Robert Cohen - Theatre, Brief Version-McGraw-Hill Education (2016)

140 Chapter 5 Designers and Technicians
3. Lisa Iacucci at her backstage SM (stage manager) Desk, an hour prior to a 2014 performance of Hedwig and the
Angry Inch at Broadway’s Belasco Theatre. The performance area is forward of her left; the monitors in front of her
and across the stage show her the critical areas of backstage, onstage, and the front rows of the audience seating
area. The closed “Rehearsal Book” on her desk will soon become her open “Production Book,” which will indicate,
page by page and line by line, the needed cues she will be “calling”—to the actors, her assistants, and/or to the
conductor—before the show; first the “get-ready” cues through the headphones she holds in her left hand, followed
by the “Now!” indications transmitted by the twelve cue lights in front of the Production Book. © Lorna Cohen
it every night: if I see something wrong,
as when an actor is in the wrong light,
or there is something dramatic that’s
not happening, it is my responsibility to
say something, because it’s the actor’s
relationship with the audience that’s
primary, and I and my associate have to
take charge of that.
“You have to have passion for this
job. You have to really feel it’s what
you want to do. I am aware of this
when I interview potential PAs. Many
come in with a sense of entitlement.
Perhaps they graduated at the head of
their class and now realize they’ll have
to start back at the bottom. But they
are at the bottom! I have to tell them,
‘Look, if I’m sharpening the
pencils, you’re not sharpening
them—but then I’m being taken away
from a far more important task that
you’re not yet trained to do!’ So they
have to be continually ‘present’ in the
room.
“And that’s for me too. We all have
to be present, and proactive, and do
whatever’s necessary, and do it with a
smile. The director should never look
over at any of us and see us texting
on our smartphones. I’m talking about
my whole team now, because I need
to be present, as do they. They have
to learn to be responsible, but as PSM,
I’m the boss, and I’m finally responsible,
for better or for worse. I’m happy to
share the credit when it’s deserved,
but if anything bad happens, it’s my
responsibility!”
“Responsibility” seems to be
Iacucci’s chief concern when she’s
working and, indeed, it must be
every stage manager’s chief concern.
Everything that happens in a show—
every actor’s entrance, every shift of
scenery, every light and sound cue,
every prop location, every cover of
an accident or prompt of a dropped
line—are all under the PSM’s oversight,
and each action, shift, cover, or
cue must be carefully and precisely
executed. As she and I talked during
this pre-show interview, Iacucci had
at least one eye on the stage—and
another on her many colleagues—at
least 90 percent of the time. And this
was still an hour before Hedwig’s
curtain time.