Should a Stage Manager Be a Production Manager?

Should a Stage Manager Be a Production Manager?

Should a Stage Manager Be a Production Manager? | brokeGIRLrich

So today is my first day at a new job! It’s pretty common knowledge among my regular readers that I was discontent at the last one. I actually had a funny conversation one of the last days at my old job with the Stage Manager for the company doing the show there.

She said she heard I was leaving and asked where I was going next. When I told her I was going back to stage management because production management wasn’t really for me, she started to laugh at me and told me she’d never even wanted to try being a Production Manager.

Earlier in the week, I learned that one of our facilities managers had been a Stage Manager for years, tried production management once and hated every second of it.

….apparently I needed to learn this the hard way as well. But hearing that from both of them made me feel a world of better about how the entire last year has gone.

For any Stage Managers out there considering a foray into production management, here are some things to think about:

  • You had better have top notch technical skills if you want to be happy and not just endlessly stressed doing this job. I spent more time looking at light plots, ground plans and sections this year than I have since college. I also had to figure out things like how to rent ourhealthissues.com/all-products/ motors, what size they needed to be and whether or not they could power Italian equipment.
  • You may or may not have to deal with unions. Union agreements are the most convoluted and confusing paperwork I’ve ever read in my life.
  • Payroll is a seriously unpleasant beast to wrangle.
  • You are no longer in hands on, in the thick of things, which I found to be an unpleasant change.
  • Crew guys are just as insane as actors, they just don’t cry as often. You will still get yelled at – often for things that are in no way your fault. At least this is a familiar thing.

Based on conversations with other friends who are Stage Managers, if you need a change for a while, look at something like Company Management or Tour Coordinating. I’m going to keep that in mind next time I’m stupid enough to apply for a job other than stage managing.

So what am I doing now? I’m the Stage Manager/Lighting Director for Dinosaur Train Live. And if you have small children, or are just alarmingly into dinosaurs, check out our touring schedule. My work schedule is a little insane, but if I can make the time, I’d love to meet some other personal finance bloggers around America as my tour comes through your area.

I am so going to kick butt in the dinosaur category of Jeopardy by the end of May.

So should a stage manager become a production manager? Definitely not all the time.

9 thoughts on “Should a Stage Manager Be a Production Manager?

  1. Good for you to know what you like and not just plod along in misery for the rest of your life. It seems that this is a common discovery by stage managers or at least for a couple of them that you mentioned. To bad someone didn’t tell you their experience with that production manager career move before you had to live through it. Though there is something to be said about experiencing things yourself.
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