Editing Stage management (section)

==History==

The title of stage manager was not used until the 18th century, though the concept and need for someone to fill the area of stage management can be seen with the Ancient Greeks. The playwrights were usually responsible for production elements. Sophocles is the first known stage technician, supported by his employment as a scenic artist, playwright, musician, and producer.

In the Middle Ages, there is evidence of a ''conducteur de secrets'', who oversaw collecting money at the door and serving as a prompter on stage. The prompter held the script and was prepared to feed performers their lines; this was a common practice of the time.

Between the Renaissance and 17th century, the actors and playwrights handled stage management aspects and stage crew. In the Elizabethan and Jacobean theatre there were two roles that covered stage management: stage keeper and bookkeeper. The stage keeper was responsible for the maintenance of the theater, taking props on and off stage, and security of performance space. The bookkeeper was responsible for the stage script, obtaining necessary licenses, copying/providing lines for the performers, marking entrances and exits, tracking props, marking when sound effects come in, and cueing props and sound effects.

Between the Renaissance and the 16th century, actors and playwrights took upon themselves the handling of finances, general directorial duties, and stage management.<ref>{{cite book
| last = Thomas
| first = James
| title = The art of the actor-manager: Wilson Barrett and the Victorian theatre
| isbn = 0-8357-1492-6
| publisher = UMI Research Press
| pages = 203
| date = 1984
}}
</ref> Stage management first emerged as a distinct role in the 17th century during Shakespeare's and Molière's time. During Shakespeare’s time the roles of stage management were left to apprentices, young boys learning the trade. There is still evidence of a prompter at this time.

It was not until the 18th century in England that the term ''stage manager'' was used. This was the first time a person other than actors and playwright was hired to direct or manage the stage. Over time, with the rise in complexity of theatre due to advances such as mechanized scenery, quick costume changes, and controlled lighting, the stage manager's job was split into two positions—'' director'' and ''stage manager''.<ref name="Fazio">{{cite book| last = Fazio| first = Larry| title = Stage Manager: The Professional Experience| ISBN = 0-240-80410-4| publisher = [[Focal Press]]| pages = 367| date = 2000}}</ref>

Many playwrights, directors, and actors have previously worked as assistant stage managers. Writer and director [[Preston Sturges]], for example, was employed as an ASM on [[Isadora Duncan]]'s production of ''[[Oedipus Rex]]'' at the age of 16 and a half:

<blockquote>When one is responsible for giving an offstage cue, even the simplest ones, like the ring of a telephone or a birdcall, demand considerable sangfroid, and the job is nerve-wracking. One is very much aware that everything depends on the delivery of the cue at exactly the right microsecond. One stands there, knees slightly bent, breathing heavily...<ref>{{cite sturges}}, p. 123-24</ref></blockquote>

Sturges didn't last long in this job, due to his calling for thunder and then lightning instead of lightning and then thunder, but 16 years later [[Brock Pemberton]] hired him as an ASM on [[Antoinette Perry]]'s production of ''Goin' Home'', which led to the first mounting of one of Sturges' plays on Broadway, ''[[The Guinea Pig (play)|The Guinea Pig]]'', in 1929.<ref>{{cite sturges}} pp. 239-245</ref>

[[File:Charlotte Cushman's prompt book for Hamlet.jpg|thumb|Page from American actress [[Charlotte Cushman]]'s prompt-book for [[Shakespeare]]'s ''[[Hamlet]]'' at the Washington Theater in 1861]]