THE PROCESS BEFORE PROCESS, BY KATE BECKLEY
Hi SotP fans and friends! My name is Kate Beckley, and while this is my first season as an ensemble member, I’m certainly no stranger to SotP. Elephant’s Graveyard marks my third production as a stage manager with the company. You may have spotted my name in the programs for The Women of Lockerbie and Grand Concourse, and I’m thrilled to continue my journey with this incredible team. Today is the first day of rehearsal for Elephant’s Graveyard. First rehearsals are always filled with exciting energy—almost like first day of school energy—seeing old friends, meeting new folks, and the anticipation of the journey we are about to start together.
Seat of the Pants values being process driven. You may ask yourself, “Now, what does that mean?” Our definition of being “process driven” is taking time and making space to allow the artists—actors, directors, designers, and yes, the stage manager—to take risks, forget about being perfect, and explore in ways that have us all collaborating to build the show together.
This begins with “process rehearsals” which is what we’re starting today. These rehearsals occur once or twice a week from now until January. This allows our artists to dive deep into the material before we even begin staging the show. As the stage manager, I’ve found this part of the process to be super beneficial. These weeks of rehearsal provide me with more time to develop an in-depth understanding of the show and the artists that I am working with to make us all stronger collaborators in the world that we are building. A stage manager has a bit of work that has to be completed before the first rehearsal.
Each stage manager has their own system. Mine starts with an organized Google Drive full of templates ready to go. I also keep a huge three-ring binder with tons of colorful tabs and—of course—plenty of color-coded documents. It might sound dorky, but honestly? It’s super helpful. By the time we get to the first rehearsal, I’ve already put together a production calendar with all the dates and times we know, a full contact list for everyone involved, and templates for rehearsal and show reports. I’ve also formatted and printed my own copy of the script so I have plenty of room for all the notes I’ll be taking along the way.
Fun-ish fact: during this production, I’ll actually use two different scripts.
The first one is my blocking script. I print it single-sided and hole-punch it on the right so the text sits on the left page and the right page is wide open for notes. Blocking is essentially the map of the show—where actors move, how they interact with the space, and the specific staging choices that shape each moment. This script is the one I live in during rehearsals, filling it with all the movement and staging details that bring the story to life.
As we get closer to tech—when we layer in all the technical elements like lights, sound, costumes, and set changes—I’ll start building the prompt book. This second script looks very different. Instead of blocking, it’s filled with all the cues I’ll be calling during performances.
“Calling a show” means I’m on headset, giving precise cues to the light board operator, sound board operator (sometimes one person, who could also be me), stage crew, and anyone else behind the scenes. Every blackout, sound effect, lighting shift, and scene transition happens when I call it, so the prompt book becomes the master guide that keeps the entire performance running smoothly and consistently every night.
Every stage manager develops their own pre-production system, but this is the process that works best for me—and these are the tools I’m bringing in to our first rehearsal today.
The building blocks for Elephant’s Graveyard are only just starting to take shape, but in a few short months, all this paperwork and the pencil notes filling my scripts will grow into a fully realized production—one that features the largest cast in SotP history - 15 people in all!
Tickets for Elephant’s Graveyard are on sale now, so grab yours early—you won’t want to miss this one.