Stage Manager, 2nd Edition

15Technical Rehearsals

When Stephen Sondheim wrote the lyric “Dot by dot… putting it together,” from his musical play Sunday in the Park with George, he was writing about the way the renowned artist George Seurat worked in creating his impressionistic masterpieces with dots of paint rather than strokes from the brush. However, Mr. Sondheim could have also been writing of the way that technical rehearsals work: “cue by cue… putting it together.” Cue by cue, the technical elements of the show are joined together with the work and artistry created by the actors and director in the rehearsal hall. The stage is the canvas on which the technical elements give the play mood, color, feeling, texture, environment, and movement.

The PSM and ASM

It was ...