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Emma Barbaro: 2014 Stage Management graduate

Thursday, 07 August 2025

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Emma Barbaro

When Emma Barbaro was in her second year of her Stage Management degree at WAAPA, she undertook a seven-week secondment with the City of Sydney, working on the Lord Mayor’s New Year’s Eve Party.

She describes the experience as “the one that kind of caught me, it changed my whole career.”

“I had never really done a lot of events,” she explains. “At WAAPA it was more theatre, so the secondment opened up a whole new industry for me and I loved it. I loved the live element. A year later the City of Sydney hired me back. That opened the doors for everything I’ve done since, including 13 New Year's Eve events back-to-back since my intern year.”

As part of the City of Sydney’s Major Events and Festivals team, the 2014 Stage Management graduate spent seven years rising up the ranks to become an event manager, production coordinator and finally, creative services manager.

She then moved to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) as a production manager and coordinator on live events television coverage – including Sydney New Year’s Eve.

“Although I had worked on this event as part of the City of Sydney programming and production team, I didn't know much about the broadcasting side of it, but the ABC trained me. I’ve had incredible mentors who’ve given me amazing support.”

Since then, Emma has worked on a range of nationally televised events such as the Sydney Symphony Orchestra Live Gala, the ABC 90 Celebrate! concert, the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras Parade, and triple j’s One Night Stand events in Warrnambool, Victoria in 2024 and in Busselton, Western Australia in 2025.

However, it is her passion for music theatre that has given Emma some absolute career highlights, including being production manager on the ABC live broadcast of A (Very) Musical Christmas in 2024. Featuring an array of Australia’s top musical theatre artists and orchestra, the nationally televised concert was performed in front of a live audience on the set of Hamilton in Sydney’s Lyric Theatre.

Emma also got a gig on the ABC’s 2023 live broadcast of In the Room, in which journalist Leigh Sales interviewed Hamilton creator and Broadway superstar Lin-Manuel Miranda in front of 2,000 Australian fans on the Lyric Theatre stage at QPAC in Brisbane.

Emma Barbaro

Emma maintains that the fast pace of her WAAPA training and emphasis on practical experience was the ultimate preparation for event management.

“WAAPA stage and production management graduates have a real ‘can-do’ attitude, they just get in there and get things done. And that really helps in live events, because you don’t know what curveballs you're going to get on a daily basis.”

Emma also credits having a variety of productions to work on at WAAPA, from dance to drama to music theatre shows.

With over a decade of experience in large-scale event management and television/film production, Emma is now keen to try her luck in London, travelling on a two-year visa to the UK.

Yet behind it all lies her WAAPA training.

“As a stage manager, I loved being that person who’s involved in every department in some capacity,” says Emma. “You're overseeing it but you also get to be a part of it all. You get to have a little bit of knowledge on lighting or sound and working with the artists and designers and props makers.

“I think that's what I love about what I do now.  You get to see all these elements come together into one big incredible production, which I think is amazing.”

“I'm so happy I went to WAAPA. It opened so many doors for me. I know I wouldn't be where I am today without it.”

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