With the production finished and my internship over, I have
had the time to reflect on my time spent as stage manager of a community
theatre. There were unexpected delights
as well as cringe worthy moments. There
were brief moments of satisfaction as well as those of utter despair. The one thing I can say with certainty, this
was not what I expected.
From the first day meeting everyone, it was difficult to
know my place. Was I here to add
opinions that would help shape the production, or would I be getting coffee and
reminding actors of what days we meet? I
had high hopes for the impact I could make, but low confidence in the
opportunities to do so. After having
watched the first rehearsal I was told I would be the stage manager. My first thought was, “I’m going to have to Google
that to see where my responsibilities begin and end”. Having a general idea as to what this would
entail I was worried that my voice would not be heard on ways I believed the
production could be bettered.
As the weeks began to build, so did my confidence in my
voice as an important part of this production.
I began to give notes and suggestions as to what worked and did not
while viewing our rehearsals. This is
where the first major obstacle arose. Not
knowing my specific duties was brain-racking enough, but not understanding the
director’s method was even more so. This
is not to say he was “wrong” in his directing style, it was just hard to see
how we were going to be ready for opening night.
After a few more weeks, the technical side of things began
to take shape. Lights and sound were set
and a week before our first show, we had tech rehearsal as well as our first
time running through the entirety of the musical, oh and not to mention the
first time we added in the orchestra.
The addition of all these things at once created a cascade of problems
that needed to be corrected quickly (some never did). As I began calling shows and making errors
that would need to be corrected for the next show, I began to appreciate all
the hard work so many people had put into making this production come alive.
The play of course went off with only minor blips and was
enjoyable to work on and watch as well, but during the entire experience I did
realize one thing. I do not want to be a
stage manager. Getting the experience of
working on the technical side of things gave me a deeper appreciation of the time
and effort that is put into making a performance work seamlessly. This was wonderful to experience and I am
sure to use this knowledge as I continue to grow, but this is not the side of
things I want to work on as a career. I
enjoyed making notes, reviewing the play, reading and rereading it until it
felt like mine. I loved talking to the
actors, making suggestions on what to try.
I loved seeing what I had brought to the production come out through the
actor’s performance. This is the side of
theatre I love. This is what I want to
do with the rest of my life. This internship
was wonderful in that it gave me actual experience working on a performance,
but more than that, it showed me the love I have for the stage.
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