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

Theatre 141
The PSM also maintains the production after its opening
performance by conducting understudy and replacement
rehearsals when needed, arranging for the cleaning,
repair, or replacement of costumes, props, and stage
machinery, and in other ways assuming the functions of
the director, who, in most professional productions, is
no longer present on a regular basis. Many professional
stage directors (including Robert Cohen, one of your
authors) and film directors (including Stephen Spielberg)
began their theatrical careers by stage managing
their high school or college productions.
Working for the PSM is one or more assistant stage
managers (ASMs). In rehearsals, ASMs typically set out
props, follow the script, prompt actors who are off book
(no longer rehearsing with script in hand) when they forget
their lines, take line notes when actors recite lines
incorrectly, and substitute for actors who may be temporarily
away from the rehearsal hall. During the performance,
as the PSM calls the show from a fixed offstage
position, the ASMs—on two-way headset connections—
implement the PSM’s calls to the actors and crew chiefs,
often transmitting them as visual “go” signs for scene
shifts, actor entrances, and effect cues. ASMs also serve
as the backstage eyes and ears of the PSM, who is always
watching the stage.
Technical director (TD) is a term that dates from
early in the last century, when a person holding that title
was responsible for the scenery, lighting, sound, stage
machinery, and just about everything “technical” that
was designed to operate onstage. Although the title is
still used, the TD is usually now only in charge of the
building and operation of scenery and stage machinery.
The position requires great knowledge and skill in
engineering, drafting, construction, budgeting, and team
management (of shops and crews). But it is a high art as
well, for every construction and operation the TD oversees
is a one-of-a-kind project and must be completed in
most cases on an exactly fixed schedule—no small order,
given the massive technical complexities of theatre today.
The TD’s first task is to receive the scenic designs—
which may simply be drawings augmented by overall
dimensions, perhaps supplemented by three-dimensional
models—and figure out how their various elements will
be constructed. Dozens of factors must be considered
and, much of the time, traded off. The cost of materials
and labor must be carefully reconciled with the available
budget; scenery meant to look light and airy must be
engineered with critical concerns for stability and safety;
scenery meant to look heavy and gargantuan often must
be built to roll or fly offstage at lightning speed—or in
a choreography of alternate accelerations and decelerations.
During this phase the TD drafts the working drawings
for the scenery’s construction and exact placement
and consults, often daily, with the designer and director
as to whether the working drawings will lead to the
intended look of the set, and yield scenery that works in
the manner each of them has imagined.
Once the scenery is built, the TD oversees its loadin
and establishes the manner in which scenery is to be
shifted, either by manual pushing and pulling or by computerized
mechanical devices. At the end of the play’s
run, the TD organizes the strike—the speedy removal of
scenery into storage or a local dumpster.
During final rehearsals and actual productions, technical
crews, working under the PSM and trained by the
TD, hoist, lower, and push scenery pieces exactly on cue
to precisely predetermined locations. They shift props
and furniture to the right places at the right times. They
pull the curtain (if there is one) up and down when cued
by the PSM or ASM. In general, they make the carefully
preplanned scene changes, prop appearances, and
actor entrances appear to flow effortlessly. The technical
crews’ skills ensure that the audience concentrates on the
play’s action rather than on the theatre’s mechanics. One
particularly special “tech” assignment is flying actors
through the air, which is usually done by only a few
professional companies with patented equipment and
expertly trained personnel; the crash-landing of a Spider-
Man actor during previews in 2010 was a reminder of
the potential danger in this field (fortunately, the actor
survived his 30-foot fall and returned to the show five
months later).
Working in the scene shop—normally under the TD,
a shop foreman, or a scenery supervisor—are production
carpenters (and master carpenters) and scenic artists
(painters). They are joined by welders when steel—commonly
used today for weight-bearing constructions—needs to
be joined and shaped.
A wider array of specialists is required in the costume
shop (though many costume designers and technologists
assume more than one of these roles):
• Costume director (or costume shop manager),
who coordinates the entire operation, supervising
personnel, work spaces, and schedules.
• Dyers, who dye fabrics to the color specified by the
design and may also be skilled at fabric painting,
aging, distressing, and other fabric modifications.
• Drapers, who drape fabrics on an actor or on a
dummy, testing and choosing the way the fabric