Cathy O’Neal’s first live theater experience was attending Julius Caesar at Casa Mañana on a school field trip. She later became a board member (and eventually board president) at Theatre Arlington, but it take long to realize that the real fun was not in the boardroom looking at the budget, but backstage with the theater trash. In 1995, she nervously took her place in the tech booth as a spotlight operator for Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, and has been theater trash ever since.

Cathy has worked her way through almost every theater production job and settled on two favorites, stage managing and props design. She has worked in one or both of those capacities at several area theaters. Cathy has a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of Texas at Arlington, where she has taught Media Writing, Public Relations Case Studies, Public Relations Management and Intro to Speech as an adjunct teacher.

She has been a staff writer for the The Dallas Times Herald and the arts and entertainment editor for the Arlington Star-Telegram, and still works as a freelance writer. Cathy’s day job is communications director for the Levitt Pavilion for the Performing Arts in Arlington. The only person with a cooler job is her son, Sean, who is on the national writing team of The Onion’s AV Club.

Email: cathyoneal@theaterjones.com

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