Tag: growth

A Few Thoughts for Young Stage Managers

~ Julia Jones ~ Leave a comment

What would happen if we put down the screens in rehearsal
If our young stage managers were able to absorb “the room”
soak up its magic… energy… urgency?

Try, the masters of our future, to let your
imagination dance among the interest of others
as they live and as they reveal.
Take a step back from building and bettering.

What would happen if the line weren’t always perfect
if the column didn’t add up but you knew the why of it?
What if Instead of dotting the “i” you watched a flower grow?

What would happen if you let go of perfection
and let respect guide your decisions?
What would happen if the power went dim
and only your light was available to hold the room?

I am inspired to write this blog not as a chastisement to our future stage managers and certainly not as an affront to all of my friends and colleagues grooming these very efficient managers in Universities across the country. I am writing it as a reminder to young stage managers that our business allows us to be a unique part of a creative process through the support of actors, directors, designers and a production team. In this age of technology: computers, instant communication, instant information and beautiful paperwork so many young stage managers have become machines and don’t recognize that they are a part of a magical journey.  Don’t get me wrong, I love good paperwork and when I have a choice I love working with a certain Stage Manager who does some of the best paperwork I’ve ever seen. My question to these flashlight clad knights of the future is beyond the paperwork do you know how to communicate with a stage hand with as much respect for their knowledge as you do with  a director or an actor? Do you take the time to understand why the same step, song or moment is worked and re-worked beyond comprehension? Are you okay with being seen and seeing everything and not being involved with the decision, but still willing to understand and uphold that decision? Ours is a curious part of the artistic process but no less a part and if you burrow behind your smart this and i-that you miss so much of what is happening. Lift your eyes and see how an actor digests information, how the story is being told, how the blocking evolves. See what a designer sees so you can maintain their vision, see how a prop is being used so you can make sure the right item is manufactured, see how a costume, that is yet to be worn, could change what is being asked of the person wearing it. I promise you this information will change how you write that report, how you communicate that need, how you enjoy your day.

Please note: I am authoring this blog as a working Stage Manager for the past 27 years and while I work in a commercial theatre setting now and so much of what I do day-to-day is completely mechanical I do try to practice these principles whenever possible. I am  using as my inspiration young stage managers that I have worked with over the last ten years or so, many of which have wildly successful careers, so I am not trying to be an arbiter for what will bring you success. I am suggesting that as you start working in this business don’t forget that it is an ART and you are an artists.

Millennials of Management

~ Julia Jones ~ Leave a comment

Ambition is a crafty enemy that can leave who you truly are behind.
Creating a craft doesn’t align with her values, she wants results.
Time to grow is lost in her web of beliefs with their twisted urgency.
Why take the train across the country, by the time you arrive I will be done

You can’t catch me, I’m the gingerbread man

I often write about Stage Managing from the point of view I know best, which not surprisingly is my own. A stage manager of a certain age who has been raised in a variety of theatrical environments. I would like to take a departure from the familiar and try to see life from a very different point of view, the point of view of a generation that is “the new frontier”, the Millennials of management. A talented group of driven managers who definitely threaten we heirs to the throne. With there facile minds and often tone bodies the “say no to drugs” generation is taking broadway by storm.  They are brought to broadway direct from Stage Management programs everywhere. These lads and lassies have some pretty powerful traits; they are young, bright and super ambitious.

“Here I am, ready to go. Last year I was the teacher’s pet and my teacher knows this person who can get me in with a person who I think will put me in touch with this other person they met having drinks with another friend of hers and now I have an interview to be a PA for a new Broadway Musical. Here I am working with this broadway stage manager wowing him with my hard work and powers of excel. This is amazing and the director totally values my contributions & the choreographer said I was “the best”. Here I am in tech, the PA on headset. I have done so much paperwork on this show the ASM’s “couldn’t have done it without me.” To the cast I am part of the team, they told me so at drinks the other night. Previews & Opening Night of my show. There I am in the program, my show. I was so good as the PA, “my PSM” recommended me for another PA job… I start in two weeks, just enough time to fly home and see my folks. Day one of rehearsal for my new Broadway show. The other PA has done some Off Broadway & Regional work but this is her first Broadway show… I guess I’m the voice of experience and I am the script PA so the Bookwriter has been coming directly to me. I’m actually “invaluable to this process.” The other PA’s can run for lunch because I have to be in the scene work rehearsal with the PSM and the director. To the writers I am a part of the team. Previews & Openiong NIght, my show. Two broadway shows on my resume and I have been trained as a sub. Another PA interview in two weeks, just enough time to go to Fire Island with some of the folks from my last show and do the Broadway Cares benefit in the Pines, 1K likes on my last Instagram post, yes. While I was on Fire Island I found out that this new show may be adding an ASM and I am the only one of the PA’s with… broadway experience…

Are we doing a disservice to these powerhouse individuals by promoting their youth and myoptic experience? Or is this actually the future of our business on Broadway? They have cut their teeth on the grizzle of Broadway politics. They are not intimidated by Producers, General Managers & many are friendly with directors & choreographers since they are not bound by the convention of showing deference. It’s a new generation of folks who are proud members of Actor’s Equity Association, they completely missed the generation of stage managers who thought we should be part of the IATSE. Maybe this pride and vibrato is a thing that should be embraced. They are paying their dues as Production Assistants, maybe they don’t need to know how it works in Summer Stock or Tour, Regionally or Off Broadway. I remain true to my upbringing in the business as it has shaped me into the manager and human I am at work, but I will try to keep this new generations legitimacy in mind while I am interviewing to assist them in the future.

taking stress off your “to do” list!

~ Julia Jones ~ Leave a comment

 

We, as stage managers, absorb a lot of different energy throughout a rehearsal day. Sometimes it is super fantastic creative moments that you almost can’t believe that you get to be a part of. I mean come on, even the most buttoned up among us has to admit when you see true talent and craftsmanship at work it makes you want to put down your Dixon Ticonderoga and let all your senses soak that shit in! Other times, its business as usual, hours spent on details that may or may not  come across in the final product. Then there are the times the room is a pressure filled environment where creative people are taxed and they generously share that tension with you or better take it out on you. Here’s the best part, if you are super lucky you get another group of artists, the design team, that are not in the rehearsal room, but equally as stressed coming at you about their needs. Its pretty fantastic shit and no amount of Calgon is going to take you away (please note this is a late 1980’s reference, but I don’t know a new millennial version). You my friend are right in the middle of a creative process midlife crisis and it is real! A show goes from infancy, childhood, puberty & wild youth before we are really a part of the process.  By the time we are deeply involved you typically have a mature piece of theatre going through a divorce, working out, loosing weight and buying a Maserati convertible. Its about high stakes time, money and public attention.

“By letting go it all gets done.” — Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching

This quote by Lao Tzu couldn’t be more wrong, right? We can’t “let it all go”, that’s nuts. We need to take every detail on and manage it. That’s our job, we manage the stage and the stage is created by these often emotional minds coming together? I’m not too sure Mr Tzu is so wrong. I don’t think he is saying throw your hands up and quit. I believe we as Stage Managers have to let all that negative energy go. Strip away all the side eye and exasperation and do the task on hand. Imagine if you didn’t contribute to the tension at all. If you could actually let it go and focus on what needs to be done. This is not an easy ask! We managers are human beings, several of us are artists in our hearts and not “Management” performing our task without humanity. I struggle with this every day, but I find when I really am able to rise above and keep what needs to be done in focus it makes every task more doable and allows things to actually get done. “Letting go” is a practice, a discipline you must work every day. You might do it by writing a list with all the emotion attached and then cross through anything that isn’t a doable task. Make real the things that you need to let go in order to actually let them go. Maybe you need to walk away and breath for a moment and then take a look at the real task. If you are able to master this, bless you, if you are like me you will need to constantly remind yourself but the results are worth it. We can get it all done.