How to Build a Career in Live Event Carpentry
In short: Live event carpentry covers theater, concerts, festivals, and corporate work, and no theater degree is required. Find the shops, production companies, and equipment vendors near you, take an entry-level job, and aim to qualify for the second one.
Carpenters build the stages, scenery, and structures behind every show, but the way in is hard to see from the outside. There is no directory of employers, hiring is spread across many companies, and job titles change from city to city.
Alex McNamara has worked through all of it. She is a Nashville-based technical director, welder, rigger, and construction educator, a Yale School of Drama graduate, and the founder of Built Pretty, where she teaches the language of the trades through construction storytelling, tool history, and job site education. She also joined the Giggs podcast a few months ago (listen to her episode).
In her Giggs Mentor Masterclass, Alex mapped out the jobs that exist, who hires for them, how unions work, and a 30-day plan for getting started. This post follows her order.
What does a carpenter do in live events?
Carpenters work anywhere a show needs something built, moved, or installed:
Theater: Broadway, regional theater, opera, and touring productions.
Concerts: stadium stages made of staging systems, scenic elements, automation, and mechanical assemblies.
Festivals: stages and vendor structures for what Alex calls a temporary city.
Corporate and themed work: product launches, trade shows, holiday windows in New York City, and permanent installations.
The skills carry across all of them.
“The ability to read drawings, build accurately, make sure something is square, solve problems, and work safely, all of that is very transferable.”
Alex started in theater. She went to college to be an actor, moved to New York with $200, a guitar, her tool bag, a suitcase, and a list of contacts, and slept on a couch until she could afford rent. She worked with IATSE Local 1 and in independent scene shops, which are two different jobs.
In a shop, you fabricate from drawings: cutting material, welding steel, assembling scenery. On stage, you handle installation, operation, and maintenance. When she loaded in Hamilton off-Broadway, the scenery needed new notches cut in the space, so “even though I was an install carpenter, I still needed to know all the tools.”
Festival work gets just as hands-on. At Aftershock in Sacramento, she spent a good part of the build tech designing a screwless, solar-powered light that attaches to K-rail water barriers. She is now trying to patent it.
Early in her New York career, she worked a music video for Lorde, around 36 hours straight on Park Avenue. She had the same skills as everyone else on the job. She showed up on time, smiled, and was there when they needed her, and that one shoot led to a stream of other work. “Good attitude will take you farther than pretty much anything, honestly.”
You also do not need a degree to start. “You don’t need a theater degree to get started. You need some grit, and you need a willing attitude.” People come in from residential construction, manufacturing, engineering, and mechanical trades.
What are the different carpentry job titles?
Searching only for “carpenter” will hide most of the openings. Alex broke down the titles you will see:
Scenic carpenter: works in a shop and builds scenery from drawings, usually from the technical director. Materials include wood, steel, aluminum, plastics, and composites.
Stage carpenter: works with scenery in the performance environment. They install, maintain, move, and operate it, and they are common in opera and repertory theater.
Production carpenter: on a touring show, coordinates the installation of scenic and staging elements and may supervise the crew at every venue.
Head carpenter: a leadership role, though the duties vary by production.
Related specialties: automation technicians, riggers, and technical directors.
Stagehand: loads in, builds, and strikes the show. You may be framing a set and still be called a stagehand.
She saw that last one at a festival load-in with Local 50 in Sacramento, where everyone working on the stage was a stagehand. The Giggs team saw the same thing at a recent Weezer load-in, where stagehands framed up a set shaped like the band’s old house.
Titles shift by region. “The words change depending on where you are in the country, which is unfortunate, but it’s something we have to deal with together.” Learn the vocabulary, then search for the work, not the label. You do not need to pick a final career path yet. You need to find your first opportunity.
Who hires live event carpenters?
Rarely the artist. A concert involves a production company managing the show, a staging vendor supplying equipment, audio and lighting companies, and a labor provider supplying local stagehands. Each one employs its own technicians. For a carpenter, “a much more realistic starting point could be the staging company supplying the equipment” than the artist’s management.
Three hiring systems are in play, and you need to know which one applies:
A scenic shop may hire you directly.
A union local may use a referral or dispatch process.
A production manager may hire freelancers based on past working relationships.
Stageline shows how many doors one job can have. Its mobile stages arrive on seven trucks and open up with hydraulics. You can work for Stageline as a trained freelancer or full-time technician, or as a local stagehand helping build it.
Start close to home. Almost every major city has theaters, venues, event production companies, and fabrication shops.
“You might drive past a warehouse every single day and have no idea that inside they’re building scenery for Broadway or a concert tour or a corporate event.”
Research the companies near you, check their websites for what they build, and look for shop carpenters, technicians, or overhire labor (extra workers brought in when a production needs help). Then reach out, share your skills, and ask how people typically get started there.
Expect the first job to be unglamorous: sweeping a shop, loading a truck, organizing hardware. “It’s not about what you do, it’s about who you meet.” The target is the next job.
“Get the names, get the numbers. Show them that you’re not an idiot, that you’re going to show up early, not just on time, early, that you’re going to have a good attitude, and that you can lift what you said you were going to lift.”
How are major tours staffed today?
Before about 2018, a production manager typically hired a lead carpenter, automation technicians, and riggers through their own network. That model still exists, but less than it used to. More equipment vendors now train and staff their own technical crews. Clair, for example, sends its own techs out with a tour.
The same shift is reaching carpentry. TAIT, which builds staging, automation, and performer-flying systems, has a strong reason to employ people who know those systems inside and out, so working on its touring shows often means working for the company. Freelance touring carpenters have not disappeared, and experienced heads still freelance for vendors. The direction of travel is clear, though.
Alex named four companies worth researching: TAIT (staging and automation), PRG (production technology for concerts, theater, and corporate events), Solotech (audio, video, lighting, and systems integration), and Clair (touring audio). Integration work, installing permanent or long-term systems in theaters, arenas, and venues, is another way in. It builds skills on professional equipment, and it can get your name in the door before a tour.
“If I were trying to break into large-scale touring today, I would absolutely investigate employment opportunities with the companies supplying the equipment.”
These companies hire carpenters, mechanics, electricians, engineers, audio technicians, automation technicians, and fabricators. “Don’t just look for a job called carpenter. Look at what a company actually does, look at the equipment they use, and ask yourself where your existing skills might fit.”
Her script for a vendor: “I’m interested in touring. I want to learn your equipment. I’m willing to start in the shop, but ultimately I’d love to go out on the road.” Fabrication, equipment prep, and hauling boxes all teach you how the gear is assembled, maintained, and kept safe, and you work next to technicians who have toured.
“Your coworkers today might be the people recommending you for jobs five years from now.”
How do unions fit in?
IATSE, the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees, represents stagehands, technicians, and craftspeople across entertainment. Alex’s main point is that no two locals work the same way. Local 1 in New York has a long Broadway history, and Local 32 in New Haven is a different operation. Local 50 in Sacramento runs an apprenticeship program. Membership requirements, referral systems, hiring practices, and jurisdiction all vary.
If you want union work, do the homework. Find your local chapter, look at its jurisdiction and the work its members do, ask how newcomers get access to jobs, and ask about training. Many locals are tight-knit.
“It is a family game. Everyone has a dad or an uncle or an aunt in the local, so you gotta mind your P’s and Q’s.”
Union membership is optional for a good career. “You don’t have to work for a union in order to be successful.” You also do not have to be a member to start researching. “No one’s a union member first. They all become a union member.”
Should you freelance or work for a company?
Alex has spent much of her career freelance, and she weighs both sides:
Freelance means you choose your projects, negotiate your rates, and work with different companies in different cities. You also run a business: finding the next job, understanding contracts, managing taxes, and planning for gaps. “You have to get very, very comfortable with uncertainty.”
Company work usually means more predictable employment, access to training and benefits, and a clearer path to advancement, with less say over where you work and travel.
A full-time job does not automatically pay more. “An experienced freelance head carpenter may command a higher rate than a company-employed technician.” Compare the whole package: benefits, travel expenses, overtime, per diem, and how consistently you work. Early on, a company job can be a great way to learn the equipment, meet people, and feel safe. “Psychological safety is big.” Neither choice is better. The question is which one supports the life you want.
Two practical answers from the Q&A. On health insurance, freelancers find a plan that works for them and pay for it monthly. On rates, wait for the client to ask rather than listing your day rate on the first application. Then negotiate. “It’s always proper etiquette to negotiate.”
Which skills expand your options?
Carpentry is a launch point for other technical work. Alex started as a scenic carpenter stapling and gluing flats, then earned her ETCP rigging certification and became a certified welder. She pointed to three specialties:
Rigging: equipment and methods for supporting and moving loads, which requires proper training.
Automation: “Anything that moves on its own that has a cue,” and someone has to install, maintain, troubleshoot, and operate it safely.
Performer flying: systems that move people through the air, with rigorous training and safety procedures.
You do not have to learn all of them, but pay attention to what interests you. Her method for getting certified was persistence. “Be the annoying kid in class. That’s how I got my welding certification. I was just super annoying until they taught me, and then I asked to take the test.” She also got her ETCP certification by asking an employer whether any budget existed for employee advancement. There was.
You do not need to know everything, but “you should understand enough about the departments around you to communicate effectively and recognize when you need a specialist.” Alex admits a long-running carpenter-versus-electrician feud left her knowing less about electrics than she should. That gap is the kind to close.
What should you ask a company before you say yes?
Once you have someone on the phone, Alex suggests four questions:
What does an entry-level position look like day to day? Shop, on site, or traveling.
What training do you offer? Especially for full-time roles, ask whether they expect you to know their equipment or teach new hires.
How do compensation and scheduling work? Ask who pays for transportation and accommodations, how per diem and overtime are handled, and whether work is guaranteed or depends on production demand.
What does career progression look like? If you want to tour, say so: “I’m really interested in learning your equipment and getting experience in the shop, but ultimately I’d love to spend some time on the road. Is that a pathway your company offers, and how do I get into it?”
That last question tells the employer you want to learn, and it tells you whether the company can support your goals.
What does life on the road really cost?
Alex was direct about this, and it may be the most useful part of the class. “When you’re traveling for work, your schedule belongs to the production. It doesn’t belong to you.” Long days, early calls, overnight load-outs, and cities you wake up in but never see.
Touring builds a global community of friends. It also changes where your closest relationships live. Your friends at home get married, have kids, and meet up on a Tuesday night for Mexican food that you miss for the fourth time. “Sometimes you come home and you realize that you feel more like a visitor than a resident.” Touring is a great career choice, as long as you are intentional about it. Alex’s check-in questions:
What do you want your life to look like in 5 years and in 10?
Is this career helping you build that life?
Are you learning skills that will matter later?
Are you making enough money to justify the time away?
Are you building a life outside work that matters to you?
She also asks people to look at those who have toured for 10, 20, or 30 years and see what they sacrificed and how they made a family work. Treat the road like college or grad school, and ask regularly whether the investment is paying off. “The goal is not to build an incredible career. The goal is to build an incredible life.”
Protect your body, too. “Your body is your livelihood. I don’t care how talented you are. If you destroy your knees or your back or your hearing, you can seriously limit your career opportunities.” Wear your PPE, learn to lift correctly, take recovery seriously, and do not treat carelessness as toughness.
What does a 30-day plan look like?
Alex closed with a plan so you can act the week after the class:
Week 1: Pick your targets. Choose two or three job titles that interest you, such as theater, touring, festivals, or scenic fabrication.
Week 2: Research employers. Find 10 companies that employ people doing that work, including local scene shops, production companies, venues, and equipment vendors. Find your local IATSE chapter and read up on its entry process.
Week 3: Get ready. Update your resume and make your existing experience fit the job. Residential carpentry becomes reading drawings, using tools, and measuring accurately. Warehouse work becomes equipment handling, logistics, and teamwork. Then start reaching out.
Week 4: Apply and follow up. Submit applications, contact companies, and keep a record of who you spoke to and what they said.
The goal is not to land your dream job in 30 days. The goal is to start moving toward it. A first conversation may not lead to a job, but six months later that person may remember you when they need someone.
Alex also passed on a line from Neil Mazzella of Hudson Scenic, one of New York’s big Broadway scenery builders: “There’s no such thing as a career. It’s all about the next gig.” Find one company, reach out to one person, and ask one question. Your career starts with a conversation, and in-person meetups are a good place to have one.
Alex was inspired by Giggs to organize her own meetup in Sacramento. Fewer than 24 hours after announcing it, more than 25 people showed up, and many drove over an hour. Find a Giggs meetup near you and bring your questions.
Key Takeaways
Live event carpentry spans theater, concerts, festivals, corporate events, and themed entertainment, and the skills transfer between all of them.
You do not need a theater degree. Grit, a willing attitude, and showing up early get you further.
Learn the job titles (scenic carpenter, stage carpenter, production carpenter, head carpenter, stagehand, and related specialties), because they vary by region.
The artist rarely hires carpenters. Staging vendors, production companies, scenic shops, and labor providers do.
To break into large-scale touring, research the companies that supply the equipment, such as TAIT, PRG, Solotech, and Clair, and tell them you want to tour.
Your first job will probably be unglamorous. The goal is to qualify for the second one, so collect names and numbers and make your reputation.
IATSE locals differ widely, so research your local chapter’s entry process, and know that you can build a strong career with or without a union.
Compare freelance and company work on the full package, including benefits, per diem, overtime, and how consistently you work.
Add skills such as rigging, welding, and automation, and ask your employer about training budgets.
Check in with yourself regularly on whether the road is taking you where you want to go, and protect your body along the way.
About the Guest
Alex McNamara is a Nashville-based technical director, welder, rigger, and construction educator. A Yale School of Drama graduate, she has worked across Broadway, large-scale music festivals, and live entertainment builds around the world. She is the founder of Built Pretty, where she teaches the language of the trades through construction storytelling, tool history, and job site education.
Looking for your first or next gig in live events? Browse jobs and connect with crews and employers at giggs.live.
