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The Laramie Project
University of Nevada, Reno - October 2024
Written by Moises Kaufman and the Tectonic Theatre Project
Directed by Bill Ware
Role: Stage Manager
This project presented new challenges in my stage management journey through its prop/costume complexity and its staging in thrust. The production featured over 100 props and costumes, which originated onstage and were utilized by actors throughout the course of the show. This presented a unique documentation and process challenge to ensure that the preset was completed quickly and accurately each night, as well as adjustments during intermission. Blocking and understudy documentation proved to be a challenge with this production as well. The director had elected to have internal understudies for each character rather than an external understudy. This required blocking notation for each character rather than each actor, so that understudy tracks could be distributed to each actor.
Promptbook Sample
More sample pages available upon request.
Challenges
Preset Prop/Costume Documentation
As stated in the summary for this project, the biggest challenge as a Stage Manager was the organization of props and costumes onstage. Bill Ware had elected for the actors to remain on stage as much as possible throughout the show and conduct character/scene changes by adding and removing props and costumes, which were strewn around the set. This made documentation a must for reliability and repeatability.
Upon working with my Assistant Stage Manager, we came to the conclusion that it would be easiest for us to use plots/groundplans instead of lists for each preset. Crewmember tracks were also assigned on these same plots, which were distributed to the crew and posted backstage for the cast. There was a preset at the top of the show and during intermission, so there were two plots, one for each preset. The plots were created using Google Drawings; however, in hindsight, I would have liked to explore using Illustrator or AutoCAD for the sake of shareability with other production teammembers.
Sample Prop/Costume Preset Plot-
Blocking and Understudy Documentation
This production did not cast dedicated understudies, so the Stage Management team worked with the director to build an internal understudy structure where all parts were covered by other actors in the event of illness or absence. This made it important that we had alternate blocking documented for all situations in which internal understudies were used. To address this, I created two extra copies of the script with documentation on which actors were in charge of covering which characters and what the alternate blocking for each character was. These scripts mirrored how blocking and characters were tracked in the call script so that anyone trained on calling the show would understand the format of the "Internal Understudy" books.
The Understudy system we devised for this production was never used for actual performances; however, it came in handy when certain actors were absent during rehearsals.
Note: The abbreviations in both the understudy book and the call script are by actor instead of character, as each actor portrayed at least 7 characters throughout the course of the show.
Production Photos
Publicity Photos by Zoe Malen, Instagram: @zoe.digital
Want more information on this project? Contact me.
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