Firsts: on stage managing First Dance
This article was originally published in McMaster University’s Alumni Blog in 2012.
When I was asked to stage manage for Tottering Biped Theatre's performance, First Dance, I knew it would be a first for me, in different ways.
One of the many "firsts" was the subject matter of the show. First Dance touched upon the rituals of marriage, the idea of having a married couple perform the first dance on the day of their wedding ceremony. But the first dance (as a tradition in marriage ceremonies), or its significance, is largely unquestioned. It is expected that the dance will have a lead and a follower, the former being a male and the latter being a female.
But First Dance challenged this notion of a gender-based dance system. Instead, the play had two men dancing together, both leading and following throughout the dance process. Rumba, salsa, ballroom and samba were being performed, but each dance was familiar but also different. The dance styles were distinctive but unique, because two dancers were co-existing, not overpowering each other in their moves.
While I couldn't walk straight without falling down flat on my face, I've learned how to navigate this role as a stage manager, as the very person leading the show from the tech booth.
At its core, the technical requirements of the show were rather basic. There was dance music during the show and pre-show music. Video clips were projected on a 4.5-foot wide backdrop. For lighting, there were 5 "specials" (location-specific spots of lights), to be hung during performance day, aside from each theatre's house plot for general lights. But as basic as our tech needs were, the situation changed each time we set up in a new location. Each theatre space was rather different, in size, facilities, seating capacities and booth (lighting and sound) locations. From a typical proscenium arch, to a thrust and box-shaped stage, each space was unique. It was a challenge for me as I decide how to best set up the show, while maintaining its integrity and working around established conditions of each space.
For example, our first tour location was the George Luscombe Theatre at the University of Guelph. The room was a black box, with the audience facing the corner. In this space, the set up was fairly straightforward. With a catwalk above the stage, it was easy to hang lights because there was no need to bring out a ladder to do that.
It was at Guelph where I saw the show coming together for the first time, with full tech. I've been watching the actors dance for more than two weeks. They presented nothing new on that day. But seeing them on stage, in full light, sound, and video, dancing and responding to the audiences, it felt like a better rehearsal. Except that it wasn't, it was show time – and I was running the show.
This sense of discovery was consistent for every location we set foot on. Every space had its own nuances, limitations, and possibilities. And the audiences varied too. We performed to more than 60 upper-year theatre students in a sexuality and stage course at Guelph. On our second day, we had first-year students from an introduction to drama course. Those were students, fresh from high school, who haven't seen many professional theatre performances, let alone two men dancing together intimately. What an introduction!
Conversely, at Kiwanis Theatre, Chatham, we had 35 – 40 adult audiences in the house. It was our (and my) first time at this small town, with a population of 44,074 in Southwestern Ontario. We were stunned to learn that we would be performing at a 750 – seat theatre, fully equipped and with a balcony to boot. It was magnificent and a privilege to do a show at such a beautiful space.
For the Chatham folks, this form of theatre was something new to them too. According to the organizers, "theatre" in Chatham meant Shakespearean theatre: a 3-act play with intermissions in between, complete with a clear plot. First Dance was anything but traditional. It was an hour long, with no intermission. There was no time to take a breather, let alone properly digest the controversial ideas presented in the play.
Through our performances at these locations, it dawned to me: theatre is really magical. No two performances were the same – ever. From a tech standpoint, it certainly wasn't. As an observer from the tech booth, I witnessed the actors responding to the audiences as they dance their way around the stage. Each breath and move was reactionary, a call and response. The pace of the show quicken occasionally. The mood darkened and lightened up during different moments. I could feel the audience frowning, wincing, or smiling from the way the actors performed.
We had two standing ovations during the tour performances. On one occasion, everyone in the house stood up and clapped continuously for at least 15 seconds. The actors were gushing with pride, overwhelmed by the positive response.
At that moment, I had to look out from the glass windows of the tech booth to catch their reactions. All I saw were rows of heads, at different heights. For every performance, I never had the chance to actually see how the audiences react from the front. But as it turned out, I didn't need that frontal view. Their laughter and gasps were enough to tell me this: the show was (also) the first, in many ways, for them.