Stage managers are known for being the time keepers of the theatre world. I’m a big believer that it doesn’t need to ONLY be on us however. Everyone can work to ensure that a room is functioning well. We aren’t the only ones who should read the contract either! It’s also not a comfortable thing to come across as the one controlling “This is when you should work, and this is when you should break,” especially as we make bigger strides to be an anti-racist industry. Also, time can slip up on me too! And if you ask me “how long until break?” I’m no longer a whiz at figuring out time math. But I’ve come up with ways to help with that.
What time do we have to take a break?
Let’s start by saying I do a large portion of my work in Equity union houses. We generally take a break for 5 minutes in every hour (after 55 minutes) or 10 minutes in every hour and a half (after 80 minutes). Years ago, Will Pickens developed a great app for stage managers called MegaWatch. I still have the old no-longer-supported PC-based file I can run – which includes color customization. These days MegaWatch is only available in a web-based version, but I highly recommend it to do the math for you. As soon as you say “we are back,” click on the start button, and it gives you the options of what time to take the 5 and 10 minute breaks and how much time is left until then. Automatic time math! For example, if you click it at 1:00pm, it would give you a run down in minutes to both 1:55 and 2:20pm, and be counting down the minutes as well. Pro Tip: If you forget to start the calculator, but realize it 10 minutes in, you can reset the countdowns to 45 and 70 minutes, or whatever is appropriate for your particular case. Megawatch also gives you two stopwatch timers if you don’t want to use a different device.
That helps me personally, but what about the rest of the room? Over the last several years, I’ve created a laminated tabletop tent design, visible on both sides, that lets the room know what times MegaWatch just told me (or myself if I’m feeling good about time math today). I also add a note at the bottom as to what might help us decide whether we may want to take the 5 versus the 10 minute break. It could be something like the time of an announced runthrough, when the next group of people are called, or the next meal break or end of the day.
In this option pictured, our rehearsal day will end at 8:30p, so we can decide if we’d prefer a half hour chunk at the end, or more like an hour chunk. I will say that sharing with the whole room (and particularly the director), might lead you to take more five minute breaks. I personally don’t care for them as much, because it’s hardly a break, and near impossible for stage managers. But even if it becomes a 7-minute break, there’s validity in giving both options. And if you really need to get back in 5 minutes but have a reset, perhaps the stage management team can stagger breaks to accomplish the room’s needs. Directors feel more flexible in their day, rather than breaks mandated by the clock after 80 minutes. Actors and designers also get the advantage of knowing where things stand. Also, you can ALWAYS take a break early, but you do want to monitor if you’re going to wind up with an awkward weird “chunk” at the end. And you know what? Sometimes that break just flies right past me, and someone else can say “Oh, we should be taking a break, shouldn’t we?”
UPDATE: On a recent gig, the larger sign didn’t make the pack. I knew right where it had to be sitting at home, meant to go in my bag. That said, I did have other laminated pieces of paper along, so I wrote it all out. Gotta say, it’s much harder to read. It’s VERY handy when they’re only looking at the hand written information, and the “Next break possibilities” etc is printed. As a result, I switched the times to a different color marker to stand out.
Getting closer to the mandated break
Let’s say that I AM monitoring the breaks well, however. Many times we stage managers may slide a post-it note over to the director saying “5 minutes until break”…but then it’s a game of “will they see it before it’s time to slide another note?” Sometimes I’m not sitting next to them either. You can vocalize “we have 5 minutes left” but sometimes it’s not fitting to the intense process. I had heard of stage managers who have laminated cards they slide, and others who did color coding as we get closer to a mandated break. Also, I give myself wiggle room in case they don’t see the sign right away. Well, I combined all the best ideas I’d read, added in my desire to empower the whole room not just a few people, and created a flip-sign. I’ve finessed it over the last couple productions, giving old incarnations to other stage managers.
Here’s a video on how the smaller sign works:
I now have a free printable template that is available for downloading for your own use. (Note, this is for the smaller flip sign; feel free to copy my wording from the big one – I figured that was a pretty easy one to make on your own.)
Others like the signs too
I love when I see anyone giving a quick glance to the big break option sign to see where we are in the process. So many people on both sides of the creative tables have told me they found them helpful. Last night I gave a set of break signs to my current director who had said she no longer wanted to work without them. (She’s artistic director of the company, so I used their laminator! All I donated personally to the cause was my time and a half-inch ring.) More often than not in rehearsal, she would look at the sign intermittently, then me, and say she’d like to take the break now (or at X time in the future), but every so often she’d make a crack to our actor peers with, “Oh, I got the red card! I gotta wrap up for break!” I don’t necessarily use the 10-5-2 minute break flip signs consistently, but it’s a handy visual and the color coding makes it even quicker to catch a director’s eye. I’ve now added in a card that I can write in the time we’re back from break, too, as well as a blank card for a quick “nothing to see here” if we’re way before the 5 minute option, or can double as a mini sign board too to write anything I want. I also try to empower the room to come BACK from break on their own, with “It’s 7:53, so we’re back at 8:03” or similar. I really dislike if the room expects me to give them a 5 minute break warning in the middle of the 10, because I’d like to go to the bathroom myself/take the break too, thank you. And you know darn well most people are grabbing their own phones during the break. One advantage that the Zoom-pandemic rehearsals gave us was screensharing a stopwatch break timer. Some continue that process now. I say it out loud and often write down the time for all to see. Do what feels comfortable to you, but I like to protect my own breaks too. I also encourage the entire stage management team to be responsible for the breaks. Everyone can start their own timer. Just make sure everyone checks that the director is indeed ready to come back before you call others back – or that stage managers didn’t actually use up five minutes of the break to reset, and you need a few more minutes yourself if you can’t stagger your breaks.
I hope you find these useful! Let me know if you have other break tips and tricks to share.
Added thought on “Going Green”
I included the tag “Going as Green as Possible” to this one. This does make a very plastick-y product, but I’m reusing it over and over, so ultimately it comes across as more green to me. I’m a big fan of laminating a single sheet of white paper, and using it as a very travel friendly whiteboard. I prefer wet erase markers over dry erase. I have a low track record of the dry erase actually fully erasing! If the daily schedule isn’t too complicated, I much prefer to handwrite these in larger-than-most-fonts sizes so the room can see easier from a far what the schedule is…and to waste less paper. I might be using up more water to erase, but I also carry a black cloth with me and use small amounts of water from my water bottle most of the time, too, until it’s time to wash that cloth. I print many less schedules than most stage managers I encounter. I’ll even tack a laminate sheet on the callboard for reuse if it’s not already a whiteboard.
Update, based on feedback from others
A clock! Of course, I’m a big fan of there being a clock we ALL can look at to know the time. Also, make sure it’s set to match what is on YOUR watch/phone. And then if you are ever working with a union orchestra, be sure YOUR clock matches the orchestra manager, because theirs is final say! Luckily, most phones work off atomic time, these days, but you can always check at time.gov for the official U.S. time. This website was especially useful to me during virtual events crossing multiple time zones.
Another reader recommended using Time Timer, which gives a visual countdown. I looked and there is one that goes more than an hour, too.