Assignment 21: Megan Meadors

                 During my sophomore year, I auditioned for the school play and didn’t get cast. Now, this in itself would probably seem like a major obstacle to overcome but honestly I’m really happy I didn’t get cast. The challenge lied in what came next. I became the stage manager for the play. Now, most people don’t know what a stage manager for a play would do. And to be honest, I’ve been the stage manager for three shows now, and I have absolutely no idea.

                So, for my first play, And Then There Were None, I didn’t become the stage manager until probably around three weeks before opening night. I didn’t really do much as the stage manager, but I mostly worked with the crew and helped prepare the set, prepared props before every show (as my original job as the props manager required), and during the actual shows I was in charge of the lights. This was extremely different from what I do as the stage manager now, but let me tell you, even though I had no idea what I was actually supposed to be doing, I loved my job.

                By the time the second play, The Canterbury Tales, started I was still just as clueless. All I knew what this show was on a much smaller scale, we were going to travel to middle schools to perform, and I was the only crew member. This was a daunting task to say the least (partially because I was also the lead in the musical which had singing rehearsals at the same time as rehearsals for this show) but I was ready for the challenge. Besides the fact that the cast completely changed parts of the script, making it nearly impossible to help them if they called for a line after they were supposed to be off book, I was actually in charge of leading some rehearsals alone without the directors being there. I basically went by the “fake it until you make it” and hoped that I was helping… I have no idea if I actually did help though.

                Then we get to the third play that I’ve stage managed, which was the winter show this year, The Underpants. I lot more responsibilities with this show from helping with casting, to leading half of the rehearsals completely alone while the director, Shuler, worked with the other cast at the same time. I would also work with one cast every other day so it was interesting to see what had been changed between days I worked with them. I’ll be completely honest that I had even less of an idea what I was doing for this show. I was giving the cast notes, giving them blocking, changing how they delivered their lines, and they actually listened to everything I told them (okay, maybe not everything but you get the idea). The show ended up being really good so I suppose I did well, but this was definitely a challenge.

                So as for how to solve the “how do I stage manage” question, I’ll just say to fake it until you make it. It’s worked so far for me and now I am looking forward to Co-Directing for the fall and winter shows next year. Though that is a really unspecific answer, trust me, it works. That’s all I’ve done so far and I’ve been told that I’ve done a good job, so as they say, don’t fix something if it isn’t broke.