Theater Reviews + Features | Pittsburgh City Paper: Let's take a moment to salute the unsung heroes of live theater: stage managers. You never see them, but without them there wouldn't be theater. They run the rehearsals, make the coffee, clean the stage; they're the first to arrive, the last to leave, and they make sure everything's where it needs to be (props, costumes, actors) for the magic to happen.
3 comments:
It is truly an honor to see the University of Pitt’s stages taking the leap and really divining into plays many school and regional theaters wouldn’t dare touch. It speaks to a true sense of bravery that their theater department is willing to take and really stand behind. This also speaks strength into the fact that they are more than willing to challenge their audience and confront them with sometimes visual disturbing images and scenarios. In doing this they really are spreading the message that this is just how life is sometimes. There does not always exist a happy ending or just overall resolved conflict. Sometimes problem continue on and you just have to deal with them. That ideal must also must be what they are training their stage managers to keep in mind. Sometime you are going to have a show where the props are uneatable and certifiably disgusting but if that is the director’s vision and the producer stands behind them then the stage manager is just going to have to welcome and enjoy the challenge.
Risks are vital to progress. If not for the chances various men and women have taken over the course of humanity, many of the inventions and new ways of thinking that we have developed to date would remain stuck in the thoughts of people who did not leap. Related, specifically, to this play, the University of Pittsburgh took a great leap in the direction of a rather unknown play, that also has a multitude of technical difficulties - requiring a solid amount of planning and preparation. Also, through this performance, the stage managers are going to learn how there will sometimes be performances that require a great deal of excess work/etc., and they will need to serve the play/director's vision, just like the actors do, and jump on board, head first, with the entire process. In all, by selecting this play, Pitt further ignites the artistry in this area, by displaying a play, filled with many contestable images and aspects, that will be brought to the foreground for the local theatre patrons - hopefully influencing their perceptions and causing them to think and ponder the play's messages.
Kevin Paul (54-102 :: A, Acting 1, Cameron Knight)
Sam Shepard plays are incredibly strange and complicated. I am happy that since the University of Pittsburgh has decided to take on his work that they have shown an enormous level of commitment to its demands. Live animals and to some lesser degree working appliances are a great burden to put on a production team, so the level of preparation had to be crazy. I also wonder how having all of these elements is affecting the cast. On the one hand, having working appliances and live animals were a script calls for them probably makes the environment more real and easier to interact with. On the other hand I am sure that all of the element could be quite overwhelming and distracting if you are not used to that amount of realism in your work. I was happy that the stage manager was mentioned in this article, but I am now really curious as to how all of the elements affect their paperwork and process.
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