Happy Stage Management Day 2023!

October 10, 2023

It’s October 10th, and that means it’s the International Stage Management Day. And it’s the 10th anniversary of the event, started by the Stage Management Association of the UK (and one reason it’s officially “ment” not “er” in the title) in 2013. This year, they are asking people to use the hashtags #stagemgrs23 and #creditwherecreditSMdue.

So how am I celebrating? Well, I just picked up this fantastic chocoloate chip cookie cake for tonight…

A chocolocate chip cookie cake has the words Happy Stage Management Day written in icing. Or maybe there is one less E in the words, hard to tell
(I can’t quite tell if she forgot the E or just squished it to fit, but regardless we’ll celebrate tonight while we tape out!)

I also am bedecked in some of my finest stage management clothing and jewelry…

A t-shirt reads Year of the Stage Manager 2023, on top of it are two socks with images of spike tape rolls. Placed on top of the shirt are also a stage management headset pendant necklace and earrings that say Stage Left and Stage Right
Stage management in style…

Yes, those are spike tape rolls on those socks. They were a favorite gift from students that I taught. (I have to say, the execution does need a little work on these, as you are seeing the best sides of each sock. But I wear them EVERY time I tape a set, as we will tonight.)

A necklace pendant of a stage management headset, and earrings that say Stage Left and Stage Right
Closeup on the jewelry pictured – that’s a very well-worn pendant of mine with a headset, and directional earrings, all made by me

And as for today, I’ve spent the day so far (besides picking up the cookie) plotting out points via the two-tape triangulation method…

An architect's scale rule sits on a theatrical ground plan. There are two points marked red point and blue point, and then many other points have numbers written in those two colors.
Two-tape triangulation is my preferred method of taping out – I’ll be teaching it to the students tonight. And yes, I’m getting closer to finally writing a blog explaining it….it’s been a long time coming, I know! (Set design of Clarence Brown Theatre‘s A Christmas Carol, by Kevin Depinet)

And I took a break from that to fill out the just-released Stage Manager Survey. This fantastic resource was created by my good friend David J. McGraw. If YOU have served as stage manager or assistant stage manager on at least 3 live stage productions, please join us in finding out what really are the “industry standards” of our profession. It’s also for academic or volunteer stage managers, so please fill it out if you’ve stage managed in some position at least three times. I recommend gathering the last 24 months worth of job that you’ve worked before starting – you’ll be asked about how many weeks you’ve done each position, how many states they were, etc. Make yourself a list to refer to easier, especially if you’re a freelancer like me!

I also chatted briefly today with a fellow stage manager to see about co-hosting some upcoming holiday parties in Knoxville and Nashville, Tennessee, courtesy of the Stage Managers’ Association (USA). Stay tuned and let me know if you may be in either of those areas in the next few months.

If I have some more free time tonight I’ll probably start making some more SMeeps for my new team.

Have a great Stage Management Day!