The hardest thing about stage managing a new play is that it is like trying to hit a moving target. Paperwork tracking characters and scenes becomes outdated as soon as it can be created and weekly schedules go out the window when the script is undergoing serious revisions. All of this movement is exactly why the role of the stage manager is important: you have to be prepared to guide everyone else so they can hit the new target with all their energy. It always requires you to be a step ahead. It’s a challenge, but here are a few tips to make it easier
Monday night was the first public reading of Us and Everything We Own following a three day workshopping of the script.
1. Set a hard deadline for changes to the script. I recommend no later than two days before tech starts. You don’t want lines to keep changing as you are setting cues, plus that gives the actors a chance to settle into the final script for a bit before opening.
2. Expect changes to come up after your deadline. But these changes should be small: replacing a word, cutting a line here or there. No new scenes.
3. Remember that the process of rehearsing a new play is more stressful for everyone than rehearsing an established script. Be gracious to others and to yourself.
4. Stay on top of the paperwork. All of it. Include the draft number on each draft of the paperwork for quick reference. It will be a lot of work, but will save everyone a lot of time.
5. Develop a good short hand with the playwright and a system for communicating notes back and forth in a way that won’t eat your rehearsal time. My advice? Treat requests for changes based on rehearsal as exactly that: requests. “We would like to change…” or “Would it be possible to change…”
6. Listen. Listen more. Especially when the director and playwright are talking to each other.
7. Print fresh pages for everyone. Some actor will always want to write in the changes, but inevitably this leads to bigger problems later. Keep everyone on the same page. Physically.
8. Whenever possible, participate in the development process.
9. Initiate the conversation about who gets to make the final decisions: playwright or director. Make sure both parties are clear on that.
10. Over communicate – especially with designers. They are on the biggest time crunch of all, and you never know which small piece of information will be a BIG problem for them not to have a week from now.
In this past theatre season I had the privilege of stage managing two world premiere productions as well as beginning the workshop process on another. As I look to next season, it looks like three world premieres are on the table. It’s exciting and I can’t wait.
Great tips, Lois! In my experience, setting hard deadlines (Number 1) is done by the director, possibly with the SM’s advice. The SM reminds the participants of what the deadlines are. And Number 8 is tricky, sometimes you have to explicitly ask the director how you can appropriately contribute, other times you can kind of feel what they will accept. And the more projects you do with the same group of creators, the more you can contribute.
Nice piece overall, Lois, with many really smart recommendations, but I have to disagree with your first point, setting a hard deadline for changes.
As production Manager at a company that specializes in developing new works and producing premieres, My number one piece of advice for stage managers working on a new play would actually be the opposite of what you suggest: Recognize from the start that the process on a new play is fundamentally different from that of an established script. Very few new plays show up fully formed, so rather than focusing on interpretation, rehearsing a new play is all about defining the piece and developing its potential. You can’t simply stop the process of development because it makes your job harder or gets in the way of normal procedures. If the script isn’t working and the playwright and/or director think that there’s a way to fix it, you have to adapt and do what’s necessary — otherwise, what’s the point?
Obviously there is room for negotiation regarding how or whether to implement changes, and sometimes the requests won’t be feasible or make sense. You can’t, for example, start over with the set design or completely reimagine the costumes, but I’ve had scenes re-ordered, characters, songs or whole scenes cut, actors recast and major design choices rethought right through previews. One show we worked on recently, a new musical called Cloudlands, by Octavio solis and Adam Gwon, underwent significant and challenging changes right up to opening day — the ending was completely re-written 3 times in the last week, just for starters. The result was a piece that was remarkably different in tone and character than what we started tech with, and frankly, it was also remarkably better.
The point is, none of the changes requested were arbitrary, and they all served to make the piece more powerful, moving and effective. If we had resisted the changes or required them to scale back their approach, to be frank, the show would have failed. I would argue that the whole point of what we do is to give shows the best possible chance to succeed within the limits of the resources and time we have available.
I do have to be honest and say that the success of the changes we made during Cloudlands aren’t always the case. Sometimes you work on a show that is struggling to find itself, and changes get tossed in willy nilly that do NOT save the day. If this is the case, you have to trust your Artistic Director and Production Manager to recognize it and help solve the problem. If they’re not aware of it, have a private conversation with your Production Manager (if you have one) or the AD themselves (if you don’t), and ask them to join the conversation and help resolve it. Get help where you can — that’s why it’s there! Make sure the lines of communication stay open, and do your part to keep things moving forward.
So, long story short, if you’re going to take on a new work, embrace change – it can be the play’s friend under the right circumstances, and remember that the very idea of producing new work is to change what’s being done on our stages. If that can change, so can we!
Sorry for going on so long — keep up the good work!
Hi Joshua,
In a lot of ways I do, in fact, agree with you. That’s why you’ll notice that point number two was to expect changes after the deadline. A lot of the new plays I work on are lucky to get one preview before they open, so it becomes a reality that the timeline is simply compressed.
One of my first professional shows was a new play that was being directed by the playwright who was also the AD of the company. On the afternoon of opening he came into the room with a brand new scene for the cast to learn. It lead to a lot of terror and an opening night that was far less successful that it should have been. Did it make it a better play? Yes. Is there a way to do that better? I think so.
When I look back on that experience, if I had been a more mature artist I would have encouraged it to happen differently – through private conversations with the playwright/director/AD and perhaps suggested making the change after we opened in order to give us a bit more time to rehearse it and so that the cast wasn’t quite as terrified going into their opening night. In that case, I believe that part of the problem was related to expectations – the cast was all quite young and inexperienced and simply unprepared for that sort of change to occur.
This past fall I worked on a new play called Re:Union. That show was also getting re-writes right up and into tech/previews, but an Artistic Director imposed deadline for a finalized script (which the AD said should be before the first day of rehearsal!) was completely ignored. We got a brand new second act a week and a half before opening. And it made a huge difference. If we had that second act sooner were there ways that things could have been better integrated or other small changes that would have made the show even better? I believe so. It is my understanding that the playwright has made some changes since the production. That show was also hugely technical – with four live cameras feeding to three projectors and about 430 cues in a two hour show, we had never run the whole show with final script and all of it’s tech before our first (and only!) preview. Was it stressful? Yes. Did we compromise to make it easier? No. Was the show better for it? Yes.
Ultimately, what I think I’m trying to say, is that every production and every production calendar lends itself to a slightly different way of working but that above all the goal of the production is to serve the play, and the goal of the SM should be to serve the production. We all want to create the best plays possible.
Let’s look at this on the other side, well one of the other sides anyway. I mean the technical side of theatre. Lighting plots and set designs have to be submitted and approved by certain dates, so crews of theatre workers can be scheduled, theatre and rehearsal space can be rented, gear can be rented. The point I’m trying to make here is that the production(project) depends on a timeline with the deliverable being the opening of the show.
Ultimately the hard goal from the accountants perspective is that the show puts bums in seats(money), but it’s not going to do that by postponing that opening date. More crew have to be paid, rentals have to be re-jigged, so on and so forth. If the project manager (Director/Production Manager) can’t deliver on that opening date, they are simply not doing their jobs.
Sure it’s a new play, big deal.You still have the same goal as a show that’s been out in the public domain for 50 years– a show that will entertain the audience on a opening night.
Thank you for this article. I am currently working on getting my own theatre troop off the ground and I am working with Linda Matney Gallery to create avant-garde theatre. Your articles offer simple and to the point advice and I shall be visiting your stream quite frequently and probably will have loads of questions to ask you.
Be well and thank you for your insights
Gavion E. Chandler~
‘Man is his own devil.’