Scheduling Your Day: A Stage Manager's Perspective

So you're looking to makeover your daily schedule? Good time management applies to work, whether in a traditional office environment or in creative/self-employed professions, but it also helps you make the most of your own time when it comes to fitting in everything our busy modern lives require. What lessons can we learn from the perspective of the theatre industry about optimal schedules? Rehearsals and performance rely on effective timetables to fit in the preparation required and for the show to happen on time.

Thinking about the structure of your day is especially important if you are working from home, running your own business or working in an unsupervised way. While teamwork is crucial for many industries with theatre included, for stage managers there are many parts of our job which end up being self-driven: finding props, seeking contracts, daily paperwork, cues during shows (these are tasks like moving scenery or props). Sometimes our to-do list feels daunting, so how can we fit in everything that needs our attention? Here are my key suggestions.

Stick to a regular routine

Although creative and free-spirited people may feel stifled by the idea of applying a rigid structure to their days, establishing good habits and regular times to meals, work, sleep and other activities saves our energy for more important decisions. Once you have streamlined the variables of what type of activity to do when you will have more time to achieve work tasks and healthy habits. This also sets healthy boundaries for your working hours so you don't end up burning yourself out.

Pay particular attention to when you first wake up, regular meal breaks and a consistent sleep schedule. Whilst in the theatre industry we are often at the mercy of the show and rehearsal timetables, there are aspects within our day which are in within our control. Don't forget to schedule in exercise and hobbies or social events to make sure these aren't forgotten about.

More on the benefits of routines here.

Break the day into blocks

Sometimes in theatre rehearsals, there are multiple activities to accomplish which can happen simultaneously, such as acting scenes with the director, learning songs with the musical director, choreography, dialect coaching, fight direction etc. There is more that goes on behind the scenes than just reciting lines! In this situation and equally for a solo professional, it helps to break down the working hours into consistent chunks.

In an average rehearsal day of 10am to 6pm with an hour's lunch at 1pm and 2 short tea breaks (as per union regulations), this might look like working 10-11:30am, tea, 11:45am-1pm, lunch break, 2pm-3:45pm, tea, 4pm-6pm. This often results in working sessions of different durations which can be useful for tasks which require more or less time, but you could make these regular if it was overcomplicated. It's amazing how much you can actually fit into a normal working day by planning it in advance.

Taking sufficient breaks actually helps us to focus better whilst we are working, and allows us to rehydrate and add some movement into our day; particularly important when our work is computer-based. A popular method for work and breaks is the Pomodoro Technique, more on that here.

Personalise your schedule

It's worth remembering that what works for one person might be disastrous for someone else - some people spring out of bed at 6am and are ready for action, some of us really hit our stride in the afternoon or evening. The empowering thing about having control of your schedule is that you can make it work for you, prioritising the most important tasks and wasting less time on unproductive meetings and other corporate bureaucracy.

If you're stuck for inspiration or don't know how to start building your daily routine, use others to spark ideas, and start with a master list of what needs to be accomplished. This can include personal errands and exercise, we are not defined by our work, but it might help to categorise tasks by important level or how soon they need to be done. There are lots of apps for this, I personally used Microsoft To Do (which used to be Wunderlist), which has plenty of useful features like reminders, due dates, shareability and the like. I have used this on productions in stage management teams to keep track of our outstanding jobs.

Whatever shape your routine takes, you will see the benefit when you take control and plan how to make the most of your time.

Live Performance versus Live Streaming

Does the stage translate to a screen?

There are many types of drama and performing arts we are happy to enjoy on the small screen, as beyond the staple TV series, comedies and soaps/sitcoms consider how the nation loves to watch music and dance - especially in the form of talent shows like Strictly, The Greatest Dancer, The X Factor or Britain's Got Talent. For years there have been attempts to sell consumers their favourite plays and musicals on demand when they are adapted into movies or filmed on stage.

The National Theatre has been live-streaming their productions to a wider audience for over 10 years, in an initiative that brought the publicly funded shows to your local cinema. I have always considered this a democratising move, as many cannot overcome the barriers of expense and distance to experience London theatre. Now during the coronavirus lockdown period, NT are streaming their recorded shows into our living rooms, in fact, virtual theatre is suddenly available from many organisations. For the latest available shows visit these sites:

Online Theatre Streaming - Culture Whisper

Free Online Shows - What's On Stage

Naturally, after venues were abruptly closed following the government action on the COVID-19 outbreak in the UK, artists and creatives started looking for digital ways to work and share their performances with their audiences. I admire their persistence and ingenuity. The question of when theatres will be permitted to reopen, and when audience confidence will return, is at present nothing but conjecture and uncertainty. In the meantime, the industry is faced with a collective question of how best to serve their community and distribute art when gatherings are a health risk.

I have watched a couple of these conventionally filmed offerings, and enjoyed the chance to catch popular shows I had missed whilst snacking on the sofa. The drinks are cheaper, there is no queue for the bathroom, and if watching with a housemate you are free to trade reactions and snarky comments without judgement. 

Yet I miss hearing the reactions of others, discussing the show in the bar afterwards, and having to leave behind all the distractions of the outside world. Despite knowing many of the tricks of the trade, I am still capable of being moved to tears or joy by a standout production.

A night at the virtual theatre

Recently I was part of an audience of 150+ watching a two-hander play, performed live and entirely on Zoom, the ubiquitous video call software. I did this on my sofa whilst eating sausage and mash for dinner! It was an existing fringe show, 'Ken' by Terry Johnson who performs the work as a monologue, along with many interjections by actor Jeremy Stockwell who plays the titular director Ken Campbell and himself. 

Screenshot of the Zoom call from Terry's Facebook page.

The set up was interesting; obviously some performers use Facebook Live or Youtube for their digital shows, but this was viewed through Zoom switching to whoever was making noise (so larger casts or overlapping dialogue would be difficult). Terry had changing virtual backgrounds to fit the setting, such as an empty pub or neglected old theatre, though these were static and unpeopled it was a nice touch.

In general it worked well, while the audience watched but was required to turn off their audio and camera feeds so as not to disrupt the play. At one point Terry lost his feed of Jeremy and the unseen virtual Stage Manager had to take over and reboot, whilst Jeremy riffed in character as Ken for at least 10 minutes. Because of professional curiosity, I find show stops interesting despite sympathising with their stressful nature, and they did well to recover from this technological failure; similar to technical faults that derail IRL performances. 

Jeremy paced throughout and performed actions as directed such as talking on a banana to signify a phone. The design, props and lighting were absent, but the dialogue could still be spoken. It felt informal, intimate and slightly haphazard. We unmuted ourselves to applaud at the end, the only moment when it particularly felt like a communal experience. Watching from our separate dwellings but bound together in our attention, choosing to 'be' here.

We are social creatures, and I don't truly believe virtual interactions can replace in-person contact and shared experiences beyond these exceptional circumstances. But they can bring us together briefly at a time when we are forced to remain isolated.

Finding Order in the Chaos

Welcome! Pull up a chair, make yourself at home.

Let me give you the backstory. This year I decided to return to an old refuge of mine - the written word. Ideas, phrases, characters used to overflow from my head almost continuously, so that I had to race to keep up and set them down on paper or typed in Word. From the tail end of childhood into my twenties, I experimented with stories, poetry, songs, screenplays and nonfiction. One of the few constants throughout my turbulent adolescence was this creative impulse. I went to university to study English Literature and Creative Writing (what else?) following my instincts and the advice of my mentors. Beyond that, there were several potential paths to follow, and I was stalling the decision.

As a student I was immersed in texts, theories and symbols, learning the craft of writing with more discipline. Whilst studying I was sidetracked into a theatre society where I took backstage roles, staying out of the spotlight gathering props and costume. Ideas of careers in publishing or film production fell aside as I fell in love with making theatre. The camaraderie, the unexpected, the sustained illusions. I had discovered the obscure realm of stage management.

Setting up for a show in a Fringe venue 2011

I graduated and rushed headfirst into the Edinburgh Fringe, the world's largest arts festival, working as a Venue Technician to build and manage 10 shows a day in a temporary theatre space for a month. This was the first step on a journey into theatre production which became full time after a few years learning and grafting, and after more shows than I can remember I find myself in the midst of a global pandemic with theatres across the world dark and empty for the first time in living memory. My chosen career has been a great adventure, until quite abruptly 'business as usual' ground to a halt.

The business of entertainment

After some success as a young adult with writing contests, poetry readings, local publications and suchlike, my new obsession with theatre eclipsed my love of writing. Working as part of a team, I could create stories for many people to watch and enjoy, an immediate medium and performed as if real; unfolding right there in front of you. There is an electric atmosphere in a live event, and we have an inbuilt desire for communal experiences. This choice of career gave me a community where writing had not. In the course of a production, fast families are made and as quickly disbanded, and you often run into people again in this relatively small world.

In filling my time with props, show reports, cue lists, set dressing, meetings and communication, I lost my written voice. I simply set my books and projects aside, as if in hibernation. After a graduate job in website Copywriting, I left behind almost everything but the strange microcosm of British theatre. That is until now. I'm afraid this another COVID-19 story; we are in the early stages of the transformation this global health crisis will force us through. In the UK, one day in March the theatres closed almost overnight, without knowing when they might safely raise the curtain again.

As the dust settles, it is a time for reflection and change

The world is a complex and frightening place in 2020, with many shadows looming over us, with the unseen insidious virus paralysing our usual engines of productivity and profit. But the silver lining for those of us lucky enough not to get seriously ill or lose our loved ones, and not about to lose the roof over our heads, is we have the luxury of time. Many of us are reassessing our priorities in this period of disruption.

Bath Theatre Royal, after loading out panto

On this blog, I wish to reflect on almost a decade spent in theatre production and share the lessons learnt which might apply to many kinds of life and work, on topics such as people management, logistics, scheduling, adaptability, problem-solving and more. 

The skills we use in the theatre industry to ensure the show goes on night after night can be applied to many other fields or situations. During this unplanned interval, I can make sense of the hurdles, mistakes and breakthroughs that a career backstage has involved. I hope you find them useful or of interest. It is time to dust off the books and pick up the pen once again.