2-Hour Meeting Answer #3

1) What makes a Stage Manager essential to a theatrical production?
2) The need for a centralized figure to keep everything organized.
3)
a. A Stage Manager is responsible for keeping all documents and reports together for future reference, on them at all times. If anyone needs specific information, the Stage Manager will always have it on them or will be able to note down to ask someone else about it.
b. Documents that a Stage Manager needs to have organized can include things like contact information for cast and crew, the master script, scene descriptions, emails, notes, and other important documents.
c. All of these documents are kept in the prompt book, which unlike I previously thought, does not only contain a copy of the script. The prompt book is usually a heavy duty 2 inch three ring binder.
4) Source 34, How to Make a Prompt Book published on Lois Backstage, explained that the Stage Manager needs to be organized so that every person working on the show has one person to go to instead of stopping theirs and others work.
5) Next, I plan on looking up other documents that a Stage Manager needs to keep organized and at the ready in order to keep everyone on track.