Going to expand this into a few different full-length articles, but thought it would behoove me to get my references together into one place first…
Wikipedia’s entry on stage management explains: “There is a profound lack of information regarding the history and evolution of stage management. Most stage management books are reference or how-to manuals describing the process of stage management, with little or no reference to the history of the field.”
It then quotes Larry Fazio’s book introduction on the subject:
“I realized that I wanted to include a section on the history of SMing. In my research, I found only one SMing book that briefly described the evolution of the SM, which started in the 17th century during Shakespeare’s and Molière’s time…by [this] time, the actor and/or playwright was well established as the director of the show and putting together a production had become more civilized and organized. More props were used and special costumes were needed to portray the characters. It wasn’t until the eighteenth century in England that the term stage manager was used instead of director. This was the first time a person, separate from the actors and playwright, was hired to direct or manage the stage. With the advent of elaborate sets, multiple costume changes, mechanical scenery and devices, gas lighting, and the lime-light spotlight, the SM’s job was split into the two positions as we know them today—the director and the SM.”
So we have a clear line connecting the stage manager and the director – which only makes sense, since nowadays the SM takes over completely from the director upon a show’s opening. Up until then, during rehearsals, the SM acts more as an assistant to the director, organizing, scheduling and handling logistics, and acting as a scribe to notate and maintain creative decisions made.
Wikipedia’s theatre director page elucidates another connecting line, via Greek drama down to the Mystery plays of medieval Europe:
In ancient Greece, the birthplace of European drama, the writer bore principal responsibility for the staging of his plays. Actors would generally be semi-professionals, and the playwright-director oversaw the mounting of plays from the writing process all the way through to their performances, often – as was the case for Aeschylos for instance – also acting in them. He would also train the chorus, sometimes compose the music and supervise every aspect of production. The term applied to him, didaskalos, the Greek word for “teacher,” is indicative of how these early directors had to combine instruction of their performers with staging their work.
[...] In Medieval times, the complexity of vernacular religious drama, with its large scale mystery plays that often included crowd scenes, processions and elaborate effects, gave the role of director (or stage manager or pageant master) considerable importance. [...] the director’s tasks included overseeing the erecting of a stage and scenery (there were no permanent, purpose-built theatre structures at this time, and performances of vernacular drama mostly took place in the open air), casting and directing the actors (which included fining them for those that infringed rules), and addressing the audience at the beginning of each performance and after each intermission.
Acting troupes in general seem also to have been run by the lead actor, or a prominent member of the company, often referred to under the category of “actor-manager” (same source as above).
From Renaissance times up until the 19th century, the role of director was often carried by the so-called actor-manager. This would usually be a senior actor in a troupe who took the responsibility for choosing the repertoire of work, staging it and managing the company. This was the case for instance with Commedia dell’Arte companies and English actor-managers like Colley Cibber and David Garrick.
Via Britannica’s entry on the actor-manager system, the
method of theatrical production dominant in England and the U.S. in the 19th century, consisting of a permanent company formed by a leading actor who chose his or her own plays, took a leading role in them, and handled business and financial arrangements.
And a Guardian article lamenting the decline of the actor-manager system:
It used to be quite natural for performers to run their own companies. The tradition dates back to the mid-18th century when Colley Cibber ran a company in Drury Lane. And it seems that in the 200 years that followed, almost every actor of note, from David Garrick to Henry Irving, did the same thing, with the practice culminating in Laurence Olivier, who was the first director of Chichester Festival Theatre and who then went on to found the National Theatre.
Jumping back to Medieval plays and pageants, I’ve also found mention of a title called the “pageant master” which seems pretty close to the stage manager role we’re describing herein.
Rehearsals were oversaw by an individual called the “pageant master“.
Pageant Master: The pageant master was hired to oversee rehearsals, like a modern-day director. The pageant master was onstage with the actors with a script and could feed them lines.
Another source indicates:
To the guilds the giving of the plays was a very serious matter. Often each guild had a ‘pageant-house’ where it stored its ‘properties,’ and a pageant-master who trained the actors and imposed substantial fines on members remiss in cooperation.
And still another:
The expenses, which were often large, were sometimes partly met by a nobleman or other public spirited benefactor; but in general the citizens or guilds financed the production. A collection was taken up at the time of the procession; and, in addition, a tax, ranging from a penny to fourpence and called pageant silver, was imposed upon each member of the guilds. It was paid over to the pageant master, who was elected each year. Today he would be called the business manager, or impresario. The actors and “drawers” were paid for their services; but there was a fine for bad acting or undue forgetfulness of the parts, also fines for guilds which were slow in handing over their pageant silver.
I’ve also traced the history of the stage manager to variety halls, vaudeville houses and minstrel shows. A note card I took from a library book (whose title escapes me, though the author is “Gilbert” – I’ll track this down…) says:
“The rest of the stage crew in the early variety halls consisted of two ‘grips’, or scene shifters, and a stage manager. The stage manager acted as interlocutor in the minstrels (a feature in many bills), played ’straight’ in the afterpieces, and sometimes took on important roles in the dramas and sketches.”
A few more references can be found online to the stage manager acting as “interlocutor” in the minstrel shows:
An interlocutor is the master of ceremonies of a minstrel show. A blackface character, like the other performers, the interlocutor nonetheless had a somewhat aristocratic demeanor, a “codfish aristocrat”.
From Dictionary.com:
the man in the middle of the line of performers in a minstrel troupe, who acts as the announcer and banters with the end men.
A Google books result about a Mr. Quinlan of the 1880’s who rose to the rank of “stage manager, interlocutor, manager and finally proprietor”…
Mr. Quinlan’s first appearance in the “middle” was with Sweatnam, Rice and Fagan’s Minstrels at Philadelphia, about 1888; subsequently he broke away from the conventional style of the interlocutor, and instead of keeping his seat during conversations, he would walk about, to and fro on the stage, leaving it entirely at occasional intervals; this was a unique departure, and was apparently well liked.
Interestingly, interlocutor is also a term in cultural diplomacy.
One other connecting line I’ve come across is the so-called MC or Master of Ceremonies, the term for which the internet alleges originates in the Catholic Church:
The term originates from the Catholic Church. The Master of Ceremonies is an official of the Papal Court responsible for the proper and smooth conduct of the elegant and elaborate rituals involving the Pope and the Sacred Liturgy. He may also be an official involved in the proper conduct of protocols and ceremonials involving the Roman Pontiff, the Papal Court, and other dignitaries and potentates.
If you look around, you’ll find other references to and variations of master of ceremonies referring to a member of a royal or imperial court who maintains social rituals on behalf of the court. Other cultures, however, use the term somewhat more informally. Wikipedia’s entry indicates a connecting line between the modern MC as a hip-hop rapper going back through to Jamaican revelries:
The use of the term MC when referring to a rhymer originates from the dance halls of Jamaica. At each event, there would be an announcer or master of ceremonies who would introduce the different musical acts and would say a toast in style of a rhyme, directed at the audience and to the performers. He would also make announcements such as the schedule of other events or advertisements from local sponsors. The term MC continued to be used by the children of women who moved to New York to work as maids in the 1970s.
This would, in turn, connect us back to the European (and really global) tradition of bards, etc – people who are looked up to to say meaningful things, make toasts, etc at important social gatherings. In that same vein, one last quote before I sign off to begin my day as a modern stage manager (also from Wikipedia source above):
In the context of a comedy club, the role of MC is traditionally filled by a “compere”. The compere of a comedy show is the host of the evening’s events, charged with a variety of responsibilities. These typically include making announcements, introducing the other comedians of the evening, and interacting with the crowd for such events as birthdays, anniversaries, and other parties.
