Roles and Responsibilities of Theatre Makers

Not twelve words, three questions

Your specification lists about twelve people who make a production happen, and it is tempting to learn twelve definitions. That is the slow way, and it fails at exactly the point the exam tests you, which is telling apart two roles that sound similar. There is a faster way in. Almost every one of these jobs can be placed by asking three questions. Who decides it? Who makes it? And who runs it during the performance? The playwright and the director decide things. Designers decide how something should look or sound, and technicians build and operate it. The stage manager runs the show on the night. And one role in the list does not work on the production at all: the theatre manager runs the building. Hold those three questions and you can place a role you have never thought about, instead of hoping you memorised the right sentence.

The five most confused

Twelve roles, but the marks are lost on a handful of pairs. These five are where it happens.

Who is responsible

Director or stage manager

During a rehearsal, somebody decides that a scene should be played more slowly to build tension. Whose decision is that?

• The director, because it is a decision about how the play is interpreted
• The stage manager, because they are in charge of what happens in rehearsals
• The performer, because they are the one delivering the scene
• The playwright, because they wrote the scene

Two managers, two jobs

These two are the pair most often confused, and the difference is simple once you see it: one is responsible for a production, the other for a place.

Six roles in the grid

Six theatre roles are hidden here. Find each one from the description of what it does. Five read forwards and one reads backwards.

Where the marks are

One thing about this list is worth knowing before you revise it. The terminology in this section is assessed by four multiple-choice marks in Section A. That matters, because multiple choice does not ask you to write a definition. It puts four plausible options in front of you and asks which one is right, and the wrong options will be the roles that sound most like the right one. Director and stage manager. Designer and technician. Stage manager and theatre manager. Performer and understudy. So the useful revision is not reciting twelve definitions; it is being able to say, for any two roles that sound similar, what one does that the other does not. That is also why the three questions are worth more than the list: they give you a way to separate two options you are unsure about.

Who realises the decision

A lighting designer has decided that a scene should be lit in a cold blue light. Select the TWO statements that are correct about what happens next.

• A technician rigs and focuses the lanterns needed to achieve it
• A technician operates the lighting during each performance
• The stage manager decides whether the blue light is the right artistic choice
• The theatre manager approves the design before it can be used

The three questions in a sentence

To place a role, ask three things. Who _____ it: that is the playwright and the director, and a designer for the look and sound. Who _____ it: that is the technician, who builds and operates what the designer has chosen. And who _____ it during the performance: that is the stage manager, who calls the cues. One role in the list is responsible for the _____ rather than the production, which is the theatre manager. And the _____ learns a role in order to perform it only if the cast performer cannot.

The wrong person is credited

Three of these sentences describe a responsibility correctly. Select the ONE that gives the job to the wrong person.

• The costume designer decided that the family should all be dressed in the same shade of grey.
• The stage manager called the cue that brought the lights down at the end of the scene.
• The theatre manager decided that the second act should be played without an interval.
• The understudy went on when the performer playing the lead was unwell.

One decision, five hands

Follow one small decision through a production and the boundaries become obvious. A play calls for a character to arrive carrying a lamp. The playwright wrote that, and did nothing else about it. The director decides what the moment should feel like, and asks for the lamp to be the only warm light in a cold scene. The set designer chooses which lamp, and the lighting designer works out how the rest of the stage must be lit for that one warm source to read from the back row. A technician sources the lamp, wires it so it can be switched safely on stage, rigs the lanterns for the surrounding cold light, and operates them at each performance. The stage manager notes the cue in the prompt copy and calls it on the night, and makes sure the lamp is in position before the scene begins. If the lamp fails during a performance, the stage manager deals with it. If the roof leaks onto the front row, the theatre manager deals with that. And if the performer carrying the lamp is unwell, the understudy carries it instead. Six roles, one lamp, and not one of them doing another job.

From page to performance

Put the stages in the order a decision travels through a production.

• The playwright writes the play
• The director decides how this production will interpret it
• A designer decides how the required element should look or sound
• A technician builds, rigs or sources what the design requires
• The stage manager calls the cue and the technician operates it in performance

Say exactly who does what

Assemble a sentence that draws the boundary precisely.

Casting the production team

A school is putting on a play with a puppet in it. Decide who is responsible for each thing.

• Somebody must decide what the puppet looks like and how it is built. Who?
• Somebody must decide what the puppet means in this production and how it should move. Who?
• On the night, the puppet must appear at exactly the right moment with a sound effect. Who makes that happen?
• A member of the audience cannot reach their seat because of a broken lift. Who deals with it?

Map the roles onto a production

Think of a production you have worked on, been in, or watched. It can be a school production. Write about who was responsible for what, using the correct terms.

• Name the production briefly and say what your own involvement was, if any
• Identify who took the director role, and give one decision that was theirs
• Identify at least two design roles, and say what each of them decided
• Explain who realised one of those design decisions in practice, and what they did
• Explain what the stage manager was responsible for during performances
• Explain the difference between that and what a theatre manager would be responsible for
• Name one role from the specification list that did not exist in your production, and say what it would have done