Stage management is the art of making sure that every decision gets made, without ever having to make a decision yourself.
This is a simplified, idealized version of reality, but it's a basic principle I try to follow. My job as a stage manager is to make sure that the artists of the production--whether that's the actors, the director, the designers--are able to do their art to the best of their ability without having to get caught up with logistics or technicalities. Bringing together talented people doesn't count for very much if too much time is spent trying to find pencils, exchanging contact information, and hole-punching scripts. Front-loading that work onto the stage manager alleviates this and allows the creative team to simply be creative.
Obviously in the real world, a stage manager does do more than simply wrangle and coordinate, and does often have some degree of creative input. One of my favorite director's process involved blocking a scene as normal during rehearsal, and at the end, they would turn to me and ask, "Do you believe this scene?" There's something about the sheer practicality of the stage manager mindset that grants just enough separation to maintain perspective, and just enough immersion to help guide and nurture the process.
This is a simplified, idealized version of reality, but it's a basic principle I try to follow. My job as a stage manager is to make sure that the artists of the production--whether that's the actors, the director, the designers--are able to do their art to the best of their ability without having to get caught up with logistics or technicalities. Bringing together talented people doesn't count for very much if too much time is spent trying to find pencils, exchanging contact information, and hole-punching scripts. Front-loading that work onto the stage manager alleviates this and allows the creative team to simply be creative.
Obviously in the real world, a stage manager does do more than simply wrangle and coordinate, and does often have some degree of creative input. One of my favorite director's process involved blocking a scene as normal during rehearsal, and at the end, they would turn to me and ask, "Do you believe this scene?" There's something about the sheer practicality of the stage manager mindset that grants just enough separation to maintain perspective, and just enough immersion to help guide and nurture the process.