Steve Heinrich knows show business from all angles.
The stage manager at Wharton Center for Performing Arts has toured with rock bands and worked with artists like Kid Rock and Bob Seeger.
While he describes himself as “a little gear head, rock and roller from Detroit,” his involvement in the live entertainment business began when he helped produce folk concerts at Michigan State University.
When Heinrich was a freshman living in McDonel Hall, his resident mentor got the residents involved with production work for performances in the McDonel Kiva.
“He decided that East Lansing wasn’t served in terms of folk music and decided that the McDonel Hall Kiva was an ideal setting for a folk and blues coffee house,” Heinrich said.
Within a month the Folk and Blues Coffee House was booking artists like Bonnie Raitt, Tom Paxton and Loudon Wainwright.
“It was pretty heady stuff for a 19-, 20-year-old guy,” Heinrich said.
Before Wharton Center was built, Heinrich also worked for pop entertainment and helped put on large rock and roll acts like Bruce Springsteen, Peter Frampton and the Beach Boys at Jenison Field House, the Munn Ice Arena and the MSU Auditorium.
After touring with rock bands and finding odd jobs after graduation, Heinrich returned to MSU. In fact, he was assembling coat racks the morning of the first gala concert when Wharton Center opened in 1982.
Now Heinrich describes his job as a conductor. When the stage hands are working with lighting, costumes, rigging and flying, it’s the stage manager’s job to cue everything that happens, he said.
“They cue everybody from the conductor in the orchestra pit to the guys running spotlights up in the front of house,” Heinrich said. “They’re kind of like a conductor of the entire show and if you’ve ever had a chance to be back here and watch it, I think anybody that’s ever done that certainly goes away impressed by what it takes to actually put on a show.”
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