intern, helping organize summer education programs.

After graduation in 2013, Body stayed in the Chicago area, and joined Collaboraction Theatre Company in her first stage manager role. Body’s career continued to gain traction, and she started interviewing with bigger venues. Today, she’s been booked and interviewed to stage manage performances in various Chicago theaters, including the Goodman Theatre, Chicago Shakespeare Theater and more.

One day, she hopes to return to the Civic Center with a nationally touring show. It would only be fitting, since DMPA was so integral to her budding theater career.

“[That experience] really showed me and taught me everything that I did not know about theater, which was just how many people it takes in the offices and behind the stage to make things happen,” Body says. “My time [at DMPA] was extremely

important.” n