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Research Survey - Stage Management being used as operators.


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I am student at Bath Spa University, studying on the BA Theatre Production course. This survey is part of a research project that I am currently undertaking into how the role of stage management has adapted to changes in technology within theatre. This research project is looking into the history of the stage management and how technology has influenced the role as we known it today.

 

This survey is specifically looking at how some shows are now using stage management in particular the role of Deputy Stage Manager (DSM) to not only cue a show, as they traditionally would, but to also act as one of the operators (e.g. LX, Sound, Video etc.) at the same time.

 

Through this survey I am trying to see how wide spread this practice is within the theatre industry and what the views of those currently working in industry are of this practice. I am looking for views from anyone, not just stage managers.

 

The survey is available through the following link, https://goo.gl/forms/oPufDUAM5PtN193i2

 

Thanks in advance.

 

Joseph Brown

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Amateur calling, I op lights and sound; when our stage manager moved on I took up calling and cuing others too. So I kinda fell into the DSM role. Additions to the booth were a shout mic and telephone to the dressing room, and a big LCD telly connected to the existing night/day camera. I'm sure we ill again need a stage manager for a show some day, but in the meantime.....

 

Edited to add: I get the impression that the practice of the SM running the show is quite popular in (non-union) regional and touring theatre in the USA; there have been accounts posted of the SM having an SFX PC and running the tech cues from that. But I think the given is that these are the simpler kinds of shows, stage plays with uncomplicated effects for example.

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It's a tricky one - the trouble is that wages and other costs have gone up faster than ticket prices, and the complexity of operating shows has gone down meaning that the value to a producer of paying multiple separate operators/technicians is now lower than the risk of a show going wrong.

 

I suppose it's similar to the self service checkouts in the supermarkets, not the best but saves the business money!

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Nice, well thought out questionnaire - I wish we had more like this.

 

 

I answered from my own experiences. The venues I work in mostly do it the conventional and traditional way, but my experiences of theatres all over the UK with the band for the past 4 years make it very clear that crew quality is radically different in some places. Some quite big theatres have volunteer crews, like volunteer FOH staff. We arrived at one, and the crew (older than me!) looked in the back of the van and said it looked a bit heavy, so they couldn't help unload. This is getting more and more common. Sometimes you don't even see any crew on stage. One show we did in a 500 seater on the south coast were minimally equipped with crew, but nicely equipped with kit. We tour with our own sound man, even when the PA is supplied, because many "haven't had any training on the digital mixer" the venue installed! At this south coast gig, we didn't take our guy, and gave the sound man our intro music - 2 minutes long, and the last chord of the track is our first note live. 7:28 it started and we waited, then realised the sound man was also the stage manager who had to open the tabs, and he wasn't going to make it through the latecomers in the corridors. The keyboard player wound the handle, and dashed back on to play. Our lighting plot was always modest - a list of songs, colours - feature points in certain songs but easily done really. The we started to get a few venues unable to focus the specials we needed, or unable to provide the red wash at the right moment. We tinkered with the plot, but in the end gave up and started to take some of my lights - but it quickly became impossible for me to rig this and then work it - even with a foot switch. I cannot sing, play and stomp at the same time. So now, we specify a 3 colour wash as minimum, enough light to play in and a guide they can follow. Really annoys me, but despite many venues being excellent equipped in kit and people, others are truly dire. At my summer theatre, more and more acts coming through have their Tour Manager/DSM operating their own mixer, radio mics, sound effects, video screens and FX lighting like strobes. The proper DSMs I work with are getting overburdened with MacBooks and QLab, and don't like it - but in a tour on a budget, you can no longer expect venue people to be any good. I always make the effort to thank the good crews genuinely when you find good ones - but would any production company risk critical elements of their shows to people they can't trust? If you are a touring play - you probably cannot afford a sound op, if all they do is add in the spot effects and perhaps start the pre-show music. You would assume this role would be within the capabilities of any member of the in-house team with the label "sound"- sadly not! Luckily, the big theatres still seem to have decent people, but the small ones are pretty terrible. We ask for 4 profiles in white for the band. Two shows last year, our mic positions were dictated by where the light fell, because "they had been set professionally" - whatever that means, and the volunteers were not allowed to change them!

 

I really believe that DSMs should not be doing sound, lighting and video - but when they are often the only reliable person in the venue, only foolish production companies would trust their reputation to plonkers - which some genuinely are! DSM roles are having to expand - and I suspect more technicians are now moving into stage management because they are needed. It isn't good for the traditional DSM who cannot be guaranteed to love computers and technology. Things are changing.

 

We've not yet discovered a way to include in our advance paperwork to venues a question designed to indicate their people's competence.

 

I remember hosting a religious type convention - which had bags of money behind it, and clearly was going to keep my crew busier than we could cope with - so I pointed out that the production company would need to provide a DSM, plus at least 6 stage crew and 2 LX people to cope with the contents off the 2 trailers. They sent 9 people from a local church's amateur society - all elderly, dressed in twin sets and pearls all totally hopeless. Every time one of my lot swore, they stopped for a prayer.

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Thank you for the responses so far everyone, they will definitely help with the research I am doing.

Have taken your comment into account Bryson and have added an "other" option to the region question to allow for those not in the UK.

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but my experiences of theatres all over the UK with the band for the past 4 years make it very clear that crew quality is radically different in some places.--------------------------We've not yet discovered a way to include in our advance paperwork to venues a question designed to indicate their people's competence.

Hallelujah brother paul,I thought it was just us getting this sort of treatment.

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The trend for forcing stage management to multi-skill and take on roles more traditionally carried out by experienced practitioners with specific skills is nothing new, sadly. It's only a matter of time, now that OSC enables different control platforms to communicate effectively with each other, before the involvement of non-SM technical staff in a performance starts to reduce even more, and everything is run from a central control position operated by the SM/DSM. On some smaller-scale shows, it's already happening.

 

I remember getting a representative from the SMA a bit wound up at a trade show a fair few years back. They were advertising a course called something like "Re-lighting for Company Stage Managers". As someone who, at that point, made most of my living from re-lighting touring productions, this understandably got me a bit riled. So I asked her when they'd be running the companion course, "Touring Company Accounting for Production Electricians". After some initial confusion, she said I shouldn't be so silly, and that that was a daft idea. Why's that? says I. After all, if you're training your members without lighting experience to take away the work currently being done by skilled lighting designers and technicians, why shouldn't it work the other way around? After all, we'd need something to fill the gaps in our diaries once all the relights were being done by company managers. She wasn't impressed. Can't think why not ...

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The title of my course at Drama School was "Stage Management and Technical Theatre". It included training in stage management, lighting, sound, set and costume design and maintenance, furniture restoration and props making, and other stuff. I feel reasonably well qualified to stage manage shows, light and re-light shows, and set up and operate live and recorded sound, I'm not qualified to operate a sewing machine, (but this is a lack of aptitude on my part rather than any deficiency in the training regime), and I've never been a Sound Designer in the current sense of the word, though I've put together sound effects as required for shows...

 

I have been doing all of the above since I left drama school nearly 35 years ago now, so I can heartily endorse kitlanes remarks. As Resident Stage Manager for a mid scale touring venue, I was effectively the Chief LX, and Head of Stage, and it was common for visiting DSMs to operate sound effects. For one touring show I worked on in the mid-nineties, I had two revoxes, a cassette player, a sound mixer, a vision mixer and two VHS players. I called the lighting cues for a local operator. The performers also doubled up as scene-changers, (a complex set with opening windows and doors, a revolve, and smoke machines all controlled from backstage) dressers, and had three or four characters each to play. The tour included a pretty high proportion of one night stands. So I didn't feel I was unduly overworked in comparison with other company members.

 

The one area where I feel under-qualified where Stage Management seem to be expected to take more duties is costume maintenance. I can't really sew, and my laundry skills are rudimentary.

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I'm always quite amazed how few technical skills many members of the SM team actually have. Really basic electrics - repairs of the really simple kind - battery connectors fell off, broken wires, and even things like being able to operate basic stage machinery. The look of horror when given a radio control and a pile of batteries and chargers. I'm kind of torn and as long as the DSM given charge of technology traditionally someone else's, is one of us rather than one of them - I'm OK with it. I'd rather have the right person doing these jobs, even if strictly speaking, they're in the wrong department. I'm equally NOT happy with people more comfy doing stage management taking technical back stage roles. Discovering somebody with an impressive CV doesn't know the basics really P's me off!
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  • 4 weeks later...

Hi All,

 

Thank you all for your input into this topic, there definitely proved to be some interesting points raised by this survey and these have greatly helped to inform the research that I have been conducting.

 

Once again thank you all for your input on this topic

 

Many Thanks,

Joe

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