My first thoughts -
I was in a similar situation between my junior and senior years in high school. I SM'd the summer show; my friend, let's call her Laura, was the AD. The director, who was a "walk-on" from our sister school, asked that we take on technical/production and artistic responsibilities, respectively. This meant that I was in communication with the TD daily (we were all in the same building - I could step out of rehearsal and ask him questions mid-scene), tracked props, created most of the show-running paperwork, worked on all of the build and electrics calls, tracked purchases and rentals for the show, and called every performance. Would I say that I was, then, the Stage Manager? What I did on that show is more a mish-mash of Production Management and what I typically think of as (mostly...) the work of an ASM, with some Stage Manager duties sprinkled in. Laura handled the nitty-gritty of the cast - blocking notes, understudy rehearsals, scheduling conflicts, and when the director left the show (she had another gig) Laura gave me artistic notes re: cue placement during technical rehearsals, fed the cast lines and gave them acting/maintenance notes. (FYI: this was not a school that had "designers" per se - lighting, scenic and costume design were typically viewed as the joint responsibility of the Director, Stage Manager, TD and the lead crew folks)
Reading between the lines of your post, Kristina, it sounds like you are less than thrilled at the prospect of the AD taking on the responsibilities you listed. School theatre can be tricky this way... since you do have to shift from the (usually) level social ground to professional hierarchy mid-day, and changing that hierarchy around inevitably shifts the social playing field as well. What Laura and I found worked for us - we were in two academic classes while we did this show, so we had to switch between class-buddies and professional-colleagues mindsets A LOT - was sharing every little scrap of info we had, cross-referencing paperwork like crazy and being very clear with the cast about who they needed to go to for what. So, if a cast member was struggling with lines, they were *always* sent to Laura, and if they were afraid of a set piece or uncomfortable in their costume, they were *always* sent to me for a solution. At the beginning of the process, it felt really strange to not be feeding lines or dealing with actor issues, but by the end, we worked fabulously together - and had divvied up the work so that neither of us went nuts during the tech/dress period.
Rather than rattling on... I have two questions:
What are *all* of the things that you have done as SM in the past? The reason I ask is that sometimes, it's easy to get caught up in the on-your-feet part of the job, and dismiss the paperwork/planning - which is just as important.
Why not go out to lunch with the AD?
Hope all goes well - and keep the SMN posted!!
Meg