An Interview with Crimes of the Heart Stage Manager Barbara Merriam

By: Barbara Merriam and Albert Lightstone

For a period of 19 years starting in 2000, the Ottawa Little Theatre was blessed with a dedicated professional stage manager by the name of Jim Hogan. Clad in his signature Hawaiian shirt he orchestrated the performances of many fine productions on stage at the OLT. Since his retirement, our current approach has been to allow talented volunteers to improve on their experience by being Stage Managers (SMs) on individual plays. This has resulted in a roster of impressive SMs from which the directors of our season’s nine plays can draw.

This week, I have had the pleasure of sitting down with volunteer extraordinaire Barbara Merriam who will talk about what it takes to be a Stage Manager at the Ottawa Little Theatre. Although Barb and I were an onstage married couple (part of the lunch crowd in Halfway There), I just learned some new interesting things about my “wife”.

Where are you originally from?
I was born in Sudbury and started attending play rehearsals at two years of age! My mother was an amateur director with the Sudbury Little Theatre Guild and my father built her sets and stage managed her shows. My mother loved live theatre and was a talented director who blocked shows beautifully. She said that she saw the characters on stage as people in a painting, so directed them about the stage into other paintings. Years later I met Joe O’Brien, a talented director at the OLT, and asked him about his beautiful blocking. It reminded me so much of my mother’s. He said that he blocked as a choreographer so his actors were dancers on stage.

If not from Ottawa, why are you here in Ottawa?
I did my undergraduate degree at the University of Toronto and my Master of Social Work (MSW) at Carleton University. In the early days, I have to say that I thought that my husband and I would move back to Toronto because we adored the city, however the longer we stayed in Ottawa the more we grew to love it. Ottawa has everything e.g., lots of recreational opportunities to walk, swim, skate and ski, and lots of artistic ones such as amateur and professional theatre, art galleries and museums, etc.

I know you are retired, what did you do prior?
After I completed my MSW, I started working at the Ottawa-Carleton Children’s Aid Society (CAS) as a protection worker. It was demanding work. Dealing with neglect and/or abuse in families is extremely challenging and at that time caseloads were high. After several years, I joined the Adoption Department at CAS. I have to say that this was less demanding and more satisfying. I imagined spending the rest of my career at the CAS when I was approached to take on a position in the federal government at the International Adoption Desk. The requirements were for someone with a social work degree and adoption experience. It was a positive experience and from there I moved into social justice programming at Health Canada and subsequently Justice Canada. After many years, I retired as the Director General of Programs Branch at Justice Canada, responsible for all of their grants and contributions funding programs. I was nervous about retiring because I loved my work but I took to retirement like “a duck to water”!

How did you get involved with the OLT?
In 2010, Joe O’Brien, the OLT director that I mentioned earlier, directed Getting Married for the New Edinburgh Players (NEP) with lots of well-known OLT actors e.g., Paul Washer, Bob Hicks, Linda Barber, Mike Kelly, Robin Carter and Josh Sparks. At that point, I had been the Props Designer for the NEP for 10 years and Joe asked if I wanted to work on his next show at the OLT, Inspecting Carol, with his wonderful Props Designer, Glynis Ellens. How could I say no?

What were some of the jobs you did?
Along with working on NEP shows with my husband (he was the sound and lighting operator), in 2007, I became the props designer and stage manager for Janet Uren’s Linden House Theatre Company. My husband is the sound and lighting operator. Every November, Linden House produces a popular show at Elmwood School. Again, many OLT actors perform in the shows e.g., Kurt Shantz, Venetia Lawless, Geoff Gruson, Lindsay Laviolette, Jenny Sheffield, etc.

Have you ever acted?
Like my mother and my sister, who established a successful high-school musical theatre program in Toronto, I love live theatre. I even acted in shows as a teenager and as a university student. I enjoyed acting but I have to say I recognized my lack of talent on stage so chose to stay involved, but as a crew member!

What is a stage manager?
A stage manager (SM) at the OLT is primarily responsible for the smooth running of the show (e.g., calling the lighting and sound cues) once rehearsals are over and the director has transferred accountability of the show over to the SM. Needless to say, there are many steps in the process leading up to opening night!

As SM, it is important to attend as many rehearsals as possible and all production meetings to understand the director’s vision for the show i.e., expectations of the actors including their blocking as well as those of the sound, lighting, costume, props, set, and makeup designers. Cast and crew at the OLT are fortunate to have weeks of rehearsals in the rehearsal hall, and then two weeks on stage before the show opens. The last few weeks in the rehearsal hall and the first two weeks rehearsing on stage allow cast and crew working with the director and the SM “to iron out all of the wrinkles”!

At a very high level, what are some of the big jobs that the position entails?
This position requires a calm and positive approach to cast and crew, recognizing their talents and their issues. The “cue to cue” rehearsal on stage is crucial to the success of the show. It’s the chance for the sound and lighting designers to see if their designs are actually working. As one example: is the lighting too low on the actors’ faces? They must be seen by the audience members so the lighting has to be readjusted. As another example: is the sound cue too long or too short and should it be attuned? Again, one needs to consider the needs of the actors and the audience members. Sorting out the cues paves the way for the sound and lighting designers to finalize their respective plans for their operators.

How are you trained for the job? Manuals? Apprenticing?
As noted previously, I have been the SM for Linden House for many years. Additionally, in 2020, I apprenticed under Val Bogan, an extremely experienced stage manager and director at OLT, on Miss Bennet: Christmas at Pemberley. The show involved numerous sound and lighting cues, not to forget fly cues and reminders to cast members when they needed to be up on stage. Given the number of cues, Val rehearsed the more demanding ones ahead of time with the operators scheduled for that particular performance. With COVID-19 came the end of live theatre for two years so I used the time to take an excellent online stage management course given by an experienced stage manager in Wales. I also read several stage management books. These activities reinforced my earlier learnings.

Anything from your previous career help with the SM job?
I think that working in a high-stress environment such as the Children’s Aid Society taught me that one has to remain calm while looking for solutions. Again, there were high stress points during my federal government career e.g., briefing Ministers, appearing at Committee meetings, etc. but I would remind myself that remaining calm and collected helped everyone, including me!

What are the hours like as SM?
During the run of the show, the SM arrives at 6 pm for the evening shows that start at 7:30 pm, or 1 pm for the Sunday matinees at 2:30 pm. The time before the show begins involves the following: mopping the stage floor, checking in with the actors, sound and lighting operators, and the props, costume and makeup crew, rehearsing specific scenes that could be risky to the actors (e.g., fight scenes), ringing the chimes to remind audience members that the show is about to begin, etc. Actors are asked to check their props 45 minutes before the show begins and sound and lighting operators always double-check that their systems are working properly. The SM is responsible for closing down the show which means helping props and costume crew put everything back in order i.e., ensuring that sound and lighting operators have signed off, props are returned to the props table and/or props cupboard, costumes to the clothing racks on stage left or right or down in the dressing rooms, turning off stage and auditorium lights, etc.

How technical do you have to be? I hear LX 42 etc.
It certainly helps to be technical especially if you need to trouble-shoot “on the fly.” But generally speaking, SMs are there to facilitate the show by working closely with the actors and crew. Using the SM script that has been clearly marked to show when to call the sound, lighting and other cues, and actors and crew up to stage is the key working document. Overhearing LX 42 is not a foreign language; it is just one of the acronyms used for lighting cues! Sound cues are SND but it is easier to say because it just sounds like sound! The number of cues varies from show to show so there could be any number from 10 to 240 or more. It all depends on the script and the director working with the sound and lighting designers and possibly the projectionist designer.

Do you work on the stage or up in the booth? What’s the difference?
Normally, the SM works at the SM desk on stage left. The desk has a monitor with a clear view of the stage, and a headset and mic allowing the SM to speak with the operators in the booth and the actors and crew who may be downstairs in the dressing rooms and/or green room. However, I have called a show from the booth when the monitor was not working. That meant that I could not have seen the action on stage from the SM desk, so I needed to watch from the booth to call the show. It worked out well but required an assistant stage manager (ASM) sitting at the SM desk to call cast and crew from downstairs, ring the telephone at the desk and cue the curtain openings and closures.

What is the most challenging task of all the tasks?
For me, I find having to call many quick sound cues in a row the most challenging. For example, the actor will say a sentence followed by a sound cue, followed by another sentence and then another sound cue, etc. Timing is of the essence and sometimes mistakes are made. I always heave “a sigh of relief” when one of these scenes are over.

What is the most interesting experience you had as an SM?
As SM, I experienced one performance without a working sound system! Ten minutes before the show was to begin I learned that there was a serious problem with the pre-show music. It almost sounded as if a malfunctioning computer was fighting it out with the music! I asked the operator to stop the music and chose not to call the music cue for the opening of the show. In consultation with the operator, we agreed to try the next cue, a whistling kettle, and it was a disaster too. Quickly I worked with the AD to add telephone and music cues to our respective cell phones so that we could do them from back stage. I did not call any of the more minor cues (e.g., trucks arriving and leaving) but the telephone and music cues were crucial to the storyline. It was not an ideal situation but both the actors and the empathetic audience accepted our efforts and the sound designer solved the problem the next day.

What is the most satisfying?
I just love it when everything related to a particular performance goes well and the audience appreciates the efforts that have gone into the direction, acting, set, costumes, props, sound, lighting, makeup and hair, etc., with loud applause and/or a standing ovation.

What do you do as SM if something goes wrong during the performance?
Sometimes things do go wrong e.g., a cue is too early or too late, an actor forgets to take a prop on stage, furniture collapses, etc. It is important to remember that every cast and crew member is doing their best, so the SM needs to be supportive and sometimes creative to deal with the particular issue.

What do you think of the new process of having a different SM per show versus one dedicated person all year round?
For many years, the OLT had a well-loved professional SM. When he retired, the OLT introduced the process of having a different volunteer SM per show. No one could ever replace our former SM but many volunteers have stepped forward to become SMs on different shows and they have been successful. I like the new process but of course, I am biased because I like being an SM!

Would you do it again?
I would love the opportunity to be a SM again.

What other jobs would you like to do next at the OLT?
Over the years, I have been a props designer at the OLT, a prompter and a member of SWAG (special wardrobe advisory group). I have thoroughly enjoyed these experiences and plan on continuing in these roles.

One of the jobs you have to do is to mop the floor before the show. I helped out in the last show but did it completely wrong. What is the secret to a great mopping job?
What can I say about mopping? I guess that I could say that the secret is experience. The more times you mop the better you become!

Thank you Barb.

If you want to find out more about the responsibilities of the stage manager position (including mopping) please check out the SM description in the Volunteer Roles section on the OLT website – click here to view.