Stage Management Student Anica Acuña Honored With Prestigious Met Opera Fellowship

The Metropolitan Opera has honored Stage Management student Anica Acuña with the 2026 Met Opera Stage Manager Fellowship. The highly competitive fellowship awards Acuña with a full-time, paid position for the 2026-27 season, in which she will gain stage management experience at the highest level of repertory opera. 

"Words don’t do justice to describe what this fellowship means to me: it means so much," she said. "Professionally, this fellowship will open me up to a world I never thought possible to see myself in…To work with and learn from some of the best opera stage managers is an opportunity that I will cherish throughout my entire life."

Acuña came to Columbia with the Cody Renard Richard Scholarship, after earning a degree in Biochemistry and Drama at Vassar on a full ride through the Questbridge Program.

"Most of my undergraduate turmoil was deciding which degree to pursue further into a career. I’ve always been on or backstage but there’s also been a societal push to have a 'back up plan.'"

Former Theatre adjunct professors Terry Ganley and John Coleman, who work as Production Stage Managers at the Met, said that Anica was far and away the best candidate. Ganley is a co-creator of the Fellowship, which encourages applications from groups underrepresented in opera or the performing arts industry.

"Personally, the fellowship reminds me that all the work I’ve put in and the support my family has given me is so well worth it. It also means that I have found myself down the right path for me," Acuña said. She credits her mom, her tíos and tías, her grandma and grandpa, and her teachers as crucial support systems in her highly competitive field. "I thank Terry Ganley and John Coleman for teaching me and my amazing cohort in our second year and to all the MET Opera SMs that are entrusting me with this position.

"And, of course, I thank [Associate Professor of Professional Practice] Michael Passaro, stage management concentration head and academic advisor. He is so supportive to all of his students and has been a great influence for me," Acuña said.

In addition to her coursework at Columbia, Acuña has spent the past two summer seasons working as the assistant stage manager at the Quisisana Resort in Lovell, Maine. Her credits include Hurricane Diane (PSM and Sound Design), All in the Timing (multiple roles), The Trail to Oregon (PSM), and The Diary of Anne Frank (ASM). Originally from California, Acuña moved to South Carolina at the age of 13, but her heart has always led her to building a life and career in New York.