Diary: Working within the budget

The Bristol Old Vic, like most English regional theatres, must manage its artistic ambitions within a very narrow budget with limited scope for contingency planning for the sometimes inevitable overspend. The theatre's income comes from two main sources: the Arts Council of England, and the Box Office at the Old Vic. When the Directors plan a season, they have to make certain assumptions about the income that they can use on productions, including the number of actors they can employ once the theatre's fixed staffing costs are met. Those assumptions will include a guess about the box office revenue. If, for whatever reason, the box office isn't as good as has been predicted, then savings may need to be made subsequently. But even if the revenue is on target, and there are no emergencies requiring additional unforeseen expenditure, production budgets are always smaller than directors and designers would like. The level of support that can be offered to directors and actors at venues like the Bristol Old Vic may not match that available in commercial organisations or at the two major National companies, the RSC and the National Theatre. Sometimes this is not an issue, but on Beasts and Beauties, the support available from stage management is having an impact on the development of the production.

At theatres like the National and the RSC - large organisations with relatively generous levels of funding, including sponsorship - it is standard practice on any production to have a stage management team consisting of a stage manager, a deputy stage manager (DSM), and usually at least two assistant stage managers (ASM's). They have different responsibilities: for example, an ASM will normally look after the properties, while the Stage Manager will plan the rehearsal schedule, in consultation with the Director, and act as the conduit for information and negotiation between the creative team and technical teams. The DSM will be 'on the book' from the start of rehearsals through the run of performances. The 'book' is the copy of the play that is kept by the DSM and includes any changes to the text, as they occur during rehearsals, and a full and detailed account of the 'blocking'. Blocking is the process whereby actors and directors establish the basic stage geography of the performance - who comes onto the stage when, and what they do when they are there. For Beasts and Beauties, all the roles a stage management team normally performs in the rehearsal room are left to one person: Ben Delfont. Ben works phenomenally hard to keep up with the many demands made by this complex production; he even stands in for actors who have to miss a rehearsal. But this means that one of the roles normally undertaken by a DSM can get sidelined: the blocking isn't always recorded, or, if it has been, Ben isn't always available because he has been called out of the room.