Stage managing
A Deputy Stage Manager 'calls the show' for every performance. It's a complex job at the best of times, but on a multimedia production like Waves or ...some trace of her, it requires nerves of steel and perfect concentration. The role of the Deputy Stage Manager has many responsibilities for a performance. This includes making sure that actors turn up on time
(words from the stage manerger of the play waves )
If something goes wrong during a live performance
The Stage Management Team are the people who will fix it.
The logistics, scheduling and liaison experts who make up the Stage Management Teams play a crucial role in the rehearsal room, and in the three theatres of the National Theatre.
- things a stage manger has to be :
- organised (so they can keep evryone in the right place at the right time and know what has to be done when in the play )
- committed ( becouse the show needs someone who will be there all the time and who will know what there doing)
- good at time keeping
- have good social skills ( to be able to work with all the departments and keep them all in harmoney together)
- be able to work alone
- or with a group
- have good authority
- be able to listen ( the director will give the stage mangerger direction on the vition and the stage manerger needs to make that vition realitey )
- to follow instruction
- to have initiative ( if something isent right or is not as good as it could be to change it without needing to ask and to fix things when thay go rong )
- have technical skills (to be able to work with lights sound lots of micraphones and other elecrical props and pices of set)
- have good hand eye coardinationto
- be able to take control of a group of people
- to be good under presure ( becouse it is long hours and alot of work )
- to take critasium well
'Tech rehearsal' stands for 'technical rehearsal'. In a tech rehearsal all the technical elements of a show - lights, sound, set, props, costume - are put together on stage for the first time. Tech rehearsals take several days and can mean lots of sitting around for the actors. In this video diary we get a glimpse backstage at the One Man, Two Guvnors tech rehearsal.
A stage manager must have the temperament and ability to get along with people in both the artistic and technical sides of theatre, and to understand what they do. It is part of the attraction of the work that each new job will introduce new and different challenges.
Stage managers should be good planners and organisers, with a knack for multi-tasking, prioritising and keeping calm under pressure and in a crisis. Oh yes, and being fairly technically minded is a help!
However many famous people stage managers might work with, the work itself is not glamorous, often involving long hours and fairly boring, repetitive tasks as well as being physically demanding.
During the rehearsal period, the stage management team (often composed of 3 - a stage manager, a deputy stage manager and an assistant stage manager) acts as the lynchpin between the artistic process developing in the rehearsal room and the people physically building, sewing, assembling and making the production outside of that rehearsal room. Stage management are there to prevent ANYTHING from adversely affecting the production. Attention to detail and good communication skills are essential here.
Like a spider sitting in the middle of its web, the stage manager or team should sit at the heart of the production and be the first port of call for anything concerning the show for all those involved in creating and running it.
Once the show has opened, the stage management is responsible for the management of each evening's performance. They ensure that the production continues to run with all aspects of it kept as directed and designed. The DSM (Deputy Stage Manager) will also generally cue the show, giving calls and gos to the actors and all departments, enabling the changing of scenery, lighting and sound to be co-ordinated.
The ASM will frequently be 'running the wings', i.e. running other backstage aspects, particularly props.
In a smaller scale theatre or on tour, the stage management may also be required to 'roadie'; that is to drive, load and unload trucks, put up the set and design and operate both sound and lighting.
This brief description gives an idea of the variety and responsibility of the job. The company must trust their stage management team and they must be able to cope with being the people with whom the buck stops. In a crisis, it must always be the stage management that remain cool, keep their heads and cope with it; in a confrontation situation stage management must calm, soothe and mediate.
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