Working In Theatre- Stage Management Duties- Part 13

Once the play has been rehearsed for the given period, the show will then move into the theatre, particularly if it has been rehearsed elsewhere, although some shows are rehearsed using the stage, and the set mark-out will fit into the standing set of the show which is running currently. It is at this stage that a technical rehearsal will be done, which enables all the technical elements to be tried and tested. Stage management will have worked over the previous weekend, having 'struck' the previous play's set, and constructed the incoming show's set on the stage. All the rigging, flying, lighting etc will have been put in place before the set in built. This used to be done on a Sunday, and we would have worked until around 2 a.m. on Sunday morning removing the set of the outgoing show, sorting out props which have to be returned and doing general housekeeping to allow the new show to be set up.

The technical rehearsal is so that  every cue, for lighting, sound, scene change, costume change can be tried out. At this point neither the actors or stage management will have been able to work with the set. The actors will also have all the props they need, rather than the 'stand in' ones that they would have had in the rehearsal room. A technical can last all day, into the early hours of the next day, and in some cases they can drag on into the next day with a break in between, but this is rare. It depends on the complexity of the play. Obviously the more cues, of whatever type, the more stopping and starting there will be. At the end the director will give notes to all concerned, in particular stage management will have to deal with such things as doors sticking, wobbly flats, and a whole host of things, before the first dress rehearsal. Sometimes the first dress rehearsal can follow on almost immediately after the technical, and then one final dress rehearsal the afternoon the play opens. This can be incredibly trying and when stage management have been working since the final performance of the previous play on, say, a Saturday (which was how we worked when I was in rep.) and the next show opens on the following Tuesday evening, that's a good four days solid work with very little sleep.

As with any show, the prompt corner is the operation centre who the whole show. Whoever has been 'on the book' during rehearsals will now be in control here. The 'Book' will, by now,  be made up with  all the cues market in. If a line spoken by an actor is the cue for, say, a lighting or sound effect, then the 'book' with have it market in clearly. In most theatres there is a cueing system using lights, rather like traffic lights in the street, but obviously a good deal smaller. You give a warning that a cue is coming up for the operator, usually a red lights, and when the cue comes, you give a green light. At Ipswich theatre there was a three-light system, which had an additional blue light. The idea being that the operator of sound, lighting or whatever, would flash the blue light to indicated to the prompt corner that they were standing by. It was quite a good idea as it allowed you to be sure the operator was ready. On one occasion at Ipswich I was doing the book for one show, I forget which now, and I hadn't got the blue light from he lighting operator. I had given him the standby, but he hadn't indicated that he was actually standing by. It got closer and closer to the actual lighting change, fade or whatever and I began to panic. It just happened that the lighting board was above the prompt corner, and was accessible by a metal ladder. I had to climb up and see where the operator was, and found him asleep! I had to operate the lighting board as he wasn't awake in time to give the cue! A bit of a seat-of-the-pants situation!

If you were put on props for a show you would be expected to go out and find the relevant items listed for the play in rehearsal. I can recall trudging the streets of Cheltenham as a very green student A.S.M. I became a good deal more savvy at going into shops and asking if we could borrow such-and-such item or items, the owner of a particular shop would be very trusting that we weren't going to damage whatever the item was or even sell it. They would be given free tickets for the play, or the next one in the season, and have a credit in the play's programme. At Ipswich Theatre I remember borrowing a white linen tablecloth for a play. Unfortunately it got badly stained with something which would not wash out. We had kept the wrapping in which it would have been carefully folded for display in the store, but when it was returned it was re-folded, so that the stain wouldn't show! Goodness knows what Debenhams would have done when they discovered that the tablecloth was stained when it was opened up. I just imagine that it would have been sold in a sale or probably not put out for sale at all.

Working in Theatre- Stage Management Duties- Part 1

I will attempt to outline the various duties expected of a stage management crew, bearing in mind that this was during my time working in repertory theatre in the 1970's. I expect a lot of things have remained the same, but with such things as union agreements, financial factors and the fact that 'repertory' theatre no longer exists in the same way, there are bound to be a great deal of changes since I worked in this area.

A standard team of stage management would consist of a stage manager, and over all would inevitably be a production manager and over the whole lot would be an artistic director and general manager who would be responsible for the administration of the theatre. Stage management, going down the ranks as it were, would be made up of D.S.M. (Deputy Stage Manager) as well as A.S.M. There might be several D.S.M.s and A.S.M.s, depending on the size of the company. A.S.Ms could also be Technical and Acting, the Technical being responsible entirely for duties such as props, scene changes, generally looking after the actors on and off stage, whilst Acting A.S.Ms do a bit of both acting and stage management and would have been a route into an acting career. They would generally speaking get smaller parts,  (ie. butlers, maids, 'spear carrying' parts, herald, minor characters in Shakespeare productions etc etc.) doing minor stage management duties but they wouldn't have gone into theatre in order to focus on a stage management career. D.S.Ms generally used to be responsible for the 'Book' for shows, taking rehearsals and then, when the play goes into the theatre for a run, would be responsible for the running of the show from the prompt corner, giving cues for lighting, sound, and calling the actors on stage ready for their entrances etc. I did 'The Book' when I was A.S.M. at Colchester Rep, on a production of 'Billy Liar', my first shot at this particular job, but generally the more experienced D.S.Ms were responsible for 'The Book.' It was good to have been given the responsibility as you are totally in control of the show on stage. If there is a technical issue, an actor needs a prompt and he doesn't get one, a cue is late for something, such as sound or lighting, it is you, as being in charge of the prompt corner, who would take the responsibility.

When a play begins rehearsal, and it depended on how many weeks each play ran for, but generally they would run for two or three weeks, and the next play in the season was going into rehearsal, there would be a read-through of the play with all the actors present along with stage management, costume designer, set designer, lighting design, sound and so on. This gave everyone a chance to get a general 'feel' for the play. The director would discuss his approach to the text and then the company would see the set, given some sort of presentation by the designer, how the set worked, how scene changes are done, and generally, how the whole show will look and feel. The model is generally a full-scale replica and then there would be the ground-plans to look at.

Stage management would have 'marked up' the floor of the rehearsal room. Some theatres have their own rehearsal space within the main theatre building. At Liverpool Playhouse, for example, which could also be used for small-scale, studio performances, but generally most 'reps' had to make do with either rehearsing on the actual stage, that is, if the current show had space within it's acting area, but usually rehearsals would be held somewhere in the town such as a church hall or other convenient space where the floor-plan of the set could be marked out using coloured tape or even chalk. Doors, stairs and different levels of the set would be marked and then furniture placed in the position it would be on the set. This would most likely be stand-in furniture as most likely not all the furniture for the actual production would be ready for use in the rehearsal studio.

Then the 'blocking' of the play would begin. If actors were not required for a particular scene they wouldn't be 'called' until later, but whoever was responsible for running the rehearsals, generally the person doing 'The Book' would have to keep a tally of rehearsal 'calls' usually given by the director at the end of a day's rehearsal and then the D.S.M. would have to make up a call sheet giving calls for the actors for the next day or for the days ahead. The whole play would most likely be broken up into scenes or acts and the actors required for those scenes or sequences of the play would only then be needed for their scenes. You would most likely have to telephone those actors who were elsewhere to give them their calls.

'Blocking' is the initial direction given by the play's director, the moves the actors make around the stage. During this process the person on the book has to mark all these moves as precisely in the prompt copy so that, if needs be, the director or actors can be remind where a particular move is. At the same time, another member of stage management is plotting all props, what they are and where they are set on or off stage, if they come on from a particular entrance which is important so that at the beginning of the play stage management know where to set them. It is at this point, when there is a list of props, that stage management begin to find props. Some theatres have a properties department, a store-room which contains a fair amount of items which can be used in any particular play, be it a set of candle sticks, teapots, cups and saucers or smaller items of furniture, but if it's something more complicated, such as a stuffed bear (which is what we were supposed to find for a play I did in Liverpool.) or a samovar (which I had to find when working on a play in Cheltenham. Yes, I did manage to find one, in an antiques centre.) then you would be expected to walk the streets of the town in which the theatre was in and literally 'beg, borrow or steal' to get items to use on-stage. We seemed to have a regular selection of shops, mostly antique shops, who would be willing to lend items of furniture, and then we got on good terms with the display departments of certain department stores who used to provide all manner of items. On a production of 'Salad Days' at Cheltenham Everyman we needed to find a couple of hairdryers, the sort you would find in a hairdressing salon. I found out that Cavendish House, the large department store opposite the theatre, was modernising their hairdressing department and found that they were throwing out their old driers, so we managed to borrow them for the show. Perfect, and they even came on castors which made it easy during a scene change. They could then be simply wheeled on and off stage during the scene change.

Before the actual props are available (and some can be hired from a range of prop hire companies) we also had to provide 'stand-in' props, so the actors had something to handle during rehearsals. It's a bit difficult, for example, if a scene is set during a meal and the actors don't have plates and cutlery, or drinking in a bar and don't have something to drink out of. Once they have got their lines learnt and aren't carrying their scripts then they will want to have something to work with as regards props. The same goes with furniture. They need chairs to sit on and if there is a sofa, a group of chairs pushed together to stand in for a sofa which may not have been sourced.

Working In Theatre- Part 4

It makes me laugh, looking back, but at the time I was offered my first job, back in 1968, when I was at Mander College in Bedford (now plain old Bedford College. Don't ask me why they changed the name.) and I was failing my A Levels miserably, there was a story going  around the place, when I said I was  going to work in 'rep', that I'd actually got a job AS A REP!  I can't think why I would go off and be a 'rep' supposedly going from door-to-door selling something such as brushes, insurance or encyclopedias, or from company to company selling something else. Why would I do that? I have no selling skill and I can't imagine myself doing such a thing. But, thinking about it, if you didn't realise that 'rep' was short for 'repertory' I suppose you could confuse it for the selling-type of rep. It just goes to show, looking back all those years, the sort of way people can have an ignorance about something, how you are more or less expected to follow a certain path in your life, and that, if you veer from that path, you are, in some way, thought of being a bit odd. I really do hope things are different now, where children at school who want a career that is slightly different from 'The Norm'  can do so without being made to feel they're odd in some way. Perhaps that was what it was like in the late '60's. I wasn't exactly given much help with my career-path with teachers at school. I think anything to do with 'The Arts' and 'Theatre' was thought of as 'not being a career', that it was 'insecure' and that it would be better if you found something else to do with your life. Perhaps it wasn't actually verbalized, but, looking back, it seems as if that was what was going through people's minds when I had said that I wanted to do something 'artistic' as a profession.

I recall several of the plays that were produced during my time at Colchester. One being "Loot" a somewhat controversial play by Joe Orton. This is an extremely black comedy, to say the least. It may not be considered to be so controversial by today's standards, but when it was first staged, I imagine in the mid-1960's, one has to bear in mind that in Britain there was still censorship in theatre, so a great deal of what was portrayed would have had to be vetted before it could be staged. I think Orton's intention was to shock, and this play could definitely be said to shock. I'm not sure what sort of reaction it had on the Colchester audience in the early 1970's, but I would imagine that they would be fairly conservative in their tastes. The post of Lord Chamberlain had been abolished under the 1968 Theatres Act, the government official who had power to censor plays and licenced theatre premises.   So one can imagine that theatre managers at the time would  have been keen to put on plays that formerly would have come under the jurisdiction of the Lord Chamberlain's Office. The play is about a couple of  young men who are planning a bank robbery. What was so controversial was the fact that they used their  deceased mother's coffin to hide the money that they had stolen. Stage management had to create all the bank notes, coffins and even a corpse, which is within a shroud. Also, we had to find a glass eye, which was supposed to roll across the floor at one point in the play, but this was actually artistic licence, as an actual glass eye isn't like a glass marble and won't roll at all.
We had to have two coffins as well as two 'mini-coffins' or caskets. One of each had to be so constructed that the side could fall out on a hinge and had to be made to look as if it had been in a fire, with  the effects of scalding and fire on it.  Off stage, before it went on stage, we used a smoke gun to add smoke, which added to the whole effect. This smoke came out of the coffin when it appeared on stage. The hinged section had to fall open on cue to reveal the hidden cash inside and that also had to look as if it was burned. We had to create bundles of £5 notes, which had been created by myself and then Roneoed (this was before the more modern photo-copying we have today, which would have made the whole process so much easier.) and then we cut up bundles of newspaper the size of the £5 notes and glued together with the tops and bottoms glued on and then painted as near as possible the colour blue of genuine £5 notes. In all there were supposed to be a few thousand pounds-worth of notes, so you can imagine how much work went into producing all these mock Fivers!  These bundles of notes did look quite convincing from the audience, but not so real on closer inspection. No, certainly not forgeries of real fivers! Also, they weighed a good deal more than real fivers. The story in the play is that the two men go off to their mother's funeral having removed the corpse from the coffin, which has been on stage from the beginning of the play, then they conceal the money inside the coffin and then there is a traffic accident on the way to the funeral which is why the coffin is burnt and they bring the second coffin back with the burnt-out effects and the hinged side which, as I say, has to be revealed on cue to show the audience and not a police inspector who comes in at the vital moment.
The corpse was actually a mannequin with hinged joints, very realistic with movements when moved about, but then is concealed inside a shroud, so when it is picked up it moves in a very realistic fashion. Quite eerie if you didn't realise it wasn't real!
During the  final week of rehearsals the actors got to use the 'prop' coffins and other items which had been constructed in the theatre workshops, which were elsewhere in Colchester and one Sunday we had to bring them over to the theatre and carried them through the town streets. It must have looked very odd to members of the public who saw all this! I don't suppose they would have realised that the coffin was not real! All these items were later hired out to other theatres for their own productions of "Loot", but I think our work and efforts producing these props were extremely good. It was one area of my stage management duties which I  really enjoyed.

Yet another production staged at Colchester Rep when I was there was “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.” I had been involved in several other Shakespeares over the years, beginning with “A Winter’s Tale” and “Romeo and Juliet” at Cheltenham, “King Lear” at Ipswich Theatre and “Hamlet”, which was the first production I was involved in at Liverpool Playhouse.

The production  of “Dream” was something of a cut-price affair, as regards the casting. As with most Shakespeare productions, most of the parts are ‘doubled up, ’ one actor playing one or more parts. This means, for example, that the actor who plays Hamlet’s Ghost in “Hamlet” will probably also play Claudius, and in “Dream” it is  traditional for the actor playing  Theseus to also play Oberon, King of the Fairies.

At Colchester, the fairies were done in a different way from the usual. I don’t know whether it worked, but I was involved. A couple of us stage management had to operate torches with coloured gels in them, standing on ladders ‘off stage’ and shining these lights over the top of the set, and unseen by the audience. Actors spoke the lines through microphones and we had to move the ‘spots’ of light produced by the torches in synchronisation with the lines spoken by the actors. I’m not sure it worked, but at least it was different. I don't know, actually, now I come to think of it, whether the lines hadn't been pre-recorded, and we worked the lights to the recorded voices, but I'm not sure on reflection.

 We also had to be ‘walk-ons’ during the ‘Play-Within-A-Play’ scene, handing out sweets to the on-stage audience. I remember having to appear in the production of “Winter’s Tale” at Cheltenham, as well as “Romeo and Juliet.” I think it was all part of being a member of stage management in those days. I do recall, though, that one of my cousins saw me in “Dream” as she had come to see the production when she was at school, and, not knowing I was working at the theatre, was somewhat surprised to see me on stage! Also, I had these two school girls who saw me when I was having a meal in a café near the theatre, and recognised me from my ‘walk-on’ scene in the production and thought I was a proper actor and kept following me and I suppose it was quite nice while it lasted, but I wasn’t going to go on to become an actor so I didn’t think any more of it. I did say that they should be looking at the central characters and not minor ‘walk-ons’!

Remembering Louis Fussell- Part 1

I lived at 35 Rutland Road, Bedford for around four years, between around 1998 to 2002. I'm not going to write about the reason for my living there, as it doesn't have any bearing on my life in this house. It belonged to Louis Fussell, a somewhat eccentric character, aged in his late 70's I suppose when I first moved in. The whole house had been turned over to allow various people to live there, with Louis living in the downstairs living room.  It took me some time to discover that he slept in there, on a rather rudimentary chaise longue. I think there would have been three other people living there when I moved in, but looking back, I'm not entirely sure. Louis was not entirely bothered about his appearance and had a heart of gold. He would do absolutely anything for you, even lending you cash, giving things to people when he no longer needed them himself.  He wasn't bothered about such niceties as asking for references when you moved in, so it's not surprising that there were one or two incidents as a result. Amazing to think that he didn't ask for references when you consider that anyone, a mass-murderer drug addict or any other suspect individual could have been living there and he wouldn't have been any the wiser.

Portrait of Louis Fussell

Credit: Fotdmike/Flickr

One of his major eccentricities was going to Bedford Market when it was closing down, later on, Wednesdays and Saturdays and coming home on his bicycle (he didn't drive and had no car. I can't imagine him driving, which doesn't bear thinking about!) Anyway, he'd come back from his market trips with as much of the left-over fruit and vegetables as he could in the box which he had strapped to the back of his trusty Pashley bicycle. He would then spread it out all over the work-surfaces of the kitchen and sort out the best bits and throw away the really worst, moldiest, rotten fruit and vegetable (which wasn't much, as he would invariably cut out the worst bits.) and some was made into juice which was done using some sort of contraption which was set up on the ancient cooker and boiled and reduced the fruit into this juice. I still don't know exactly how this was achieved. Once he had bagged up the remaining fruit and veg he would get on his bicycle and then deliver these goods to various people he knew all around the Bedford area.

Louis was a violin teacher, but he also made violins in a workshop at the rear of the house, entered through the kitchen and from the side-yard. He also did an amazing amount for charity, working tirelessly to raise funds for various local charities, in particular, the Primrose Appeal, to be run by Macmillan the cancer support charity to fund a  treatment unit at Bedford South Wing Hospital. He could be seen out in the centre of Bedford on many a busy shopping day, standing in Church Square in Bedford town centre, with his bicycle and bucket, and people readily put their change into it. Also, as a member of a local symphony orchestra, where he played viola, he put on concerts which helped raise money for not only the Primrose Appeal but other local charities. He also wrote orchestral works, many premiered in Bedford Corn Exchange. He helped found the Cycling Campaign for North Bedfordshire in 1992. He had a predilection for swimming in the River Ouse, which runs through Bedford. I'm not sure about the legality of doing this, but I don't think he would let that stop him doing that, even though I'm sure it was quite dangerous, particularly as you wouldn't be able to see what was below the water's surface, such things as rocks, shopping trolleys, sharp objects and so on, or even near the various weirs and out-flows that come out of the river.  He rode from Land's End  to John O'Groats several times as well as other long-distance bicycle rides, usually for charity, and in particular for the Primrose Appeal, the Poppy Appeal and other charities too numerous to mention. He sometimes rode around 70 miles a day and was making these journeys well into his 80's.

He was also an avid karate practitioner (do I mean player? I'm not sure of the correct term.) He used to go off somewhere in the town to partake in this and had his own outfit. I believe he got to quite a high standard (Dan? Black Belt? Or is that for Judo?) Anyway, I don't think you would argue with him as he could use his karate to deal with things. I don't think he would, as he was a gentle sort of man and wouldn't hurt a fly. I know he was a vegetarian, so perhaps that would explain quite a few things.

As I've already mentioned, Louis was extremely generous and would help anyone. On one occasion he took me to London to see a show. I wasn't working on this particular day and just happened to be reading a paper and looking at a review of a show at the National Theatre in London. It was for a production of  the Leonard Bernstein musical 'Candide' and mentioned to Louis that I'd like to see it. He said he'd like to go to London and see it, and that he'd try and book tickets. I was thinking, well, yes, but in a few weeks time, perhaps. But he rang up, and managed to book us two tickets for that evening! He was like that, he would act on the spur of the moment. He made himself some sandwiches to eat on the train, as there wasn't time for him to have a meal before we left and then got a train into London from the Midland Railway Station in Bedford. As we went to London on the train, he ate his sandwiches. He didn't make a lot of effort to change, as I had done, and wore his old grubby shorts and sandals. When we got off the train in London, it took me all my time and effort to keep up with him as he virtually ran all over the place, up and down steps on the Underground system, and when we got off the train at Waterloo and on the way to the National Theatre on the South Bank. I was around my late 40's at this time, and he must have been in his late 70's, and it took me all my time to keep up with him! Quite amazing for his age!

We got to the National Theatre and picked up our tickets. Our seats were at the very front of the stage. At one point during the action of the show, the leading actor, Simon Russell-Beale, came to the front of the stage for part of the action of the show, misjudged his footing and fell off the stage and landed on my foot, apologized to me, then got back on the stage! Just part of a live show, you never know what is likely to happen, and any decent actor worth his/her salt can get out of a mishap without too much effort. Not every day you get a world-class actor such as Mr Russell-Beale step on your foot!

It was a wonderful show, and I enjoyed it enormously. I'm not sure whether Louis enjoyed it, but it was the fact that the whole outing was so spontaneous and unexpected which made it so memorable. The incident with Simon Russell-Beale just added to the evening's entertainment, I suppose.

Louis died on Friday, January 25th, 2008, as a result of an accident with a car in Wentworth Drive, Bedford. He is, I am sure, sorely missed by everyone who knew him. It seems particularly sad to think that he rode his bicycle all that distance yet he died so close to his home in Bedford.