“We stage manage because we believe. We believe in helping. We believe in caring. We believe in our skills. We believe in others skills. We believe in the artists. We believe in the collaborations. We believe in experience. We believe in change. We believe in theatre.”
I can’t for the life of me remember where I found the above statement. I had copied it onto a Word document for inspiration and morale boosting, saved it in my random bits and pieces folder, then forgot about it until now. So I can’t properly give credit for it and yet, I found it and wanted to shout it out to the world.
In the world of theater, legend has it that the producer and director can leap tall buildings in a single bound, move faster than a silver bullet, and speak directly with God. The stage manager, on the other hand, doesn’t leap tall buildings. He simply lifts them up and walks under. Silver bullets? He catches them in his teeth and eats them. And talking to God? Well, he is God.
Based on this analogy, we can see that the stage manager is often a production’s real hero. Yet many people outside the performing arts sector have never heard of this profession or what the job entails. While the description can vary within different productions and companies, almost everyone agrees they are the unsung heroes of the performance, perfecting every detail behind the scenes so that the real stars can shine their brightest.
Act Out 