Sweeney Todd - “Don’t be Tentative”

During these first few weeks of rehearsal, the cast had been working on movement. The focus was to connect personally to your own body, and connect your body with other people’s. One night, Curt had the cast exploring stage pictures. He started the exercise off by having everyone sit in a circle on the stage and asking people to come to the center individually. Each individual was to walk through the space and lead with the part of their bodies that they were most uncomfortable with. They were to embody their physical insecurities and put their vulnerabilities on display. Of course, this terrified everybody. And despite the fact that Curt had them each show off their favorite attribute after parading their least favorite, there was still an awkward pause each time Curt said, “Good. Next?” After everyone had gone, Curt opened up the floor for discussion: what did you discover? There was a universal answer: it was uncomfortable. One girl, who was new to the theatre department, said that she was so nervous to share her biggest insecurity with these near-strangers that she couldn’t make herself get off the floor.

                Curt countered their doubts. He stressed the importance of the ability to tap into vulnerability and the willingness to put it on display. You need to believe in who you are what you have to offer. That is where genuine onstage emotion comes from, and that is most captivating. “Don’t be tentative,” he said. He then continued the rehearsal by shifting gears to the ensemble. He had one person enter the circle and create a pose. Each member of the cast was to add to that pose with their own, one at a time, to build a tableau with an overall theme. After a few minutes of tableau building, Curt embellished the exercise by switching from still tableaus to silent scenes; the first person in the center had to present an action and the rest had to build on it, adding their own actions while developing a believable scene.  The goal was to create a picture, tell a story, and make connections with your partners. When the exercise was finished, Curt observed that he could see people second-guessing their actions as more people entered the scene; they became less of a unit and more of a hesitating group. Again, “don’t be tentative.”    

                How does this have anything to do with a stage manager, you may ask? SMs aren’t up on stage with the cast doing movement exercises, this doesn’t relate. But it does. “Don’t be tentative,” Curt said. Don’t be tentative. The same lesson Curt was teaching the cast was given to me recently during one of my meetings with my academic adviser. We were going over my curriculum contract: a contract that each theatre student presents to the department proposing the classes they will take and their involvement in productions based on their emphasis (i.e. stage management). The form asks to state your future career goals and I filled this space with phrases like “I hope to make stage managing my career,” and even “I do not know.” My adviser immediately took a pencil to my form, scratching out all my wishy-washy words. “This is what you want to do,” she told me, “this is your passion.” This is not a hope, it is a plan. She scribbled in words like employment, plan, and possible, until my opening statement read: “I plan to make stage management my career whether I am employed with a repertory theatre company, a touring company, or working on a long-running production in New York City or any other major city.”

That set me on fire! It gave me prospect! My adviser said that we are often taught to be passive as we are growing up, but at this moment in life we need to learn to be aggressive (or progressive to be more precise). It’s all about confidence. Employers expect it. Confidence in an interview ensures that you are able, the work you do once you are hired confirms it. As a stage manager I have to stand behind my work, believe in my skills, and present myself with integrity (there’s that word again). I need to be confident in my abilities; otherwise, nobody would take me seriously.

                Now is the time to be confident in my abilities. And I’m not just saying that metaphorically – literally, now! We start Sweeney rehearsals up again tonight and Perry will not be there this week to run rehearsals because he will be in tech as a designer for another production. The ASMs are officially in charge this week. It’s a tall order for a show like Sweeney, but I can take the challenge. That’s why I’m here, after all – to take the challenge. And stage management is not a new thing to me. So this will be exciting. It will be a time to confirm my abilities and even broaden them. All I have to do is stand by what I have to offer. I won’t be tentative.