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David J. McGraw has enjoyed a varied career in Arts Entrepreneurship and Stage Management. Since 2017, he has served as the Program Coordinator for the thriving Arts Administration program at Elon University. His work at Elon University as Associate Professor in the Department of Performing Arts includes serving on the department's Inclusivity Committee, developing an Advancing Equity course, and supervising of Front-of-House operations. He has also served on grant review and selection committees for Alamance Arts, ArtsGreensboro, the North Carolina Arts Council and the National Endowment for the Arts. Prior to moving to North Carolina, Mr. McGraw was the head of the stage management and arts entrepreneurship programs at the University of Iowa as well as the Executive Director of the Iowa Summer Rep. In 2008, he designed the UI Certificate in Arts Entrepreneurship.
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A proud member of Actors' Equity Association, Mr. McGraw has stage managed for Triad Stage, Chester Theatre Company, Iowa Summer Rep, Arizona Repertory Theatre, Capital Repertory Theatre, Geva Theatre Center, Oldcastle Theatre, Perishable Theatre, StageWorks on the Hudson, Vilar Performing Arts Center, White River Theatre Festival, and the Yale Repertory Theatre. He also is serving as a Director-at-Large for the Stage Managers Association (having served as a Second Vice Chair in 2007).
Mr. McGraw's research within the fields of Arts Administration and Stage Management focuses on series of industry surveys. He created the Stage Manager Survey, the largest study of stage managers in the world, in 2006 and will conduct the tenth edition of that survey in October 2025. This research, which expanded to 32 countries in 2023, earned him Special Recognition at the Del Hughes Awards for Lifetime Achievement in the Art of Stage Management. He also created the SM2030 Project, which is a longitudinal study following a group of early career stage managers who graduated from college in Spring 2020 to examine the challenges they face at the start of their careers. This research served as the basis for his article "Reblock Stage Management" in the Fall 2020 edition of Theatre Design & Technology, published by USITT. Working with Meg Friedman, he co-authored Return to the Stage, a three-part study investigating the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the Performing Arts workforce in the United States. Mr. McGraw is also the author of "The Epoch Model: An Arts Organization with an Expiration Date," which was featured in 20UNDER40: Re-inventing the Arts and Arts Education for the 21st Century. Mr. McGraw also founded SM-Sim, LLC, a business focused on developing tools for stage managers, such as the training film Standby Cue 101: An Introduction to Calling Live Performances, designed for students and early career stage managers.
Mr. McGraw was selected as one of the first stage/theatre managers to serve on the Fulbright Specialist roster. He was chosen by the South African State Theatre for their Share Your Journey, Set My Journey project in May 2019. This project investigates how the new musical FREEDOM can tour the United States as well as provides workshops on stage management, producing theatre, grant-writing, and touring theatre. He also served on the National Screening Committee for Theatre (2017-2019) and current serves as peer reviewer for professionals seeking to join the Fulbright Specialist Roster. The Fulbright Specialist Grant also allowed Mr. McGraw to partner with Ronel Jordaan of the University of Cape Town to create the South African Creative Industries Technical Staff (SACITS) Survey.
Mr. McGraw, and his former Elon colleague Dr. Wen Guo, were selected by the Strategic National Arts Alumni Project, a national arts data and research organization based at Indiana University, to serve as Research Fellows. They have published the following articles and book chapters based on this research:How Does Skill Preparation in Higher Education and its Cost Influence Alumni's Entrepreneurship Career Choice" in a peer-reviewed SNAAP Databrief"The Arts Alumni Have Spoken: The Impact of Training in Higher Education on Entrepreneurial Careers" in Entrepreneurship Education and Pedagogy journal
"Stepping Outside the Classroom: Connecting Contextual Factors of American Universities and Arts Alumni's Entrepreneurial Intentions," chapter in Innovating Institutions and Inequities in the Arts, edited by Joanna Woronkowicz and Douglas Noonan.
"Stepping Outside the Classroom: Connecting Contextual Factors of American Universities and Arts Alumni's Entrepreneurial Intentions," chapter in Innovating Institutions and Inequities in the Arts, edited by Joanna Woronkowicz and Douglas Noonan.