At my last job working in a COST theatre we had a 4 person SM team (PSM, ASM, 2 interns). The PSM generated "boilerplate documents" - templates to establish the format for all documents that would be generated by stage management. Then - the PSM would normally be updating the entrance/exit plot and lights/sound/deck cues during rehearsal. The ASM would be working on shift plots for the crew. One intern would handle script updates, and the other intern would handle props tracking. Each of these were hefty jobs because it was in-the-round with typically at least 8 directions for actors and props to enter/exit, as well as many places for the crew to be, and a good deal of stage mechanics to look out for.
The entrance/exit plot would be given to the costume department, and they would handle generating the costume plot.
Lights and Sound would also generate their own detailed cue sheets which would be decided upon by respective designers.
This system worked pretty well! Occasionally, when rehearsals were split into different rooms, we would have to be aware of who was out of the main room and cover any notes that came up in their area. Really, we were tag-teaming the "information gathering" part of the job - and then each individual had the responsibility of sitting at the computer and entering the info into the actual document.
I did something similar in college when I had 2 ASMs. I made one ASM in charge of line notes/prompting. The other was in charge of props. The props ASM was in charge of generating the preset and tracking paperwork. Line notes was a large part of that particular show, so the prompting ASM had their hands plenty full.
I like the "areas-of-responsibility" system. Helps keep people's brains on-track. =)
This is pretty much how I always ran things as well, which is why I found it suprising that my Art. Dir. said that the SM did it all.
I suppose that I should have clarified- I had this conversation with my assistant beforehand- so who did what was never confused between us. As she had never ASMed before I did infact end up giving her templates of all of my paperwork, some she adapted, some she didn't and I always went through it with her.
So Like Matthew, and alot of other people- I don't care, as long as it's just the way I like it, haha.
I do all of the pre-pro work and expect my ASM/PA to take over the running paperwork. I do line notes and blocking until we start doing full runs (when the PA takes over line stuff so I can watch), by which time I expect atleast preliminary run sheets to be made, and I'll use them to jump up and help out. I just feel that ultimately, if it's their show to run, then it's their show to create the work for.
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