Best qualities in a Stage Manager?

Question:If you have ever been involved in a production before...what were some qualities in your Stage Manager that helped you to better do YOUR job (play your role, run the light board, direct, etc).
or
If you are a Stage Manager, what are the qualities that you find to be most helpful to others?

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: If you have ever been involved in a production before...what were some qualities in your Stage Manager that helped you to better do YOUR job (play your role, run the light board, direct, etc).
or
If you are a Stage Manager, what are the qualities that you find to be most helpful to others?

You need to be organised - setting up rehearsal room, taking notes, writing blocking, prompting during rehearsals.
Creative - making rehearsal props out of anything you find, making and finding actual props.
Questioning everything - watching actors mime using a prop - finding out what it is!
Making tea for director. Being a shoulder to cry on. Making sure rehearsals are running smoothly.
Being discrete - from knowing famous peoples personal details, to not spreading gossip about private things known about members of the company.
Communicating things that come up in rehearsals to all creative departments.
During the technical - taking note of what is happening. Knowing when actors should be on stage, where the props should be.

During performance. If not calling the show, then knowing what is supposed to be happening. (You do get to notice if someone isn't where they are supposed to be! - that includes other departments. As a Stage Manager, I have helped with actors quick changes when the dresser has missed their cue.)

Above all, Stage Managers should be calm and have a really good sense of humour. There should very rarely a need for a Stage Manager to lose his or her temper. A Stage Manager may be 'in charge', but the ability to work as part of a larger team and to trust the other team mates are paramount. It is better to make friends with as many people as possible and be kind. This way, people are more willing to work together. There is noting worse than a fragmented team. Even if you don't like or respect someone, you should be professional in your approach to them.

Able to leap tall buildings in a single bound. Faster than a speeding bullet. Able to see something falling before it falls. A loud voice to yell at people with. A willingness to work 12 hours a day around 30 people with huge egos (not to mention all the prissy ACTORS who had to put their make up on with one of the 20 bulbs burnt out because the lousey stage manager isn't doing their job right)!

some of us actors are actually mild and not prissy with big egos. but i agree withh the leaping and speeding bullet thing. only possible way to be a stage manager is to become a superhero. (you'll have to find some kryptonite, because i don't have any.)

In my experience of doing many shows, mostly as an actor but a few times as a stagehand, a good stage manager needs above all elce terrific communication skills. They need to be able to be a liason between crew, actrors, directors, etc. They need to be knowledgeable, responsible, strict at times (but not a dictator, many make that mistake but good stage managers I've known have never had to raise their voice)

The Stage Manager needs to know that once the director is done and the show gets to dress rehearsal, the show is, for all intents and purposes, the Stage Manager's. He or she will make sure the actors arrive on time and are getting into make-up or warming up. They are responsible for "calling" the show. Most importantly, and this is dificult for HS stage Managers -- they cannot be anyone's friend. Once you are organized and punctual and all that other stuff, you cannot let one actor slide on something while giving other actors notes for the same thing. One actor cannot be allowed to arrive five minutes after call time. And the Stage Manager cannot be caught laying cards with the other actors. The stage manager is their boss.

A stage manager need to be able to yell at people and not feel bad. There will always be that actor that is always in the wrong place in the wrong time and they will need to move. They should also be organized. My stage manger has the entire prop table labeled and divided into section, like all the props in the in the first scene were in the top right of the prop table. she also had a diagram of where the sets were in each scene. and her own script that was all marked up. Most importantly she had to remain cool or else all hell broke loose backstage.

ORGANIZATON!! In my community theater, the stage manager is expected to be there from the beginning of the rehearsal period. The sage manager needs to know the play very well because the stage manager is in charge back stage. They need to know when actors are supposed to be on, the call the 5 minute warning before the show make sure all actors are in their places. The Stage manager is also the person in charge of the back stage crew. They need to be able to make sure everyone is doing their job. They are also responsible for beating people when they don't pick up after themselves, enforcing the rules, backing up the director and basically being an all round bad ***. If the assistant director is the right hand of the director, the stage manager is definately the left. A good stage manager is essential to a show.

Oh, yeah! The communicaton skills and organizational abilities are extremely high on my list for good qualities for a stage manager. I'd also add 'broad shoulders' so you can carry many responsibilities (some of which fall onto you at the last minute because someone else failed to follow through and, tag, you're it) and 'duck feathers' so any criticism or ego tantrums can roll off you like water off a duck's back. An ability to keep your head while everyone else has already lost theirs is good, too.