The Misanthrope - Stage Manager's blog (Pt1)

It’s the final week of rehearsals before production week and our first preview next Thursday and thankfully everything is coming together but, if you’d asked me on Thursday…

The set is a chic, modern loft space in Paris – with very little furniture. Easy you might think, especially from a Stage management point of view, nothing to it! But the thing with an empty stage - you really notice what’s on it. When you have a fantastic cast, in beautiful costumes, it allows everyone to fully come into their own - which is wonderful. But it also means that everything has to feel justified and look absolutely PERFECT! My Assistant Stage manager has been working hard with Tom, our designer, to achieve this look.

As always in theatre we are on a tight budget. So when the chaise longue that Tom loves was sourced my heart sank because of the rather large - almost the entire budget large - price tag! As a stage manager, you don’t like disappointing the designer or director and everyone can see that this is the perfect chaise for the production. Anything else we find just wont measure up. Luckily Andy, our Assistant Stage Manager, has been speaking to some rather brilliant and kind people at Bristol’s Habitat who have offered to help us out and lend us one - Fantastic news! However, the chaise we need is in Manchester. Now all we need to do is get it here. With more help from the lovely people of Habitat, some gentle persuasion and a lot of luck, we are hopeful to get hold of it this Thursday.

More info on The Misanthrope

Polly Meech

Stage Manager, The Misanthrope