These are a little wordier:
- Besides obtaining credentials like CPR and First Aid, many stage managers find it immensely beneficial to explore more loosely-defined areas of training: soft skills like cookery, computer programming, musical training, working with animals or children, etc. What are the soft skills you think stage managers would find most beneficial? How do these relate to the job and responsibilities of stage managers? How might these skills increase or decrease in importance in the medium-term future? (Do you have any soft skills you anticipate will prove especially helpful in your own career?)
- One of the biggest challenges facing stage managers is the need to set and maintain healthy boundaries. In addition to problems related to work/life balance, a common difficulty is finding ourselves acting as "cast therapist": not just kissing proverbial boo-boos and providing reassurance, but taking on responsibility for the psychological well-being of cast members--a responsibility for which we aren't qualified, a responsibility which distracts from our other duties, and a situation which may put us into conflicts of interest or inappropriately personal encounters with coworkers. How do effective stage managers strike the balance between taking an interest in the emotional lives of cast members without taking on inappropriate amounts or types of responsibility?
- Thinking about your own tastes and preferences, what do you feel is the ideal relationship between a stage manager and her company? Do you think the stage manager needs to "get her hands dirty", doing all the exercises and warm-ups with the cast, involved in creative processes as an equal participant? Or do you think the stage manager belongs firmly behind the rehearsal table, always at the director's right hand, emphasizing distance and perfect-posture professionalism? Now for the key question: why?
- Despite declining audiences industry-wide, those companies which focus on the needs of specific communities (minority languages, the LGBT community, women, aboriginals, etc.) are doing relatively well. How is working on a show targeted at a specific community different from working in "classical" or "mainstream" theatre? Think of a community of which you aren't a member: if you were asked to stage manage a devised piece for this community, what resources might you tap into, or what might you do differently?