Femi Sarah Heggie

Stage manager Femi Sarah Heggie was born on March 6, 1948 to Mattie Scott and James T. Heggie in Kansas City, Kansas. Through a transitional year program, Heggie attended Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut and Sarah Lawrence College in Bronxville, New York, where she received her B.A. degree in journalism in 1971.

In 1968, Heggie worked as a journalist for the Southern Courier Newspaper, which did stories about people of color in the South, before joining the Negro Ensemble Company in 1969, writing articles about the company for the Southern Courier Newspaper, which included interviews of company members, Hattie Winston and co-founders Douglas Turner Ward and Robert Hooks. In 1970, she became Nina Simone’s personal assistant. She also worked in advertising sales for the Amsterdam News between 1971 and 1972. Heggie fulfilled her lifelong dream of working for Aretha Franklin when she was hired as her personal assistant in 1972. That same year, she served as a personal assistant to Hilda Harris. She was the personal assistant to Lena Horne in 1996. Between 1999 and 2004, Heggie served as the production manager for Aaron Davis Hall and taught as an adjunct professor of theatre at Pace University in New York City in 2003.

Throughout her career, Heggie was involved in numerous theatrical and film productions, including theatrical director Woodie King, Jr.’s first play, Why Charlie Can’t Win No Wars on the Ground & Misjudgment. She designed the costumes for the play Black Girl in 1971. In 1976, she served as a stage manager for the first national tour of Bubbling Brown Sugar, featuring actors Charles “Honi” Coles, Tamara Tunie, and Jasmine Guy. She was also a stage manager for the international tour of the Houston Grand Opera’s production of Porgy and Bess, as well as Once on This Island and Chess in 1990. While working on Once on This Island, Heggie went to New York to see Jelly’s Last Jam, eventually becoming a stage manager of that show in 1992. Heggie worked on 40 Acres and a Mule Filmworks’ production crew for Spike Lee’s Malcolm X. She was also a personal assistant on The Preacher’s Wife, starring Denzel Washington and Whitney Houston, in 1996. Throughout the 1990s, Heggie worked as a stage manager on Broadway productions including The Song of Jacob Zulu with Ladysmith Black Mambazo in 1993 and Rollin on the T.O.B.A. in 1999. She also worked on B.J. Ward’s Stand-Up Opera, which was a touring production, and the national tour of Bring In Da Noise/Bring In Da Funk. Additionally, she was the production stage manager of The Jenny Burton Experience and a stage manager of The Wiz in Japan with Stephanie Mills.

Heggie helped develop the Vivian Robinson/AUDELCO (Audience Development Awards) Recognition Awards in 1973 and served as a board member for The Stage Managers’ Association (SMA) in 1982. She also served on the board of the Duke Ellington Center for the Arts in New York. In 2005, Heggie was featured on the cover of Lawrence Stern’s eighth edition of the manual Stage Management, as well as in features in the ninth and eleventh editions and a Chinese translation.

Heggie resides in New York City, New York.

Femi Sarah Heggie was interviewed by The HistoryMakers on February 14, 2024.