Essentials of Stage Management

Peter Maccoy

• Publisher: A&C Black Academic and Professional
• Year: 2009
• Print ISBN: 9780713665284
• eBook ISBN: 9781408116791
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Media & Performing Arts
• Subtopic: Theatre Stagecraft & Scenography

Good stage management is key to the smooth running of any theatrical production and, as technology continues to develop and regulations tighten, the responsibilities of the stage manager have never been greater. In this essential guide, Peter Maccoy examines the qualities and skills necessary for effective management, stressing the importance of understanding both the creative and the technical processes involved in theatre. From negotiating contracts through to rehearsals, performance and post-production, Essentials of Stage Management is packed with invaluable advice on every aspect of the job and every type of theatre.

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THE ROLE OF STAGE MANAGEMENT

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At the heart of stage management is the management of performance, from its initial concept, through its development during the rehearsal period, to the moment of actual performance and beyond. The development of performance is a complex and dynamic process of evolution involving, even at its simplest, the collaboration of a wide range of artistes, technicians and crafts people in a constantly changing dialogue. This creative process is often intimate and exposing and requires sensitive management. Information must be accurate and concise, and must be communicated rapidly, and without prejudice.

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The management of the rehearsal process and performance requires a close working relationship with the director and performers, as well as with makers and technicians. For the majority of the production team the stage management are the main point of contact with the rehearsal room and as such are responsible for recording and communicating developments to all relevant parties as this information becomes available. This closeness to the process of developing a performance places the stage management in a position that enables them to hold the widest and most accurate overview of the overall production. This may range from an insight into the personal dynamics of a company of performers to an active and creative understanding of the intentions of the director and designers. During the rehearsal period, stage management traditionally took on the role of acquiring properties and furniture, drawing on their knowledge of the production’s requirements as these evolved. During performance, this knowledge enables stage management to take on a co-ordinating role, from setting up and checking the stage to controlling all technical aspects.

Theatre-making has changed radically in the last 60 years, prompted by the need to compete with TV and film, to attract a new, younger, more diverse audience, and in response to the availability of increasingly more complex technology and the accompanying regulations. The use of ‘found’ space for theatrical presentation is now common, and many practitioners are abandoning the traditional, custom-designed theatre building. Over this period the role, and perception, of stage management has developed from that of a service role undertaken by hopeful, or failed, performers, to a highly responsible profession.

Stage management is recognised as an integral part of the process of creating a piece of live performance. Without it, or with it done badly, the process is unlikely to be smooth, fruitful and enjoyable, and theatre-making should be all of these. The management of creativity entails more than just good administration, however; it also requires intuition, sensitivity, adaptability, resolution, intelligence and discipline. It is these qualities that are the foundation of good stage management. Good stage management should be informed by a solid grasp of the underlying principles, both of theatre-making and of management, an understanding of ‘why’ that will lead to ‘how’.

Stage management involves the application of management techniques such as communication, time management, group dynamics, interpersonal relations, leadership skills and so on, within the context of the theatre environment. These techniques are informed by a detailed understanding of the creative process, together with text analysis and background research.

A BRIEF HISTORY

The spectacles mounted at the Hippodrome and Coliseum in Rome; Aztec sacrificial ceremonies; English medieval mystery plays; the Court theatre of the Restoration period: all these must have been managed. The Hippodrome was regularly flooded and nautical battles staged, and gladiators had to be cued on at the right time. The timing of events in the Aztec rituals was crucial; the carts needed to arrive at the right point of the procession at the right time, and the King could not be kept waiting (unless you wanted to lose your head).

Evidence exists for prompters being used in medieval pageant theatre, which was performed by illiterate amateurs on holy days. This was known as ‘keeping the book’ a term which has survived to the present day. During the Elizabethan period the prompter began to be referred to as the ‘book-keeper’ or ‘book-holder’. Contemporary accounts suggest that somebody ‘kept a book’ for Shakespeare’s company. This may have been similar to our modern understanding of a ‘prompt copy’, recording moves and the timing of effects as well as keeping the actual text up-to-date. How close this person’s role was to that of today’s stage manager, or to the prompter in opera or French theatre is, of course, not known. But we can imagine that the role was not dissimilar. The differences found between the different editions of Shakespeare’s plays may well be accounted for by this.

As the custom-built playhouse developed through the Elizabethan and Jacobean periods, the role of the ‘book-keeper’ expanded. Their duties would have included arranging for the necessary licence to be drawn up by the Master of the Revels, copying out individual parts for the actors, noting in the book who was needed and when, marking in entrances and exits, providing a synopsis to be pinned backstage for reference during performance, noting what props and sound-effects would be required and ensuring that they happened in the right place at the right time. At this time a separate person, the stage-keeper, with different responsibilities, is also identified. They would have been responsible for the maintenance of the theatre, setting props on stage and managing the stage in performance.

It is well documented that stage managers existed in the nineteenth century in parallel with the development of the repertoire system and the rise of ‘actor/managers’ such as William Charles Macready. The repertoire system practised by the ‘stock’ companies meant that actors needed to keep many parts in their heads at any one time as they performed a different play each night. Rehearsal periods were very short, sometimes a matter of a few days, and thus the role of the prompter became crucial. The role of the ‘director’ or ‘producer’ had yet to emerge, usually being undertaken by the principal actor. Direction was sometimes referred to as ‘stage management’. It is likely that the ‘stage manager’ and ‘prompter’ may have taken on some of this responsibility, particularly when rehearsing a change of cast.

In Personal Reminiscences of Henry Irving, Bram Stoker refers to the stage manager at the Lyceum in the 1880s, Mr Loveday. His role was primarily to organise the special effects which were an integral and important part of late Victorian theatre. Sir Henry Irving himself had worked as a stage manager with the St. James’ company in the 1850s. The precise nature of this role is hard to ascertain, though we can speculate that it was probably an amalgam of the modern ‘Resident Stage Manager’ role, in charge of technical matters, and stage management, co-ordinating these.

The theatre of the nineteenth century became, to a large extent, the theatre of spectacle. It developed a ‘star’ based system, the ‘actor/manager’ being the centre of attention, and the more lavish the production the better they appeared. The playwright became relatively less important; classic plays, even Shakespeare, were rewritten to the advantage of the star, who stood down-stage centre in the best light, declaiming the lines, enhanced by lavish costumes and supported by lesser performers. Scenery was spectacular and not necessarily relevant to the play being performed. The technology of the age allowed scene changes and special effects to become virtually the focus of the audience’s attention, and dramatic scenes, such as shipwrecks or volcanic eruptions, were inserted for effect. Stages became larger to accommodate this need for spectacle, taller fly towers were built, and mechanical stage lifts and revolves installed. To make these work the theatres needed to employ vast stage crews who would have been under the direction of the stage manager. To pay for this, and to keep up with public demand, auditoria became larger, seating up to two, even three, thousand people.

The end of the nineteenth century saw a big change in the approach to theatre, a move back towards story-telling and realism and away from pure spectacle. At this time the notion of the ‘director’ as we know it (then known as the ‘producer’) came into being. Adolphe Appia recognised that his concept of a production as a living work of art required a director – a ‘managing artist’, whose responsibility would be ‘conducting the entire work of developing the dramatist’s conception from its written form to its stage form’. He saw this as an extension to the function of the stage manager from purely ‘machine minding’, requiring a person who was a master of all the arts and sciences involved.

Edward Gordon Craig took this a step further, regarding the role of the stage manager as ‘the highest title to be won in theatre’. He felt that one person should ideally embody the roles of the playwright, the designer, and the stage manager. In his essays On the Art of the Theatre, 1911, he declares that the ideal ‘stage manager’ must be ‘capable of inventing and rehearsing a play; capable of designing and superintending the construction of both scenery and costume: of writing any necessary music: of inventing such machinery as is needed and the lighting that is to be used’. This role seems much closer to that of the ‘director’ that we would recognise today.

In The Exemplary Theatre, published in 1922, Harley Granville-Barker suggests that ‘the stage manager has become to some degree an anachronism. He is still supposed to be interested in the play itself, to watch the actors, rehearse their understudies, and to be responsible for the artistic upkeep of the performances generally. But the coming into fashion of the producer has deprived him of any initiative in such matters, and nowadays he is chosen mainly for his powers of controlling the stage staff, his technical knowledge of scenery, and his ability to keep accounts. The position would be better filled by a man who frankly disinterested himself in the dramatic side of the business altogether’. Craig saw this as virtually a new role, rather than a return to the Victorian situation where the stage manager was concerned solely with the mechanics of the particular production in hand. This he regarded as part of the director’s work.

So we can see that the modern concept of stage management was becoming established at the start of the twentieth century. By the Second World War we would recognise a stage management team that consisted of a stage director, a stage manager and an assistant stage manager or two. In repertory theatre the team might have included a ‘student stage manager’ (rather like an apprentice), and the assistant stage mangers (ASMs) would have been expected to take on small acting roles. In fact this was one of the main routes into acting as a career before the proliferation of drama schools, and the only way into stage management. This meant that the majority of acting ASMs were actually hopeful actors and not remotely interested in stage management as a career.

The stage director would have been responsible for the technical side of the production and for making sure that this ran smoothly. Once the production had opened, the stage director would be in charge of the whole production, the staff and cast, for the remainder of its run. The stage manager would usually keep the book and run the corner. The assistants would undertake a number of other duties which might include operating sound using a record player called a ‘panatrope’, giving calls to the actors and sometimes acting. Props setting and the operation of effects would have been undertaken by property staff under stage management supervision. A separate business manager would have dealt with front of house and box office liaison, publicity and company salaries.

During the Second World War so many people were in the armed forces that theatre managers were forced to rationalise this system. They did this by combining the roles of the business manager and stage manager. Thus was born the ‘Company and Stage Manager’ and the system that has remained to this day.

ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES

The make-up of a stage management team today will vary according to a number of factors: the scale and budget of a production, the type of organisation or type of production itself. A typical set-up in a medium scale receiving theatre in Great Britain might consist of:

• A Company & Stage Manager (CSM)

• A Deputy Stage Manager (DSM)

• Two Assistant Stage Managers (ASM) – these might be divided into a ‘Technical’ ASM and an ‘Acting, or Understudy’ ASM

The team for a large-scale ‘West End’ or touring musical might be made up of the following:

• A Company Manager (CM)

• A Stage Manager (SM)

• A Deputy Stage Manager

• Three Assistant Stage Managers – some shows employ up to five.

A producing, or repertory, theatre with two venues might have the following:

• A Stage Manager

• Two Deputy Stage Managers

• Three or four Assistant Stage Managers

A smallscale fringe or pub theatre production might have just one stage manager.

This list is not exhaustive. Variations will be encountered, as they will in the delegation of responsibilities which are outlined next but, while individual responsibilities will be vastly different, the underlying responsibility of stage management will remain the same.

GENERAL STAGE MANAGEMENT RESPONSIBILITIES

It is useful to consider the role of stage management as a whole, rather than assuming that different members of the team have particular responsibilities. While this may often be true, there are also many exceptions and, no matter what the make-up of the team, somebody will have to take responsibility for all of these.

Stage management ensure that all elements of the production are consistently in the right place at the right time, and meet the requirements identified in the design and direction as developed through the rehearsal process. They are there to prevent anything from adversely affecting a production. A performer should only ever have to worry about the performance. It is the prime responsibility of stage management to facilitate this.

A breakdown of stage management responsibilities follows. This list is not exhaustive, nor does it describe everything all stage management can expect to do every time.

• Provide support for the rehearsal process and performance

• Prepare the rehearsal space and keep it tidy and organised

• Mark up a two-dimensional representation of the set in the rehearsal room

• Maintain a presence at rehearsals whenever the director is working with the cast

• Maintain discipline within the rehearsal space and backstage

• Be responsible for Health and Safety in the rehearsal room and during performance

• Prepare and mark up the Prompt Script, recording the blocking and cue points

• Prompt, in the rehearsal room and during performance

• Call artistes for rehearsals and fittings

• Pass on information from the rehearsal room, particularly details of the production’s requirements as they are raised, to the designer, technical departments etc., in the form of Rehearsal Notes

• Provide rehearsal props and furniture for the cast and director to use

• Co-ordinate communication with technical departments

• Acquire props and furniture

• Manage the stage management budget

• Participate and take minutes in production meetings

• Take overall authority backstage

• Run the technical rehearsal, acting as li...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Dedication
• Contents
• List of illustrations
• Foreword by Nicholas Hytner
• Introduction
• 1. The Role of Stage Management
• 2. The Stage Manager as Manager
• 3. Research and Preparation
• 4. Preparing for Rehearsal
• 5. The Rehearsal Period
• 6. The Production Period
• 7. The Performance and Beyond
• 8. Stage Properties
• 9. Safe Practice
• 10. Contemporary Practice
• Bibliography
• Appendices
• Acknowledgements
• Imprint