Little-known theater jobs: print shop manager

Garrett Taylor didn’t plan on becoming a print shop manager — and maybe if he had been overseeing the production of greeting cards or magazines he wouldn’t have taken the job. But Taylor is the head of Bway Printing and Bway Headshots, Open Jar Studios’ headquarters for printing scores, scripts, program inserts, headshots and résumés. And that theatrical connection is what motivates him.

Growing up in Louisiana, Taylor was first dazzled by theater at around age five, when he was watching his sister in “The Pirates of Penzance.” “I was overwhelmed with the production value and staging. I remember being impressed by the atmosphere, whether or not I could comprehend what I was marveling at,” Taylor recalled. “Any time I’d see a play or movie, I would have this feeling in the back of my mind like, I want to be a part of whatever’s happening here. Ultimately, it’s a series of happy accidents that led me to where I am today.”

Taylor graduated from Louisiana State University with a B.A. in drama and started his career in his home state, where he acted in local regional theater, supervised a Baton Rouge soundstage and served as a theater projectionist (and occasional house manager). After moving to New York City, he served as executive assistant to MCC Theater’s executive director Blake West from 2019-2020. After leaving MCC, Taylor continued to pursue acting.

As a performer, Taylor had been looking for that quintessential “survival job” and discovered the opportunity with Open Jar. He joined Bway Printing in October 2023 as a part-time employee. When Bway Headshots launched in December 2023, Taylor became the full-time manager of both businesses. “What brought me to this job was a complete chance, and yet, now that I’m here, it feels like I was always supposed to be,” he said, noting that the job capitalizes on his resilience, mastery of multitasking and precision.  

Taylor manages five technicians and a delivery and shipping team of more than 10 within the shop located at midtown’s Open Jar. The studio, known for renting rehearsal space and practice rooms, acquired Bway Printing from Michael Rico Cohen in August 2022. Today, Bway Printing cuts approximately 80,000-100,000 inserts, six orders of scripts and scores (each with dozens of copies) and about 2,000 headshots each day. Here, Taylor takes Broadway News inside the printing house.

Broadway News: What does a print shop manager do? How do you define your job?
Taylor: I manage the shop and am responsible for all orders for Bway Printing and Bway Headshots. For scripts and scores, a stage manager for a production, workshop or reading will create an order via the form on the Bway Printing website and provide a PDF of what they want printed as well as a breakdown of quantity of each, etc. Typically, the production will ask to assemble the scores and script into three-ring binders with a cover featuring the name of each actor. These are what you see in many of the “first day of school” photos on Instagram. We pack up the order into boxes that can be delivered to rehearsal halls all over town. 

For some shows, we print one order of scores and scripts and that’s it. For shows in development, we might be asked to print multiple orders as it evolves. One new musical that recently opened sent their rehearsal scripts for us to print (40 to 45 copies). The next day they had rewrites and asked if we could do a reprint for them and turn it around by the end of day. And we did. In fact, we do rush orders all the time.

For program inserts, a stage manager will also submit that order. Some shows will order all of the inserts they will need for several weeks, others do their orders as needed. We might be asked to complete a rush order, deliver them to the theater on the same day in time for the programs to be stuffed. We do a lot of rush orders for inserts. “Hell’s Kitchen” recently had a rush order of 54,000 inserts. After the sheets are printed, we put the copies into our electronic cutter (which can chop through up to 500 sheets of paper at a time), and end up with many many stacks of inserts, rubberbanded together and packed into boxes for delivery.

It’s a similar process with headshots and résumés of receiving orders, printing, cutting and packaging. Throughout these different projects, we have to keep a constant eye on supplies.