Hi all!
I'm currently working on my second four-person stage management team, and I am noticing how the division of duties in rehearsal makes such a big difference in how I think about the job. I was wondering if anyone had any favorite ways to dividing the duties in rehearsal, or particularly interesting ways they've encountered, or even horror stories about ways that haven't worked for them.
My first four-person team was 1 equity PSM, 1 equity ASM, and 2 interns (I was one), and we were working on a season of big musicals in the round.
PSM: took blocking, wrote cues in her book, called the breaks, timed the scenes, wrote the report, scheduled rehearsal for the next day.
ASM: gathering and shuffling actors, created the run book, make sure the furniture and set pieces in the room were in the right place.
Intern #1: props tracking, costume tracking, entrance/exit plot, doubles on distributing paperwork
Intern #2: on book, lines notes, tracked script changes, help with the presets and shifts when needed, doubles on distributing paperwork
(Company Management would handle coffee etc in the break area)
My current four-person team splits it up like this:
SM: Blocking, Cues, Calling Breaks, Report Notes, Scheduling
ASM: Run Book, Scene-by-scene breakdown, doubles on Props, preset things in the room
Non-Eq PA: On book, Line notes, Costume tracking, Entrance/Exit plot, Character-Scene Breakdown, help preset when needed
Intern: doubles on Props with ASM, help preset things in the room, gathering actors, making coffee, distributing paperwork
(Assistant Director tracks script changes)
Any other interesting ways of splitting things up? Or additional duties you've seen given to a member of the team that really worked well?