Loading...
The Citizen, 1987-08-12, Page 27THE CITIZEN, WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 12, 1987. PaGE 27. Keeping your coo! asset for stage managers Hilary Blackmore controls the entire production of the shows she stage manages from the booth at the rear of Blyth Memorial Hall, Kevin Fraser [background] the lighting technician waits for his lighting cue. BY KEITH ROULSTON ‘ ‘ If you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs ... you should be a stage manager.” With apologies to Rudyard Kip­ ling, sogoesthe motto thatonce hung in the stagemanager’s booth of one of the theatres Hilary Blackmore worked in and it perhaps best describes the func­ tion of stage managers. The stage manager is probably the least known position in theatre to the outsider and yet is one of the most important in seeing that plays are performed when they should be and as they should be. The stage manager must also deal with emergencies and keep everybodyelsefrom panicking. During Hilary’s career, she’s had to deal with such crisis as an actor who had a heart attack on stage, an actor who dropped dead the night before the play was to open, an actress who sent herself death threats because she was too nervous to go on stage and an actor who nearly drowned on stage because he started hyperventilat­ ing while he was in a shallow swimming pool on stage. Hilary Blackmore is one of those people who have been so involved with the Blyth Festival for so long that she is almost as much a resident of Blyth as year-round residents. She first came to Blyth in 1982 and has been keeping the show going ever since. But for someone who seems to have found her niche in life, the introduction to stage managing came almost by accident ... literally. The tall, witty, straw­ berry blonde set out to be a dancer but a chronic knee dislocation killed the future for that. She turned to acting and took a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree at the Universify of Windsor, only to find out she hated being an actor. She was sitting one day “be­ moaning my fate and wondering what I could do” when a friend called saying he needed an assis­ tantstage manager at the Gryphon Theatre, a summer theatre in Barrie. She took the job and “the first time I put on the headset I thought this was very interest­ ing.” She “put on the headset” two summers in Barrie before coming to be part of the Blyth company. Although they’re called stage managers, stage managers don’t spend much time on stage and they’re not even “behind the scenes”. They live in an anony­ mous world high above and behind the audience in darkened booths where they control what’s happen­ ing on stage and backstage through those headsets that keep them in constant communication with all key areas of the crew. Those who’ve satin a balcony at Blyth or Stratford and have seen a low blue light emanating from the darkened glass have been close to the secret world of stage mana­ gers. Actually the work of the stage manager on any given production begins before the actors even arrive far rehearsal. The stage manager is on the job a week before rehearsals start. That week is supposed to include jobs like sharpening pencils, taping on the floor Of the rehearsal hall a floorplan of what the set will be like (actors seldom rehearse in front of the actual set until late in the rehearsal period), meeting with the set, props, costume and lighting crews to arrange schedul- ing and contacting the actors to make sure they ’ re going to be at the first “read-through” of the play at the proper time on the first day of rehearsal. “What’s actually hap­ pening,” during the week, she says is a stage manager is finding out who’s who at the theatre and whoknows whatand howthings happen in that particular theatre so that when emergencies arrive later, solutions can be found quickly. When rehearsals start it is, she says, “the best of times, the worst of times”. The stage manager is responsible for setting ail the schedules in rehearsal after con­ sulting with the director to see what parts of the play he wants to rehearse on what days. Actors know a day in advance when they’ll be needed in rehearsal and when they can spend time on learning lines or getting costumes fitted. An additional complication at a thea­ tre like the Blyth Festival which has several plays running at the same time is that actors may not be able to rehearse because they ’re requir­ ed for other shows. In rehearsal the stage manager is responsible for the ‘‘prompt book” which becomes the bible of the production. If a line of dialogue is changed, it gets changed in the prompt book. If the director decides an actor should go across thestageandsitdownbefore he delivers a line, that’s recorded carefully by the stage manager. Later the stage manager will also mark in exactly when lights are supposed to go up or down and when music and sound effects are to begin and end. But mostly, Hilary says, the stage manager watches the direc­ tor learning what he/she wants done so that once the show has opened she can keep it running the way the director intended. The week of the opening of the play is a long one for the stage manager and for everybody else involved in the play. During that week everyone works 10 hours out of 12 in a day but stage managers usually work 12 out of 12 hours, in bringing all the final elements together. head” part comes into play as nerves get frayed and so much has to be done. The stage manager must help keep the actors calm by making sure they have everything they need. She must keep the production people happy making sure they have lists of everything that needs to be fixed up or touched up before the opening. She also has to keep the authors busy because by this time there’s little they can do anymore but they’re full of nervous energy. One writer spent the final hours making a cake and another crocheted a pillow cover. These final hours are really more the stage manager’s than the director’s, she says, because most of the work involves setting the right level of light on the stage for each scene and working over and over again with the lighting person to get the lights to come on just at therightsplitsecond. Thesame applies for the sound. There are scenery change rehearsals so that the stage crew can get the scenery 1 changed without delays that would destroy therhythm of the show. The actors go through hours of making their entrances and exits to make sure they’ll make each one on time. Finally it’s opening night and at that point the stage manager becomes the boss of the show, keeping the show as close as possible to the director’s plans. At this point, she says, the stage manager becomes a combination of Machiavelli’sThePrince, St. Thomas Aquinas and St. John’s Ambulance, at times soothing and consoling the actors and crew, at times helping heal injuries and at some times doing whatever is necessary to keep a show going. It’s exhilarating and draining work, she says and there are days when you get so tired you get very testy and later have to go around and apologize to those who have been snapped at. The compensations for the hard work are many. She gets to travel a lot, Hilary says, to the point that she’s hardly ever in the apartment she keeps in Toronto (if you want to . work in Toronto, move to Los Angeles, if you want to work in the rest of Canada, move to Toronto, she jokes). She’s worked in partsol Canada she’d usually never have gotten to see otherwise, from Blyth to New Brunswick where she often works for Blyth’s former artistic director Janet Amos to Manitoba where she’ll work later this fall. It’s also nice being a part of a community that brings new experi- ences to people by way of entertainment, she says. “I love new plays,” she says of working in Blyth. “I have withdrawal if I can’t do three new plays a year.” A bonus is being able to work with top directors and watch how • ngiint||iiu • STARTS FRI. • AT THE they take a script and get the most out of the actors to make the play a success. ‘'Someday when 1 get this huge accumulated amount of knowledge I’m going to do some­ thing with it,” she says. She says she’s tempted to direct, tempted to try acting again, tempted to design sets but ‘‘I’m waiting for the call.” You can’t remain a stage manager forever, she says, be­ cause you burnout but ‘‘1 think I’ve got a couple of years yet.” To make sure the burnout doesn’t come sooner she turned down a chance to do the national tour of “Another Season’s Pro­ mise” this year in favour of taking some time off to work on her home. She and the Festival’s other veteran stage manager Dawn Brennan will end their seasons with the closing of the first four plays and let Martine Beland who has been an assistant stage manager last year and on the first part of this season move up to take over the gruelling tour. Years from now Martine will have her own list of emergencies that were solved because the stage manager keptherhead while all about were losing theirs. STAG & DOE Shari Cook & Dave Cartwright Sat., Aug. 15 8-1 a.m. Auburn Lunch Provided $4 per person Age of Majority Required I PARK THEATREdtn ...............................................................................ft, lff|||| FRI. & SAT. 7:00 & 9:00 SUN. - THURS. 7:30 TUES. ’2.50 e ® BROWNIE'S DRIVE-IN ®d 169 BEECH ST., CLINTON 482 7030 flT 8:30 P M- FIRST SHOW AT DUSK “ (jp lifei K'.'l4 =1:4 t JI .yg J i hHA JMI| ? Wt IMIL4 aTHIS WEEKEND: FRI.-SAT.-SUN., AUGUST 78-9 9 le <9 9 Elizabeth Shue © <987 touchstone Pictures She thought babysitting wot easy money . till the started hanging out with the , XaC fjA Andersons. Outrageous FORTUNE Bette Midler • Shelley Long "Hilarious Adventure Comedy" —NEWSWEEK. David Amen f- ij COAR1I LANGUAGE ' ThaaFr»» Branch Ont Mb ACC 0**4 JUWIM tj CO A ITS t LANGUAGE Thoatro* Branch Ont. Q-rrf-rrrkx, A 2 anripHrnj e STARTS FRI.| • AT THE ^HiiiUiiinq^yiiirrHiniiyinisyiiutjpiui^iiriiiimiianni) MUSTANG DRIVE-IN ”_________ ___ ___ ____ _ • ........it twuni Annul J BOX OFFICE OPENS J •AT 8:30 TUESDAY ‘2.50 ADDED Feature The BELIEVERS MARTIN SHEEN HELEN SHAVER FRIGHTENING I SCENES | Thoatro Branch Ont. AN ULTRA HIT!'""'"*'’ THE NON-STOP ACTION THRILLER OF THE SUMMER.”—.—<... ...... .“...SUCK. LIVELY.. .even as it slams you against the wall, it's tickling your ribs... **'■ (audiences) will eat it up... ..A STAINLESS STEEL UNSTOPPABLE CUNT EASTWOOD.’' “TOP-NOTCH, IMAGINATIVE.. ANDWITTY...”.,..- Mr-Ur Uin.aikihM.Mi'awMin- . nM.na.aaiH ’l*M >MMtn - - • owon ------ »•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• No one con help you. *■ 1 I 1 * wai. as i at a fjtit Sun. toThurs. K one show each ? evening at 8 pm X only " Phone 357-1630 for 24 hour movie information WINGHAM At Ocean Front High, what do they call a guy who cuts classes, hates homework, and lives for summer vacations? Tbacher. MARK HARMON Playing from Fri. toThurs. August 14 to 20 Showtimes: Fri. &Sat.at7&9pm A ADULT ft ACCOMPANIMENT I 1