Offstage Observations by Steven Suskin

Author:Steven Suskin
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Applause
Published: 2022-05-02T00:00:00+00:00

ASSISTANT STAGE MANAGER

As I was moving through the second half of my second year of college, I realized that by cramming my schedule full of courses I could amass enough credits to graduate after only three years. Which is to say, in the spring of 1973. While I was by this point intent on working in a producer’s office and becoming a company manager, it would take three to five years—with luck—to be accepted in the apprenticeship program and fulfill the requirements for a full union card. My experience with Mitch on Vivat, Tricks, and The Enchanted—along with the knowledge that Equity membership didn’t require an apprenticeship but merely the offer of an Equity job—led to the realization that I could get to Broadway quicker as an assistant stage manager.

It was standard practice for the assistant stage manager of a play to also understudy and/or play a small role. Mitch had started as an actor/stage manager in The Best Man; John Handy had started as actor/stage manager in Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead. Even Hal Prince started as an assistant stage manager, understudying a small role. As it turned out, Mitch—needing a female ASM a couple of years later for the Maggie Smith Private Lives—gave the job to my college girlfriend Nancy, who had some stage training (having studied with Stella Adler).

Before I left the Washington tryout of The Enchanted, I asked Mitch to keep me in mind if an assistant job came along. He called a few weeks later to say that he heard that Jerry Brigham was looking for an assistant. He mentioned me to Jerry, who asked that I give him a call.

Jerry (not his real name, as he might still be alive and I wouldn’t want to embarrass him) was a highly respected stage manager, currently on a long-running hit. Sea Change (as we’ll call it) would begin a two-city tryout after Labor Day and open that fall. A five-character play from a top writer and top producer with the likelihood of a strong advance sale, it had all the earmarks of an assured success. What a wonderful place to start!

I called Jerry, who told me the dates and explained that I’d have to understudy one of the roles. He would leave a script for me that night at the stage door of the theatre where his current show was still playing; I should come by between shows on the following Wednesday to read for him.

I was already packing my bags for the Wilmington tryout, figuratively, before picking up the script. When I read it I was taken aback, and not only because it wasn’t very good. The part that I needed to understudy was a major role. Most small-cast plays try to get away with two or three understudies; the age ranges here were so disparate, though, that they would need four understudies. By using the ASM as the fourth understudy, the producer could save a full salary. I dutifully studied the pages Jerry asked me to prepare.

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