All role cheat sheets

Cheat sheet: stage manager

Your first week as stage manager

Build the book, tape the floor, become the person everyone calls.

What the job is, in the glossary

If you're new

  • You are the hub. Every schedule question, conflict and problem comes to you, and you send the answers out.
  • Week one is mostly setup: the prompt book, the paperwork, and the rehearsal room floor.
  • Pencil, always. Everything you write will change.Kent State

If you're a pro

Talk to these people first

  • The producer or production manager. Contract, building tour, keys, copier codes, the stage management kit, shared drive access and a scale ground plan.DavidsonLangham CourtEmerson
  • The director, before rehearsals start. Let them lay out the vision first. Then ask about breaks, cuts and script version, the schedule, how they want lines prompted, rehearsal props and a daily check-in.Emerson
  • Designers and department heads. Introduce yourself, collect plots and fitting plans, and learn the venue's safety and fire rules.EmersonColby
  • Your ASMs. Agree on blocking shorthand and split the paperwork and department liaison work.Davidson

Do

  • Read the script twice once you are on the clock: once for the story, once hunting for every prop, effect, costume change and shift hazard.
  • Build the prompt book and the core paperwork: contact sheet, master calendar, scene breakdown, first props list and a rehearsal report template.Langham CourtIU South BendColby
  • Measure and tape the ground plan onto the rehearsal floor with spike tape before blocking starts. Put up the callboard.Davidson
  • Arrive 20 to 30 minutes early, every day.Davidson
  • Send a welcome email that makes you the contact for conflicts and logistics. Ask for a small reply so you know who actually read it.DavidsonLangham Court
  • Day one: collect emergency and medical forms, contracts, bios and conflicts. Show everyone the exits and the first aid kit. Time the read-through.DavidsonLangham Court
  • Have someone else on the team proofread anything that goes out.

Don't

  • Do not start working before your contract does, and never hint at casting before the list is posted.UNI
  • Do not leave personal or medical records where others can see them, and never share the director's phone number without asking.UNI
  • Do not do it all yourself. Hand real work to your ASMs.Kent State
  • No shouting, no arguing with the director in front of the cast, and no phone scrolling in the room.Emerson
  • Never leave cords plugged in or doors unlocked when you go.UNI

What to bring

  • The prompt book, scale ground plans and at least two clean spare scripts.DavidsonKent State
  • A kit box: sharpened pencils, erasers, highlighters, sticky notes, ruler, tape measure, a stopwatch that is not your phone, spike, gaff and glow tape, scissors, safety pins, a sewing kit, a torch, batteries, tissues, mints and a first aid kit.DavidsonColbyEMU thesis
  • Day-one packets, a sign-in sheet with a pen tied to it, forms, keys and codes.EmersonDavidson

Other roles

How-tos for the same show

Tech week, hour by hourPaper tech to previews: who comes, what gets done, how long, and when to move on.Build a prompt bookWhat goes in the book, in what order, and how it runs tech and every show.School, community, pro and UK theatreWho calls the show, what the rules are and what everything is called, side by side.

Sources

Written in my own words from handbooks, guides and rulebooks I read for this suite. Tags beside each point show where it comes from.

Made by Kate Makrigiannis, a theatre-trained product manager who directs and teaches.

Photos: Pexels