Show dictionary · Production Management
Stage Manager (SM)
Also: SM · deck SM
The stage manager (SM) runs the show in real time. In theatre the SM calls every cue from the prompt book and owns the production once it opens; in corporate and concert production the SM typically owns the deck: talent movement, backstage traffic, and everything crossing the stage.
In practice
The theatrical SM is the show’s central nervous system: rehearsal reports, blocking records, the calling script, and the authority to hold or stop a performance. ASMs run the deck on either side, executing what the calling SM commands.
Corporate production splits the theatrical job in two: a show caller calls cues while the SM manages people and the physical stage. Concerts diffuse it further into production and tour management. Same skills, different org charts; the title alone never tells you who calls the cues.
How you’ll hear it
"SM has the CEO in the wings; caller, he is yours in thirty seconds."
Related resources
Part of the eventools.io Show Dictionary, a free glossary of live event production terminology.