Nancy May
Event & Production Executive
Bio:
Early Life and Background
Born in Denver and raised between Colorado and Kentucky, Nancy May grew up riding ponies and horses and cultivating a curiosity for the world. Her family set a high bar for interesting lives: her father, a child psychiatrist and devoted Deadhead; her mother, an immunologist whose research focused on tuberculosis and AIDS; and her three younger brothers, who grew up to become an orthopedic surgeon, a Hollywood film editor, and a health-care entrepreneur. Her stepsisters continued the trend—one is a nurse practitioner and the other is a vice president at Pixar. By her teens, Nancy had already set her own goal: to live an interesting life.
Education
Nancy began working concerts while attending Colorado State University, originally majoring in horse veterinary medicine. A chance meeting between her father and the late John Rubey of Feyline resulted in a mentorship that shaped her entire career.
She shifted her studies to Arts & Humanities with a minor in Technical Theatre, but her education was happening backstage—working two to six shows per week, learning production from the ground up. When graduation day came, her diploma simply arrived in the mail while her brothers sang “Pomp and Circumstance.”
Career and Achievements
Nancy learned the concert business from every angle—power, trucking, riders, advancing, stagecraft—absorbing knowledge from stagehands, touring personnel, ticket takers, carpenters, and promoters.
At Feyline and Technical Theatre & Staging (TTS), she expanded her expertise before being hired by the City of Denver as Assistant Manager for McNichols Sports Arena and Red Rocks Amphitheatre. Her first event was the U.S. Figure Skating Championships, and soon she was working everything from NHL and NBA games to Disney on Ice, NCAA regional finals, film shoots, nonprofit galas, and countless graduations. She also learned speed: clearing floors for load-outs, resetting for TV placements, and managing complicated stage transitions.
Nancy then moved to California to become production manager for the Universal Amphitheatre, where she adopted the motto: “Sleep is for sissies.” Her first show was Comic Relief, launching years of daily load-ins, live broadcasts, and large-scale concerts. During the 1989 MTV Video Music Awards, she was even called upon to break up a backstage fight—an incident still referenced by MTV.