BOSTON THEATER COMMUNITY CELEBRATES DEB ACQUAVELLA, NAMED USITT DISTINGUISHED ACHIEVEMENT AWARD WINNER
A quietly influential force in Boston‘s performing arts scene, Deb Acquavella has been honored nationally for her decades of dedication to stage management and education. Acquavella recently received the United States Institute for Theatre Technology’s (USITT) 2025 Distinguished Achievement in Management award, recognizing her important contributions to the field and her commitment to fostering the next generation of theatre professionals.
Acquavella’s extensive production stage management credits include work on Broadway and Off-Broadway productions such as tick, tick…BOOM! and and the boys (directed by Lonny Price), Mary Zimmerman’s Metamorphoses, and John Caird and Paul Gordon’s Jane Eyre. She recently completed work on Stan Lai’s A Dream Like a Dream at MIT Theater, directed by Jay Scheib, and will production stage manage Merrimack Repertory Theatre’s Kevin Kling: Unraveled (January 21-February 8, 2026). She also collaborates with the Boston Symphony Orchestra and Boston Pops.
Beyond her professional work, Acquavella is Head of Stage and Production Management at Emerson College, where she has mentored countless aspiring stage managers. Former students consistently praise her leadership, kindness, and intuitive approach to the craft. “Deb is the unsung hero of performing arts at Emerson College,” said Carleigh Allen, currently company manager for the North American tour of Dungeons & dragons: The Twenty Sided Tavern.Ryan Kane, assistant stage manager on Broadway’s Oh, Mary!, added, “Her leadership, kindness, and intuition are unparalleled in this industry.”
Acquavella herself credits her own mentors, Nick Petron and Bob Perkins, for shaping her career and expressed a desire to “return the kindness shown to me” to her students. Embracing the beliefs of Lao Tzu,she stated,”‘To lead the people,walk behind them.’ That’s all I have wanted to do; inspire and support others in their endeavors.”
