Welcome to Gaia! ::

I have to be thinking about this cus I'm going to have to pick a SM for my senior workshop sometime soon.

I take mental notes as I work with various people as to how they have handled the job before. In our program, the theatre director trys to make sure that everyone SM's a mainstage or ASM's at least once in there college lifetime. I am paying attention to who is the most organized of the bunch as well as who seems to be the most helpful to the director and finally... who I would be able to do without IN the show and who would be better suited to be one of my designers. All of our techie's are actors and visa versa. You can't have people doubling up jobs or you get yelled at for it. Sometimes they make and acception for costume designer being in the workshop, but never the set or lighting designer.

I'm a stage manager so I can probably help with this one.

you want someone responsible and organized who will help to create an atmosphere of support and structure without restricting the progress of the piece. a stage manager is the go to guy or gal, and needs to be a person who is trustworthy. as the stage manager will keep the prompt book which is the official record of the production it is important that they are organized. a stage manager should know how to do scheduling work with regard to the personal needs of the actors, director, managerial staff, and technical and design team but always tending the needs of the play first. the stage manager should have experience with calling a show as that will almost always be their job during the run of the production. stage managers must be able to stay calm under pressure, problem solve, stay flexible, and have excellent people skills.

this of course changes with the needs of the specific production and changes depending on what level you are doing theatre at. for high school theatre the needs may be different, but the qualities that a good stage manager possesses should be the same.