Preface to the Second Edition
I begin this preface with a colored text box, which you will soon come to recognize as my way of having a personal conversation with you or delivering additional information and experience.
It was with pleasure and excitement that I was asked to do a second edition of this book and bring you into the twenty-first century of theatre. If you happen to be like I was in college, when reading a textbook or self-help book, you might be tempted to flip past the pages at the front and go directly to the first chapter, where I figured the important information started, the stuff on which I would be tested.
Well, you too can do that here, but you will miss some good information that will set you up and help you get the most effective use out of this book. So read on with this preface, or skip over it. Either way, I will see you in Chapter 1.
Addendum to this Second Edition
While my intention for the first edition of this book was to bring to the reader the “professional experience” (as is still the case with this second edition), I wrote the first edition strictly from the point of view of the stage manager working on a production contract because that was my experience. I was fortunate that within two years of completing my studies in theatre I entered the “professional” world, going directly into an Equity production contract, and it was there I stayed. What prompted me even to begin writing a book on stage managing was that, when I entered the professional world, I found in many places differences and discrepancies between what I was told in my studies and what I actually had to do while working on a production contract. Having had that experience, I wanted to set the record straight. But in doing so, I left out much about what the student or beginning stage manager must do. I staunchly professed that some of the charts, plots, plans, and lists I was taught I did not use as a professional stage manager, and that was true as long as I worked under a production contract.
However, being a person who enjoys my work and wants continuous employment, I also took jobs that were not on a production contract. Some were lesser Equity contracts in regional theatre, local civic light opera groups, even a ninety-nine-seat house where I worked a full, uncut version of Shakespeare’s Hamlet starring James Cromwell—and I had to do all those things I said in the first edition the stage manager did not have to do.
With that in mind, in this second edition, you will hear me say that in the “professional experience” you will not be required to create certain charts, plots, plans, or lists that are insisted upon and demanded of you in your studies. However, this does not preclude the student or beginning stage manager from learning all the things that in some situations he or she might be required to do. It is the stage manager’s job to do whatever is necessary to keep things organized and running smoothly. If that requires the stage manager to create a fly cue sheet or lay out floor plans for scene shifts or do a sound or lighting plot, then that is what the stage manager must do.
Test of Time
It is interesting to note that the “parts” of the stage manager’s job as chronologically laid out in this book have not changed much from what was done yesterday, and possibly from when the job first came into existence. What has changed from the publication of the first edition is the “technology,” which has slowly made its way into set design, the visual presentation of the play, and the tools that both the stage manager and technicians have at their fingertips to do their jobs and create the magic of theatre. Here are a few examples:
- AUTOMATION—the computerized movement of scenery on and off stage
- PROJECTION of images onto screens and pieces of scenery
- More LASER LIGHTS, FOG machines, and SMOKE units
- More sophisticated MOVING/INTELLIGENT LIGHTS
- CAMERAS and MONITORS for the technicians, stage manager, and performers
- WIRELESS MICROPHONES for practically all speaking and singing parts
- COMPUTER PROGRAMS, APPS, and DIGITAL DEVICES for the stage manager to use in creating lists, forms, charts, plots, schedules, and communications
- And even LISTENING HEADPHONES to enhance the audio part of the theatregoing experience, not only for the general public but for those who might have an impairment. Even more sophisticated are systems that feature an “audio description” for the blind. And more and more producers are incorporating into their presentations a person standing off to the side of the stage signing for those hard of hearing (though this has no significant effect on the stage manager’s work other than to make sure the person is in place and lit as the curtain rises for the first act).
Theatres in Transition
For any beginning stage manager or person studying to be a stage manager, it is important to know about the things of yesterday as well as the advancements of today. If your stage managing life and career are true to form, you will work for a good number of producing companies and do shows in many theatres and venues. Some will be supremely equipped with the latest technology, while others will seem to be in the dark ages—mind you, the dark ages in theatre technology are not that long ago, perhaps back in the nineties or certainly the eighties and seventies. For the most part, many theatres will be in transition, having the latest technology they can afford. So in the process of reading this book and in learning your craft, do not dismiss knowing about the rheostat dimmer light board or the hand-cranked winch, the carbon-arc spotlight, gels, or the long-line and short-line on the rail/fly system. Somewhere along the way, you will run into and may have to work with these dinosaurs.
Staying Ahead of Technology
From time to time in this second edition, I will remind you that there is no way for any book to stay ahead of advancing technology, unless a new edition were printed every other year. Even as these words are being read, something new, better, improved, and more sophisticated has come into play. Some technician, some designer, some stage manger has taken up the latest in technology and put it to the test and, if it has worth and value, you can be sure it will spread throughout theaterland and become part of the working landscape, as have automation, projections, laser lights, fog machines, smoke units, moving lights, video cams, viewing monitors, and wireless mics. So it will be up to you, the new and beginning stage manager, to see what is new and keep up with the latest technology to remain current in your field.
He/She, Stagehand/Technician
It has often been common practice in the printed word that when the pronoun he is used she is implied, and that was pretty much the way it was in the first edition. In the spirit of this second edition being “refreshed,” I have also refreshed this common practice and included the pronoun she wherever he is presented. I have also changed the term stagehand to technician or stage technician.
The Hierarchy of Stage Managers
As you have read through this preface, you may have noticed the number of times the term stage manager is used. You can imagine the hundreds of times more it will be stated throughout this second edition. Well, in an effort to save at least the branch of a tree and some of the chemicals used for ink, from here on the acronym SM will be used.
In defining and labeling the SM’s job and position further, whenever there is more than one SM on a show, the lead SM or head SM is known as the production stage manager, which from here on will be PSM.
Most always, especially in a musical, there is a second SM—the assistant SM, or as it will be from now on, ASM.
If by chance there should be a third SM or maybe even a fourth, the titling changes ever so slightly. The ASM becomes the first ASM, while the next SM becomes the second ASM, and so on. So there is
- The generic term, SM
- The honored position of the head SM, PSM
- The second and assisting SM, the ASM
- And if a third SM is added, then the ASM becomes the first ASM, while the next SM becomes the second ASM, etc.
While this information is not important among the ranks of SMs, it is important defining information to Actors’ Equity and possibly your program.
Actors’ Equity
More times than not, whenever cast members, technicians, or the production staff speak of Actors’ Equity (the actor’s union), they simply call it Equity. So shall it be herein.
A Note to the Reader: I wrote the first edition of this book over a period of many years, mostly during times of unemployment. When asked to do this second edition, I became aware of and even overwhelmed at the scope and range of all that is contained herein, but even more, by how the reader/student/beginning SM might feel when taking a look for the first time. Well, let me give you a hall pass or a do not go to jail card and tell you that this book is purposely designed so you do not have to commit to memory all that is written. Well, actually, if you are a student you may want to, if for no other reason than to please the instructor or get a passing grade in the class. But know that once your study is over and you are out in the world, this book can become your guide, a handbook, and a reference. Each chapter is specifically named and placed in chronological order of the SM’s job and life. In addition, each chapter is loaded with headings, subheadings, and even sub-subheadings, taking you through every step of looking for the job, beginning the job, and working the job. Simply turn to the table of contents, run your finger down the page as you might on your smart phone, and touch upon the heading that most suits the information you need at the time. Also, the index and the glossary are provided to help you quickly find what you might need at any time.
The Digital/Computer/Internet SM
While at one time the SM was defined by his expertise and use of the land phone, Xerox machine, electric portable typewriter, three-ring binders, file folders, cassette recorder/player, and stopwatch, he or she is now led and driven by the computer, the smart phone, texting, emailing, the Internet, apps, and the software programs that aid in creating forms, lists, plans, charts, and plots.
The Paperless SM
There is talk and promise of the paperless SM. At present, we are smack-dab in between. While most of the charts, plots, plans, and forms presented in Chapter 6, “Hard Copy,” can be created digitally, and while the SM’s filing system is dwindling from manila folders to digital folders stored in some cloud, there are parts of the SM’s job that remain old-school, most notably, the rehearsal/blocking script and the cue/calling script. There are programs that claim they can do the jobs of these two scripts, and if the show on which you are working is a simple one, then they are quite usable. However, with a musical where everything is more of everything, these programs do not have the capability, maneuverability, or features to note sufficiently what the SM needs in these two scripts.
Most assuredly, with the improvement of software and with the new generation of SMs such as yourself, there will indeed come a time when the SM will be totally paperless and completely digital. Until that time, this second edition will walk that line between what was done yesterday and what is being done today.
The Work of the SM is Whatever Needs to be Done
In academic theatre, community theatre, little theatre, or even the Equity ninety-nine-seat theatre, SMs are often expected to be responsible for a lot more of the work of the different technical departments. In fact, at times, the SM in these situations might be required to work the light board or run sound cues while calling the cues for the show. The SM may also be responsible for leading the stage crew in building and painting the scenery, and certainly before the performance, he or she more than likely will set props and check the placement of all things important.
It is not a bad thing if in the learning stages of this craft and profession, especially while in study as a student, you learn how to create a list of fly cues, do a light plot, draw up floor plans, or even do a budget. Learn how to hang and focus lights, know the operation of wardrobe and costumes, learn the things the stage technicians have to do in their work, and learn how to speak to them in their language and vernacular.
“The Bridge Builder”
You may have noticed and possibly already read my dedication to the reader—“The Bridge Builder.” This was a poem left anonymously on my SM’s console backstage. I quickly read it over and did not study its full meaning and intention. I was, however, attracted to it, so much so that I tucked it away in my personal file folder. I somehow lost track of it. Interestingly, years later, after I had completed writing the first draft for the first edition of this book and was finishing up the dedication and acknowledgments, the poem once again appeared, this time on my desk at home. I neither recognized it nor remembered it, but I read it over with the intention of discarding it after I was through. I read it once and then again, and then was compelled to read it a third time. With each reading it spoke to me. I realized that though I am not as old and gray, I was like the bridge builder in this poem, and this book is my bridge. The poem expresses the impetus for my writing.