The Six Phases of Production

Most people may not think about how all of the pieces of a production fit together more than a Stage Manager because we are active participants throughout all phases and an integral part of each and every one. These will sometimes vary from person to person and may depend on what type of genre a production falls into. My list is broken up into six phases, but I’ve seen them broken down into as many as eight creating a new phase for the first rehearsal and opening night. I loop the first rehearsal into the rehearsal phase and opening night into performances.

Phase One (1): Prep / Pre-Production

Stage Managers love making lists and plans for how to solve problems. Am I right? Prep Week, or the Pre-Production phase, is our time to organize supplies, the rehearsal space, office areas, create all of the paperwork that will serve the rehearsal process, and look at what challenges might come up so that we have a plan when they do.

When I approach prep week, I first consider who is on my team. What are their individual strengths and how can I split up tasks to use the team in the most efficient way? I’m a believer in sharing information and being transparent about everything that does not require confidentiality as a Production Stage Manager. The more information my team has access to, the more they are able to be autonomous and independent with what they need to accomplish. My team is an extension of me and also serves the production in the same capacity as I do, so whatever I can do to equip them with the information I have will better empower them to have the answers when they are asked.

As many other teams do, I use some sort of file-sharing system. I’ve used Dropbox and Google Drive. I plan on writing a future article that will dive into the similarities and differences between these two popular platforms and why I might choose one over the other. They both have great features for different reasons. Organizing the information in a way that makes sense not only to myself but to my team is important.

The first conversation with the director and getting a feel for what their vision is for the show is one of the most important pieces of the puzzle moving into the first rehearsal, aside from building a strong team dynamic with the other members of the stage management team. Personally, I have narrowed down the list of questions that I ask a director as I get a vibe about how they like to work. Things like how they like to split the days up, what length of breaks they prefer, starting early or later, asking questions about the challenges the play might pose from a staging or design perspective, and what they want in stage manager. These set the tone going into the rehearsal phase.

Phase Two (2): Rehearsal

Once we have everything ready for the rehearsal, we move into our next phase which is the rehearsal phase and probably the biggest chunk of the production process. The first rehearsal is an important day. Everyone meets each other for the first time, the cast reads the play out loud, we see the layout of the ground plan on the rehearsal floor, and hear the director and designers’ concepts for what the production will soon become.

Depending on whether the production has a union affiliation, such as Actors’ Equity, there is typically some sort of company meeting where the Stage Managers run through all of the housekeeping and official business like the schedule, what our plans are, contact information, handing out scripts, and answering lingering logistical questions. A company manager who handles the payroll and housing side of things will typically be there to help answer housing questions and other outstanding questions that fall outside of the rehearsal process; life stuff.

And we’re off! In a traditional theatre setting there will be about a week of table work where we dive deep into the script, intentions, and objectives of the characters, the world of the play, surrounding themes being talked about in the play/story, and thoughts from the director. Non-traditional settings vary depending on the needs of the group and production…they can be totally different from project to project and will be different lengths of time all based on what needs to be accomplished. During the rehearsal phase, actors are scheduled for costume and wig fittings and their time must be balanced within the allotted scheduled rehearsal period of the day, with a few exceptions to the rule.

As we move through the rehearsal process, there are daily reports sent to the entire production and design team to keep them in the loop about what’s happening. Many notes might notate how staging might affect the lights, the set construction, or sound, but mostly a lot of the notes tend to fall in the costume and prop areas since that’s what the actors are interacting with the most. Notating the movements of the actor’s bodies and what they use is one of the most important parts of our job as Stage Managers. The team, especially the director, looks to the stage management team for information about what has been rehearsed already and where people/things might be at a specific moment when discussing a new idea; perhaps they want to change it to something else instead.

The rehearsal phase starts to get more and more solidified and we begin moving towards the next phase: technical rehearsals, or tech for short.

Phase Three (3): Tech

Tech rehearsals are one of my favorite times of the production process and it’s where I find my skills shining the most. Leading up to the transition from rehearsals into tech, the stage management team does a lot to make sure all paperwork is up-to-date and accurate, the transition is smooth for the director and actors, and communicating ahead of time to make sure the team at large is in the know about the plan, challenges, schedule, and pace.

Because the Production Stage Manager is further removed from the process happening on stage with the actors, communication between everyone shifts quite a bite. I rely on the Assistant Stage Managers to be my eyes and ears for what is happening on stage and to communicate them to me as needed. I personally like to be communicated with about what’s happening onstage even if I won’t do anything with it at the moment unless I specifically request for the ASMs to make a decision based on their best judgment. I trust that the ASMs know what they are doing and that they have the production’s best interest in mind.

The tech phase is all about bringing together the staging from rehearsal and incorporating all of the technical elements. Actual show props, costumes, lighting, sound, special effects, video, cue lights, and any other practical effects that may not have been involved in rehearsals. Costumes usually do not start on the first tech day, but come in when they make the most sense to start using them. It’s typical to start the show from pre-show and go all the way through the entire show in order until the entire show has been teched.

Due to the physical distance between everyone, communication becomes very important to keep everyone in the room on the same page. As a Production Stage Manager, I use the voice of god mic to communicate major pieces of information to everyone and especially with the director so they know when they can work independently while tech works and when we are ready to move forward. At other times, I communicate with the team and stage management over headset to be more efficient and at times more private.

Once the show has been teched all the way through, a run-through will be scheduled to get all of the new tech-related things ironed out, and transitions figured out, and to let the actors get used to how it feels.

Phase Four (4): Previews

The next phase in the process is the preview phase. Again, like all of the previous phases, this phase will differ based on the type of process and production it is. The preview phase is in my opinion one of the most difficult phases for me because it is a combination of rehearsal, tech, and shows put together.

The morning or afternoon sessions are typically used for notes and to rework parts of the show that maybe didn’t work that great, the audience reaction wasn’t great, or just a piece that the team didn’t have time to finish before the performance the night before. There can be multiple changes, major or minor, to scenes, cueing, the order of cues, the order of scenes, cut lines, added lines, etc. It’s important to set a boundary for changes that can be accomplished in the 4-5 hours that are usually allowed to work before the evening performance.

Something that will help the team move through the preview phase more efficiently is tracking all of the changes that are made so if we want to move back to a previous version, we know what was changed without having to remember it, similar to a script change log that tracks all of the script changes throughout the entire production.

And communication. Transparent and widely shared communication is a great way to keep everyone in the loop about what is happening, what is changing, answering questions, and repeating yourself. These times can get stressful because the stakes can be extremely high, so treating people with dignity and respect while communicating will go a long way.

Phase Five (5): Shows

After we’ve worked for weeks now to establish the world of the play, build the inner lives of the actors, bring together months of design concept work, and show it to an audience for feedback with multiple iterations night after night, it’s time for us to set the show and open it for a run of performances. Opening night is a special night! It’s a time of gratitude, showing appreciation, and passing the baton to the stage management team and actors to continue with the show now that the work of the design team is done.

Seeing how the audience responds to the show for the first time and how each audience is different is a gift as a stage manager. We get to be a part of the audience and in performance with the other actors/performers on stage. There are some instances where the calling stage manager won’t be in a booth above the house, but the majority of calling booths are there. I’ll be writing another article soon about different calling dynamics.

The length of a show run will vary greatly from show to show. It ranges from one time to years. Most residential theatre shows run for 3-4 weeks or longer if ticket sales are good, but other for-profit resident shows run for years. These dynamics change show operations and the attitude of the company. When the run is shorter, it feels more precious and supportive, and when the run is longer and established, it feels more corporate and settled because they’ve had the time to work out kinks over that amount of time.

Phase Six (6): Closing / Wrapping Up

A large part of our job as Stage Managers is to document what happens throughout each phase from creating, preparing, maintaining, and updating paperwork. Many productions may only have one life and go down in history forever, but some have second lives or more beyond your time on the production. So it’s important to keep an organized system for what happened so if, and when, the next team wants to remount the production, they can take a look at how you addressed challenges, what worked and what didn’t work, who was cast, etc, etc. This is a part of Dropbox and Google Drive (or something else), and also your physical prompt book built throughout rehearsals, tech, and performances. Make your life easier and start on this from day one keeping it all up-to-date so that when you close the show you’ve done everything along the way.

Conclusion:

Stage Managers are intricately involved in each production phase because we are active participants throughout all phases bringing all of the pieces together like the center of a wheel holds the spokes of a bicycle wheel together. These phases vary from production to production, but these are a great starting point for how to learn about what goes into making a successful production.

Phases of Production: The Rehearsal Process as a Stage Manager

A New Era of Stage Management