stage managment week, Monday 9 Feb

Today went differently than I expected it to. While I felt my book could do with more work (which unfortunately involved a printer and blank paper, neither of which I currently have access to at home) I still felt that DSMing would go better than stage managing. However while I felt uncomfortable stage managing, being DSM was definitely harder, and unfortunately by the time I was beginning to get the hang of it the script finished. I can’t help but wonder if it’s easier when you’ve been in rehearsals for weeks, know the script really well and have listened to the director saying various things about the cues for all that time too, meaning you’d have a better idea of when exactly they’ve to go.

Also, while I knew being stage manager is a tough role, it was worse than I thought. Everyone talking at once, in person and on cans and trying to figure out what exactly is going on is extremely annoying. It was helpful to have Gillian there, although I feel I didn’t follow her advice as I should have, I seemed to take it in then get confused again and not follow it, but knowing I could ask her help whenever I needed it definitely helped in these classes.

However, definetely the worst thing about being DSM or stage managing, especially during a tech is having to be on cans. They’re such useful, helpful devices, but when everyone’s talking at once and people who aren’t on cans are talking to you not realising that you’re listening to someone else, it gets too confusing and you miss who’s saying what. It takes a lot of concentration.