Looks like I’ve stumbled into a fellow brit, wahey! Hope your show went alright Tim, and that it was a success. I trust you went to a few rehearsals before attempting to
DSM?
When I was at college I used to SM and
DSM quite a lot, I find what helped me out (especially during the musicals) was knowing how to
play the piano and the drums, being able to keep a
beat and feeling when a
build in the song is about to happen, and feeling the show progress at a pace. I have no way of telling if you have the musical “gift”, but if you don’t, try downloading some music (legally of course!) and finding a piece of score to accompany it, and just follow it, counting the beats in your head.
A good rapour with the cast, band and other crew is always good to have! Generally you’ll be one of the first ports of
call when it comes to dealing with matters during rehearsals, passing messages to and from the
stage manager,
production manager and other members of the creative team.
I guess the one
bit of proper advice for now I could give you would be to just sit back, relax and enjoy the experience!
Note:-
For those of you outside of the UK, the
DSM (Deputy
Stage Manager) is the one who calls the show over here in the UK. With the ASMs being the ones at the bottom of the pile.