My Blue Castle

Stage Management by Lawrence Stern (1st edition -- 1974)

 

"Now there are all sorts of virtues a stage manager must have. You will find them listed and profusely described in the pages of this book. But the supreme virtue among many is this: The stage manager must arrive before everyone and leave long after everyone else is gone." (from the forward by Ray Bradbury, page ix)

 

Back when I was a theater mad kid in high school I had no idea about what stage managers do. (Nobody does really). Shows had them... but I was so painfully shy that if I did get involved with a show, it was usually run crew or costuming or props. We had a new drama guy come in my junior year, and he blew us all away with his creativity. He might have had stage managers... but what I remember them being called were assistant directors, and that's not really the same thing at all.

 

I ended up doing community theater with my theater teacher, and serving on boards of directors with him and his wife.

 

But while I wanted to throw myself into some theater program at college, my parents said no way on that one.

 

So... after a false start in restaurant management, I ended up in the school of education and worked on community theater in the evenings. I had my in with the theater groups in the props department, and eventually they saw I was bright and eager and all those things that get you kicked around if you're not careful. So they asked me to stage manage The Music Man.