Assistant Stage Manager
The position of Assistant Stage Manager, or ASM, is one of the most difficult yet rewarding jobs in theatre tech. This is an authoritative position just under Stage Manager and Director, and it will require a great deal of time and patience from you. You are the right hand man to the Stage Manager throughout the production and are expected to follow due instructions in a timely manner. This expectation of you also applies to the Director. For example, if your Stage Manager asks you to print extra scripts, you print them immediately; moreover, you do not put it off until you are finished with whatever you feel like finishing. The overall goal of being an ASM is to reduce pressure on the Stage Manager and therefore the
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Communication is the key in achieving this. Your actors and crew should remind you in plenty of time of their schedule conflicts for the week, or 24 hours if a new conflict arises. Likewise, you should tell your Stage Manager 24 hours ahead of schedule if any unexpected conflict comes to you. DO NOT SEND CAST AND CREW MEMBERS TO THE DIRECTOR FOR INFORMATION ABOUT CONFLICTS WITHOUT FIRST HEARING THE INFORMATION YOURSELF. It is disrespectful to put any more on the Director and it makes you look disorganized; furthermore, if the Director forgets about one schedule conflict that no one else knows about, that person may be wrongly held accountable. You are a significant part of the Director 's brain, and should be capable of handling and communicating information. Organization is one of the skills required of an Assistant Stage Manager. In order to be organized, you will need a binder for the production. Similarly, you will need a wide variety of paperwork and utensils for the production. Some essentials include: your script, extra copies of scripts, pencils, pens, highlighters, copies of contracts, sticky notes, a cast and crew list, a prop list, and copies of the schedule. This being said, another part of being organized is prioritizing. Do not let your grades slip due to this job as they should be the number one