Recently I SM'd my 5th show. For this show and the first time ever in my theatre, the SM (i.e. me) was calling the cues, whereas normally this would be done by our TD.
However, as my TD thought that I would be distracted by calling the cues, and thus unable to manage the backstage area at the same time (even though i would also be backstage), he gave me a DSM, who had been there for longer than me, and thus had plenty of experience. The reason that I was SM'ing and he was not, was that, for my first show, he wasn’t really doing much for the theatre at that point, due to having lots of exams, and for the next show, he had the lead acting role and thus again was unable to SM, and due to those two things, he was kind of out of Stage Management loop for a while and at that same time, i joined my theatres crew and was seen as a decent replacment whilst we had no SM.
So basically backstage during the show, it turns out that for the first two thirds of the show, there aren’t actually any cues for me to call, and thus I am just sitting around. This is where the problem starts, because the other guy has been there longer than me, he naturally feels that he is superior to me and thus whenever I make any decisions, as SM, he even though he is only DSM overrides these decisions. The problem now being that the TD has said for example that he doesn’t want any actors backstage unless necessary; so I try to enforce the TD's wishes as I see fit, but then as soon as I do so the DSM starts arguing with me, in front of the actor in question. So basically thus, the actors now ignore me if it is a decision they don’t like and will wait for the DSM to step in and tell them basically they can do the opposite of what I told them…
So, I was just wondering has/does anyone else have this problem and how did you deal with it?
I have already tried talking to the DSM, but to no effect and i need to sort out this problem, before someone ignores me in relation to something Dangerous.
Thanks in advance, for any views or help you can give.
However, as my TD thought that I would be distracted by calling the cues, and thus unable to manage the backstage area at the same time (even though i would also be backstage), he gave me a DSM, who had been there for longer than me, and thus had plenty of experience. The reason that I was SM'ing and he was not, was that, for my first show, he wasn’t really doing much for the theatre at that point, due to having lots of exams, and for the next show, he had the lead acting role and thus again was unable to SM, and due to those two things, he was kind of out of Stage Management loop for a while and at that same time, i joined my theatres crew and was seen as a decent replacment whilst we had no SM.
So basically backstage during the show, it turns out that for the first two thirds of the show, there aren’t actually any cues for me to call, and thus I am just sitting around. This is where the problem starts, because the other guy has been there longer than me, he naturally feels that he is superior to me and thus whenever I make any decisions, as SM, he even though he is only DSM overrides these decisions. The problem now being that the TD has said for example that he doesn’t want any actors backstage unless necessary; so I try to enforce the TD's wishes as I see fit, but then as soon as I do so the DSM starts arguing with me, in front of the actor in question. So basically thus, the actors now ignore me if it is a decision they don’t like and will wait for the DSM to step in and tell them basically they can do the opposite of what I told them…
So, I was just wondering has/does anyone else have this problem and how did you deal with it?
I have already tried talking to the DSM, but to no effect and i need to sort out this problem, before someone ignores me in relation to something Dangerous.
Thanks in advance, for any views or help you can give.
Last edited: