STAGE DESIGN & MANAGEMENT

When you're a part of a stage team there a many roles and great teams to be a part of but one that I find to be the most practical and time based role that can also lead to being the most enjoyable is Stage manager and part of the stage team. 

The stage manager of the show is the one who make sure everything is going to plan on show nights for the stage department. They make sure that the performers are ready to go on stage when they are needed, they make sure that set pieces are ready and in place when needed for a new scene in the show. But most importantly they make sure that stage construction is going to plan and is built safely and done exactly to the stage designers designs.  

The stage manager usual does long days in the theatre making sure that the stage is ready to be constructed and will make sure that everything is in place in good time before the show is ready the commence. 

A stage manager must know all the stage requirements needed from s script, it may sound like a lot of hard work and reding but in truth it’s a quick and fairly easy process once you get started and it helps you to understand the show with more depth of what will not only be require of the stage team but also the whole backstage department. 

The stage manager must keep in contact with the director and lighting department to make sure that the stage is constructed to how the director invasions it with a few minor tweaks to make it safer and easier to construct and with the lighting department the stage manager must tell the lighting department what colours the different set pieces and different scenes will be so that when the lighting department comes to designing the lights for the shows. 

On the night of the show the stage manager will have their own headset listening for cues from the DSM, with a script in their hand to make sure that everything is ready in place for upcoming scenes in the show.

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(Nathan Horner 2020)

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