Stage managers in your encyclopedia

[Denis Johnston]

Ah -- trying to please everyone? Can't do it? A line always has to be
drawn somewhere, and someone always gets left out. I've been burrowing
away on a revision of our Shaw Festival Production Record, and have
added all the SMs and ASMs of all productions. I think they should have
been there in the first place; but I've not included the assistant
directors or assistant designers, so I'm sure I'll hear about that
somewhere down the road.
  If you try to weigh who's an artist against who isn't an artist,
you'll likely just get tied in knots. I think it's the needs of your
reading audience that matters. Is anyone likely to look up a famous
stage manager? Can you think of any famous stage managers? If you can,
include them. If not, leave them out. You as compiler should have the
last word, even though the responsibility is not always very
comfortable. (If it were up to me, I would include stage managers who
have also done other things in the theatre: Malcolm Black, Michael
Shamata, Martin Bragg, Paul Reynolds, Colleen Blake come to mind as
possibilities. But a career stage manager spends his/her life behind the
scenes, and so is unlikely to attract much public interest.)

Denis Johnston
Co-Director
The Academy of the Shaw Festival