“Live presentation is about human contact. We all need it. No matter how many times we iPhone ourselves to death, I believe that the best sort of entertainment is right here in the theatre.”

Ferro Productions was at the Warner Theatre in Torrington, Connecticut earlier this month conducting an interview with the theater’s Executive Director, John Bonanni. A true legend in the world of live performance and theatre, Mr. Bonanni has been a part of some of the greatest shows this world has ever seen. Prior to his arrival at the Warner Theatre he was able to cross the following items of off his professional “to do” list:

1.)Stage Manager for dozens of Broadway shows.

2.)Production Executive for over ONE THOUSAND concerts and events at Madison Square Garden.

3.)Stage Manager and then Executive Producer for the “Radio City Christmas Spectacular.”

During Ferro’s sit-down with Mr. Bonanni, our crew gained the inside scoop as to how he got started in the wild world of production and how he turned his humble beginnings into an illustrious livelihood…

It all started in New York City. A fifteen-year-old John Bonanni was in his junior year at an all boys Catholic high school in Brooklyn when he began his career on the stage. John recalls himself and a few friends attending an audition for the Gershwin musical titled “OK” and from what he can remember, the sole reason they attended was because their drama club had invited girls from the sister school down the street to come and audition for the show as well. “To be honest I really was not interested in auditioning at all once I arrived at the theatre, but one of the Franciscan Brothers asked for volunteers for stage manager. I asked him, ‘What’s a stage manager?'”

Mr. Bonanni spent the next two years learning some of the answers to that question while fulfulling stage manager duties for all of his high school’s musicals. At this point John had already fallen in love. No, he didn’t meet a nice girl from the sister school down the street, he had fallen in love with the performing arts.

“I loved the camaraderie of everything. The social structure and collaboration of working with people outside the fact of being a student. I walked outside of the student identity and now I was someone who was responsible for something. So yeah, that’s how I got started.” shares Mr. Bonanni.

Following high school graduation, John decided that his college major was going to be Theatre. Ultimately ending up at Queens College, he had the opportunity to work as the “head office boy” for Broadway Producer, David Merrick, while still attending college. This was Mr. Bonanni’s first opportunity to truly work firsthand with real stage managers and experience a professional work environment. “Every day I spent at that theatre really solidified that I wanted to do this. This isn’t glamerous stuff. I was making $20 a week, but I was loving it.”

The Goodspeed Opera House in East Haddam, Connecticut

After his stint as the “head office boy”, Mr. Merrick hired John as the 2nd assistant stage manager on a show titled “Very Good Eddy” at the Goodspeed Opera House. As Mr. Bonanni shares, the role of stage manager is one of the most crucial in the world of theatre. It is the stage manager’s responsibility to schedule and manage the whole process of putting on a show, as well as receiving and processing everyones information so that the production, as a whole, can continue to collaborate.

~Fast-forward to Radio City Music Hall~

Mr. Bonanni’s final experience as stage manager was the Christmas Spectacular at Radio City Music Hall. As one could imagine, the coordinating and production of an event such as the Christmas Spectacular is rather complex.

Whether it was calling for music or lighting cues, directing people to walk to a certain place on stage at a certain time, the bottom line is that the stage manager needs to know the entire script, down to the very last dot of the i.

Although Radio City was John Bonanni’s last experience as a stage manager, it happened to also be his first experience as an executive producer. “I didn’t understand a lot of line items we were spending and that is what led me to become an executive producer. Radio City was a HUGE budget and we had about five or six sub-budgets to go over too,and I was responsible for all of that. I was lucky enough to be highly effective at cost cutting so I ultimately decided to leave Radio City and produce two “off-off” Broadway shows.”

Radio City Music Hall: Christmas Spectacular

Currently, John is the Executive Director of the Warner Theatre, where he has been for about a year. He possesses the utmost respect for the members of his theatre because they, unlike all of the other theatre folks he ever worked with, are not professionals. Not professional in the sense of skill set, because as Mr. Bonanni shares, “they are truly top notch.” No, I mean professional in the sense that they have lives outside of these shows. Day careers. This was a very fascinating concept for John and is one of the main reasons why he decided to interview for the job at the theatre.

The Warner Theatre

From the bright lights of Broadway to a community theatre in Northern Connecticut, Mr. John Bonanni has proven not only that he is a talented man, but a passionate man as well.

“This is what I want to do. The economy has changed, situations are changing. No matter what changes, you really have to commit yourself to something in order to be successful. You need to give up a lot of things you think you want to do in order to accomplish the things you know you want to do. If you have the courage to do that than you will make it in this business.”

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