One whose office it is to superintend the production and performance of a play, and to regulate the arrangements of the stage. Also fig.
1817. J. A. Williams, Mem. Kemble, 21. His appointment to the situation of stage-manager … in 1788.
1837. Carlyle, Fr. Rev., I. III. vii. The World shall see one other Historical Scene; and so singular a man as Loménie de Brienne still the Stage-manager there.
1885. Jerome, On the Stage, 35. I don’t know why stage managers are always surly, but they are.
Hence Stage-managership, the post of stage-manager. So Stage-management, the business of a stage-manager. Stage-manage v. trans. to arrange with a view to stage effect.
1817. Coleridge, Lett. to J. Murray, Lett. (1895), 667. Mr. Dibdin … was likewise removed from the stage-managership.
1879. Theatre, Nov., 209. I have never seen them stage-manage a play. Ibid. Stage-management.
1906. Daily Chron., 8 May, 5/1. The meeting was well stage-managed, care being taken to fill the front part of the hall with ticket-holders.
