Stage Management: A World of Learning, Stress and Beauty

Hello. My name is Renee Caldwell and I am currently living in the DFW metroplex with my amazing boyfriend and our two furry children (dog and cat). I have been stage managing for 6 years now and love what I do. I started my theatre life as a triple threat. To those non-theatre people a triple threat is someone who is trained to sing, dance and act. In fact, my first Masters degree has an emphasis in Acting and Directing. I thought that I could never love anything more then I loved being on stage. However, in the fall of 2008 I was not cast in any of our shows at my university and one of my professors suggested that I try stage management. I agreed, he handed me a book and said this is how you do it. After our opening performance of A Still Life with Iris I decided to never go back to an onstage life and live behind the scenes in the shadows. I ended up finding my niche in the theatre because of a bad audition and I am so thankful.

During my time at Texas A&M University-Commerce I stage managed four shows on the main stage. Every time I stage managed a show I felt I got a little bit better and sank into the groove of stage management a little bit more. Towards the end of my tenure I had to decide on going straight into the professional world, getting my Ph.D. or getting my M.F.A. in Stage Management. I did some research and decided the M.F.A. was the best option for me. I wanted to eventually teach at the collegiate level but work professionally for a while before diving head first into Academia. I was accepted to the University of Missouri-Kansas City and I had never been more excited to start a new chapter of my life. Moving to a place where I knew no one was terrifying. However, after the first few weeks of school I had developed friendships that will last for the rest of my life. I was learning by being an ASM (Assistant Stage Manager) on both University and professional shows. It reinforced the notion that this is what I was made to do. However, the more I learned on an academic scale the more I realized that there are certain things in stage management that you cannot teach. You can only learn them by working. This was extremely evident during a production of Ruined at the Unicorn Theatre in Kansas City. During one of our performances a lady in the audience was so overwhelmed by the scene that she ended up passing out and we had to stop the show and call an ambulance. I was an Army Medic so I ran into the house to make sure I was not needed and when I found out that we did in fact have a doctor in the house I returned backstage and let the cast know what was going on. My stage manager at the time, Jinni Pike, handled this situation with a level head and a calm voice. She became my inspiration that day, and I even made the joke that I wanted to be her when I grew up. (She is a few years younger than me.) It was at this time that the idea of having a blog entered into my head. The idea was quickly replaced with finals week.

Through the years different situations have placed the idea of blogging about stage management into my head. However, it finally came to fruition during our last production of the season at Casa Manana. It was the opening school performance of Peter Pan. Everything had gone smoothly and we were all on deck for the next to last flight moment when Pan flies through the window one last time. I saw the window start to open on my monitor. I saw my ASM reach out and push it open as if something were wrong with the window. However, when the window was fully open I cued the operator to fly Pan. In an instant the show became terrifying. Pan's line had gotten caught between the window and the wall. Thus, flying her straight into both and almost knocking over that scenic unit. As soon as she landed I sent two people onstage to hold up the set so it would not fall over. I also cancelled the final fly moment at the end of the show for Jane and Pan. I didn't want them to hit the set that was leaning in their path. After the show, we put contingency plans in place so that this would never happen again. We put yellow spike at the top of the window that would react to the blue light on the CYC. Every time Pan was to fly through the window my ASM would line up her fly line with the yellow spike and give me a clear before I cued the operator. This ensured that Pan would safely fly through the window every time. As a disclaimer, everyone should know that our Peter Pan was alright and that she continued to perform as the best Peter Pan I have ever seen.

After this experience I realized that this story could possibly help a future stage manager if they were presented with this situation. I decided that day that I would start a blog. Maybe someone out there will see this and it will help them. If anything, it will be funny for people to read what actually goes on behind the scenes and how much work it really is to play pretend for a living. Some may think that theatre is easy, but this blog will show that there is always something happening in our world. In order to move past these things we must compromise and think creatively. Otherwise, our shows would be dead in the water. Stage Management is about wearing many hats for one job. You must be an information hub, a communication master, a fixer of things that are broken, a company psychologist and the first line of defense when something goes wrong. Stage Management is not about being a dictator and barking orders at everyone but it is about creating a safe and comfortable environment so that your cast, designers and crew can collaborate and create art. Thus making the process a joy to be apart of.

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