The Bridge Between The Chaos: Stage Management In The Mec Theatre Department 

A good friend and colleague of mine told me that Stage Managers do God’s dirty work. Working behind the scenes in a theatre is not, by any means, glamorous (www. stagemanagementassociation. co. uk). It’s actually the complete opposite of what people would think of when they’d hear someone answer theater for their occupation. The only real glamorous part of the job is the fame, and that only comes if you are an actor/actress or a composer.

A Stage Manager is in the middle of all the production madness 24/7. By the way, if you ever see a Stage Manager during a show then something has gone terribly wrong behind the scenes. I have to be a leader, mentor, and confidant to the entire cast, crew, and their parents; and the right hand for the directors. I’ve been the resident stage manager for the past 2 years for the Mark E. Collins Theatre department. I started learning the art form of theatre management during the fall of my sophomore year in 2016. I don’t remember much from that fall due to the multiple emotional breakdowns I had, but my theatre family and close friends do. I am working as the Head stage manager for our upcoming production of The Wizard of Oz; and to say the least, its been a struggle to adapt to the change. Trust is an extremely important piece of a relationship to have when you work in a theatre. Especially between a director and the management team. My relationship with them is one I consider to set the tone for the entire show. I always tell myself that I need to be the glue to keep everything together. Being a stage manager is both physically and mentally demanding because I have to connect every sub-community back to the director. In doing so a stage manager has to be calm, clear, and concise. This is also known as: “A Manager’s 3 C’s” (http: //www. loisbackstage. com/?p=831). That is where the mentally draining aspect of the job comes in.

The physical strain comes from an eternity of sitting in rehearsals and show nights. “Eternity” is actually one of the many lexis I use. It means the long periods of time between cues or tasks. (The Techie Bible). So to say the least, communication is important. The main goal of anyone who works in theatre is something that’s pretty obvious. It’s to produce a good show. Further, to produce a show that helps everyone involved learn something. Being a stage manager, that goal is riddled with many simple and/or complicated tasks that lead up to help accomplishing that goal. My job consists of 10% paperwork, 90% peopling, and 100% communication. To break that down further, my goal is to make sure that the directors’ vision for the show is seen through. I need to know the ins and outs of the script, design, and vision. As for the 90% of my job, I’ve learned to use lexis that everyone uses in the theater community. I call it “theater-speak”.

The most common lexis used are the locations on the stage. Downstage, Upstage, Center Stage, Stage Right, and Stage Left. But what people don’t know is that Stage managers are exceedingly specific when they take blocking notes and the areas of the stage nearly duplicate. “Blocking” is the movement on the playing areas made by the actors—playing areas are the locations on stage that the set doesn’t block. According to the Techie Bible, “Blocking is the art of playing chess with the actors in such a manner as to not collide with everything else on stage. The word blocking originates from actors ‘blocking’ the scenic designer’s genius. ” My blocking notes look like a completely different language to anyone but my management team. They are in one binder called the prompt book. It contains every movement on the stage done by an actor/actress or stage hand, where a set piece lives during the scene, when a scene change occurs, entrances and exits, and cues for fly/effects/lights/music/sound/and curtain. I take blocking notes during the rehearsal process and we establish cues with the director and technicians during tech meetings. It’s imperative that my DSM (Deputy Stage Manager) and my ASM (Assistant Stage Manager) understands the blocking.

So before we open the show, I create a key. It explains the meaning of all the characters labels (DO – Dorothy or TO – Toto), cue tab, and stage directions. Let me help you visualized what a page of text looks like with blocking. On the left hand side of the binder are my blocking notes: DO enters DSL, crosses DSC, turns to get TO who enters DSL. That translates to Dorothy enters from the right hand side of the stage close to the edge of the stage from the audience’s perspective. She walks center stage then turns to face the right hand side of the stage as Toto runs on from the same place Dorothy entered.

On the right hand side of the binder is the script. Which is the dialogue and music for the show. I use sticky notes to attach to the outside of the page that are color coded and numbered to coincide with the blocking I dictated earlier. These are called cues. There’s a yellow tab with (L1 – 1. 5), then an orange tab that says (GO!), then two other yellow tabs labeled (L2 and L3). It’s easier to show than to explain, but that is basically for me to instruct a technician to push a button in order for something to happen onstage during the show. Calling a show is where I have the most fun. I’m able to sit in the booth with a headset on and the show bible—prompt book—in front of me and say “L1 through L1. 5 on stand by. Are we all ready on deck? Are we ready in the house? Are we ready in the booth? Go L1 through L1. 5. Alright, let's have a good show everyone. Aunt Em and Uncle Henry on deck. And Go! Cue Music 1 and actors. L2 on stand by. Dorothy and Toto on deck. L2 go. L3 on stand by. Music 2 on stand by. L3, Music 2, and Dorothy go. Toto ready?” Then I listen for Dorothy to say, “I can’t hardly breathe. Toto?” After that I say, “Ok cue Toto. Standby Music 3. ” That is all within 5 lines of dialogue that’s delivered in under 2 minutes! It’s a rush honestly and I love it! Being a Stage Manager is all about communication. Now not only does a good Stage Manager and Stage Management team need to know the ins and outs of their show, but they also need to know their cast and crew. I’ve always seen myself as the “Mama Bear”. I’ll protect everyone involved and make sure that they are ok mentally and physically, but I’m not afraid to bust some heads when I need to. As long as it's in a polite manner, everyone takes my instruction pretty well.

Some directors don’t really understand how much information I have to absorb in a matter of seconds, so I have to call holds a lot. Which that basically means, “please wait for my hand to catch up with my brain and my brain to catch up with your mouth. ” Or I’ll yell loud noise or timber if something heavy is falling. Last year an 8 ft 4x1 started to fall onstage and I was in the back of the house as I saw it happen. I screamed “Hold! Clear upstage now! Timber!” By the time I got onstage the 4x1 had fallen and everyone safely moved out of harm’s way. I then asked, “Is everyone ok?”, I waited for a unanimous yes then asked why an unsecured 8 ft 4x1 was leaning on an unstable unit. I got some shoulder shrugs, asked for two people to move the plank offstage and into the scene shop, then went to our producer and department director at the time, Mr. K—God rest his soul. Thankfully nothing like that has happened as of yet. Now with that being said, this year I really haven’t felt like I’ve been able to do my job to the fullest in that sense. The new directors haven’t really gotten used to how we all work and communicate, which is through me. And that connects back to when I wrote about the importance of trust in a theater environment. Being the Stage Manager, I’ve had to learn to translate one team’s lexis into another.

For example, the lights team all used the term “leko” for a large light that is very bright, has a long throw, and is hung in the catwalk. When everyone else learned about that lighting instrument, it was called an ellipsoidal. Now to translate that into normal english, it’s a big light. There are also terms, like swatch, that’s used across multiple teams but it means different things. A paint swatch, a gel swatch, and a fabric swatch are completely different things. So when I’m working, I have to make sure that I’m extremely specific when delegating a task or asking a question. My team and I often get into conversations where we just have to clear up something that seems so simple but got lost in translation. Hey, we are all still learning, even the adults. Now for the paperwork part of the occupation, there’s a lot and its all important. One of the first things I do after being hired is called the general script analysis. I go through the script page by page and notate on a document the stage directions that specify scenery, costumes, props, lights, sound, and special effects. I also notate who is in the scene on that page. It’s a very tedious task but it makes the designers life 10 times easier and I become very familiar with the show during this time. The next thing I do is a scene breakdown.

This a document that notates the act and its scenes with what music plays and the characters that appear on stage. This helps me roll into a document called the costume breakdown. The costume breakdown is where I’m able to notate which actor is in a scene and add a blank column for the costumer to fill in what the character is wearing at that given time. It’s all one big snowball effect. Before rehearsals begin my team and I create a document called the Conflict Calendar and the Rehearsal/Tech schedule as well. The Rehearsal/Tech Schedule has all the times and dates that there is rehearsal or a work day going on. I send a message when the director only needs a specific group of people in rehearsal a few days prior on Schoology. The conflict calendar has the cast and crews conflicts with the schedule. Anything that they don’t tell me about either before the rehearsal process or 24 hours before their call I count as an unexcused absence.

During rehearsals my DSM takes notes on a document called the rehearsal report. We use this to give the crew specific updates on the directors’ vision for the show. One day it could be filled and overflowing with information. Other days its dryer than a bone with just the time the cast took a break and what they worked on. We also keep up with a log on a weekly basis to track the progress of the show. Other documents are compiled over the course of the production process. These documents are things as simple as a list of set pieces and where they are placed on stage to the master cue sheet, or a list of the locations for actors’ entrances and exits for the costume crew. These documents are the oil that runs the machine, and the management team is the motor. Outside of paperwork and physical communication, I have my team’s phone numbers. We text nonstop and have conference calls during rehearsal. We will do this until we get our new headsets working. I also try to email them the game plan for the day after meeting with one of our directors. I also am an admin on our Schoology group page.

So I’m able to push memos to everyone there instead of writing a mass email to everyone every week. Those got old real fast by the way. I also post important documents and daily rehearsal reports in the resources folder. I am currently mentoring two newbies to Stage Management. My old team just got tired of the job. If you can’t tell by now, Stage Management is hard work. My team consists of a Deputy Stage Manager and an Assistant Stage Manager. We recently added our ASM to the team before fall break because I seriously needed help and I just can’t call a show from backstage with actors flapping their gums constantly. My Assistant Stage Manager answered a couple of questions for me because he saw me work during Footloose a little more than my DSM did. I asked what his definition of the Stage Management team was. He replied, “The Stage Manager and Assistant Stage Manager is someone who keeps the actors and techies working to the best of their abilities.

They help the director execute their artistic vision and add input of their own. ” I also asked him how management affects the overall production and why it's so important. He said, “Management can help make or break the production. If a show is poorly managed, the show will not be at its fullest. The cast and crew’s overall demeanor and performance will be based on the management. Without Management, the show would be impossible” This is entirely true. In the Stage Management Handbook by Daniel Ionazzi, he states that the Stage Manager is entirely responsible for absolutely everything (Ionazzi [pg#])Without the Stage Management team, the show and the department, could easily crumble from within. It’s important to have strong leaders in these positions, and that goes for our directors as well. Management and Directors have a relationship that sets the tone for the entire show, but without trust and a good use of communication there will be no foundation to build upon. I cannot stress enough how important it is to communicate and collaborate within a theater, nay, an artistic setting. That is why I love theatre as much as I do. It’s one of the few occupations that you can fully collaborate with others to create something magical.