To examine the evolution of stage management, we must first examine how the term came about, and other terms for the stage managers predecessors. Then we can begin to look into how the role has evolved over time into the present craft students are being taught on technical production courses in theatre in different locations around the world.
To begin, we must investigate the term of ‘stage management’. As we look back into history, we can see that people who were what we know today as stage managers, did not have that title, however they performed a similar function in the theatre. In the 1800s we can see that stage management would have been two roles; actor-manager, someone who was usually an actor, but also managed the company and props …show more content…
Perhaps the best piece of evidence showing great technical entrepreneurship is in the craftsmanship of C. Curio, who constructed two theatres in Roman times in such a fashion that they could pivot from back to back into interlocking, become an amphitheatre for combat (Nagler, 1959). As the two often moved from one position to the other in the same sitting or day, we can infer that there would have been someone in charge of co-ordinating this transition with the mechanical operators and the players who were using the theatres.
The role of the technical master evolves as we see the introduction of more and more scenery and lighting techniques in the Renaissance period, which can be considered to be the late 1500s to mid 1600s. To begin with, the playhouses began to get increasingly more elaborate, and as such started to allow for increasingly technical performances and innovations. These new playhouse considerations also allowed for the stage design to be completely reworked for every performance, rather than the different performances having similar staging techniques (Roberts, …show more content…
As we can see from what our students of stage management are being taught today, the position requires someone who is multi-skilled, as the more you understand about those you are ‘managing’, the better you may be able to manage them. This combined with the knowledge and experience from historical perspectives all points to today’s stage managers being the ‘go to’ person of a theatre or
To begin, we must investigate the term of ‘stage management’. As we look back into history, we can see that people who were what we know today as stage managers, did not have that title, however they performed a similar function in the theatre. In the 1800s we can see that stage management would have been two roles; actor-manager, someone who was usually an actor, but also managed the company and props …show more content…
Perhaps the best piece of evidence showing great technical entrepreneurship is in the craftsmanship of C. Curio, who constructed two theatres in Roman times in such a fashion that they could pivot from back to back into interlocking, become an amphitheatre for combat (Nagler, 1959). As the two often moved from one position to the other in the same sitting or day, we can infer that there would have been someone in charge of co-ordinating this transition with the mechanical operators and the players who were using the theatres.
The role of the technical master evolves as we see the introduction of more and more scenery and lighting techniques in the Renaissance period, which can be considered to be the late 1500s to mid 1600s. To begin with, the playhouses began to get increasingly more elaborate, and as such started to allow for increasingly technical performances and innovations. These new playhouse considerations also allowed for the stage design to be completely reworked for every performance, rather than the different performances having similar staging techniques (Roberts, …show more content…
As we can see from what our students of stage management are being taught today, the position requires someone who is multi-skilled, as the more you understand about those you are ‘managing’, the better you may be able to manage them. This combined with the knowledge and experience from historical perspectives all points to today’s stage managers being the ‘go to’ person of a theatre or