About the Book:

An essential reference guide for the novice stage manager in high school, college, or community theatre.

Are you about to stage manage your first show and have no idea where to start? A Survival Guide for Stage Managers: A Practical Step-By-Step Handbook to Stage Management offers simplified guidelines for a complicated job and gives a step-by-step process for organizing auditions, rehearsals, the technical aspects, and performances. The author is a working Equity Stage Manager who understands the pressures of the beginning stage manager and proceeds to calm those fears in a no-nonsense handbook. This "survival guide" gives detailed descriptions or examples of all the forms and lists the stage manager must use in production.

What people say:

"This step-by-step, user friendly guide covers every aspect of stage management and can take any would-be stage manager at any level of theatre and turn them into an expert who will be the ultimate asset to your production." — Tom Paster, Director of Musical Theatre, Northern Highlands Regional High School

"It's entertaining, informative and practical – a great resource for the 'how-to' questions, and a terrific overview for anyone involved in the process of making theater." — Les Gutman, Producing Director, Friendly Fire Theatre

About the Author:

Mary Ellen Allison is a working Equity Stage Manager with over thirty years of professional experience in all venues from Broadway to regional theatres. She has served as such on premieres with such award-winning writers as Horton Foote, Michael Cristofer, Bob Randall and Sheldon Epps. She has had the honour of working with outstanding theater artists such as Jean Stapleton, Allison Janney, Jim Dale, Matthew Modine, Carolee Carmello and Frank Langella. A Professor at Theater School of Contemporary Arts, she teaches stage management at Ramapo College of New Jersey.