Meet Former Stage Management Intern - Casey Rebecca Nunes

Meet Casey Rebecca Nunes

It would be a grave understatement to say that my time with Meadow Brook Theatre as the 2009-2010 (egads) stage management intern shaped who I am as a person. Working with Terry Carpenter and Sarah Lin Warren as my mentors, along with the rest of the wonderful staff, was one of the greatest gifts I could have ever received, but it definitely wasn't a handout; I earned that gift many times over and I'll never be thankful enough for my experience there.

After I left MBT, I worked as the Senior Production Stage Manager at The Western Stage in Salinas, CA (right outside of Monterey) for two seasons. In 2011, nestled under the TWS umbrella, I was a founding member of a new theatre rep company, 2X4 BASH: theatre on the edge, whose mission was to produce works that resonated more soundly with the 18-30 theatre audience/participant demographic. It's currently gearing up for its 11th season (yay and holy moly!)

In December 2011, I moved back to the Bay Area, where I'm originally from (I followed a boy, ew) and after scraping by in the most expensive city on the country, I landed a highly coveted stage tech position at Beach Blanket Babylon, the longest running musical revue in the world (RIP after 45 years!) There I worked five different technical tracks: props (including the giant hats and wigs), stage left, spot, light op, and a little stage management.

In 2015 while working at BBB, I auditioned for MasterChef Season 6 and made the Top 100 (out of 44,000 applicants!). Sadly, I was cut right before TV but it got me thinking that maybe there was something else I could be pursuing. Theatre had always been my true love, but there was something drawing me to the kitchen. After a lot of thought, taco pop ups, and kitchen scars, in 2016 I decided to quit theatre after 27 years, move to New Orleans, and pursue cooking.

NOLA didn't quite work out for me the way I thought it would, so I ended up back in San Francisco six months later. I was hired as the Executive Chef at Media Noche, a female-owned and operated Miami style Cuban restaurant, where I built that program for its first three years. During my time at Media Noche, I was able to collaborate with chefs from all over the country and learn so much about myself as a person and chef.

Right before COVID hit, I left Media Noche to figure out my next move for a bit. COVID decided I should think about it a little longer than that. With both of my industries in ruins, I did a lot of thinking about what I needed and wanted, rather than what place (theatre, restaurant) needed me. This led me to bottling my signature sauce, Broke Bitch Sauce: an all-purpose soy vinaigrette (https://www.instagram.com/brokebitchsauce_). My dream is to do that full time, but I've got SF rent to pay, so in the meantime...

...I'm the Managing Director of Wrecking Ball Coffee Roasters in San Francisco, co-owned by TikTok creator Nick Cho (aka Your Korean Dad) and his wife Trish Rothgeb, a world renowned coffee roaster. (https://www.wreckingballcoffee.com/) Hoping this executive operations experience will lead me to being my own boss and more freedom to come visit my MBT family :)