Friday, April 25, 2014
The Stage Managers tool kit
Techie Talk: One of the first things I do when I start prep on a new show is re-stock my stage management kit with everything I’ll need for that show. I’ve been building and refining my kit for a little over 5 years now. I thought I’d share what I keep in it as a starting point for other stage managers. If you notice that I’m missing something that you consider invaluable, please let me know – I’m always updating!
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6 comments:
I'm so conflicted about this because her kit looks giant and inconvenient, but there are few things in there that I find to be unnecessary. I actually don't have an SM kit yet, because I've never really needed one, but I'm sure that's gonna happen soon. It seems to me that her kit isn't super convenient to take places. I guess I'd probably carry most of those items in smaller quantities with me in a smaller kit and have a bunch of extras and back-up stuff at home or in an office at the theater. SM kits are a funny thing because everyone says that they're very personal and each stage manager's is different blah blah blah... but it seems to me that most stage managers have smaller or more extensive version of essentially the same kit.
I had never seen a stage managers kit until I came here and man was I impressed. They have literally thought of everything they might possibly need and put it in one place to carry around. We laugh within our class because if we ever need anything that is slightly obscure we always say you should ask a stage manager because chances are they have it. Based on the list in this article they really do have almost anything you could possibly need.
I echo Olivia's comments about being oblivious to the existence of Stage Manager's Kits before this year. My first introduction was Katie showing her's off early this year. At first I thought this was a little excessive but since then I have come to see many more examples of equally complex stage manager kits. What amuses me the most is that, with the exception of color, the kit in this article and the kit Katie has are almost completely identical. Stage managers are masters at being prepared,
I wouldn't call my self an SM but I have worked as an SM before. I've never had a kit though. I do like the idea of always being prepared for anything that might happen, and the SM is the person who needs to be prepared more than anyone. I agree with Camille that this kit looks really giant and inconvenient. I would hate to have to bring that around with me everywhere I go. I think a good SM is a mobile one. Perhaps this is a better suited kit to live in the booth of a theatre all the time. I've seen many articles like this about SM kits on the green page, but very rarely do I see kits for other roles in the theatre world. I would love to see a sound kit or a directors kit. I know that I have already started to collect items for my own personal theatre work flow.
It's always nice to be prepared, and as a stage manager there are a bunch of things you should always have on you, but I don't think I would ever carry around something this big and inconvenient. Even if that kit rolls it probably can't go as many places or as quickly as you need to. I would keep something like this in my car or a closet in the theater, but like Camille said I think it would be more effective to carry smaller quantities of these items in a backpack or something equally portable.
I mostly just liked looking at this article. I don't wish to go into stage management, but I do love office and art supplies. I recently purchased an art box, because I like having all of my supplies in one place and easy to find. I think looking at this article helped me to see what an organized box of any kind of supplies that one would use everyday would look like. I enjoy organizing things (even though they often get unorganized very quickly), so if I ever have to assist someone with any sort of stage management, I think this article will help a lot.
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