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God had created lights, sound, set and props and all was good. His actors acted with gusto and his techies performed with perfection and all was good. But as time went on the cast and crew fell to corruption and deceit. The actors demanded huge amounts of money yet failed to remember their lines or enter on cue. The techies became fat and lazy. They blatantly played with the props and walked in the light. God was not pleased, He needed to restore order. He considered a flood or a plague but neither seemed like it would help. What was needed was a leader. So God needed to find a leader. For 40 days and 40 nights he searched but found no one suitable for the job. No one contained the knowledge of both acting and teching combined with the willpower to lead. He needed to create a being with these qualities. Within the ranks of tech he knew of a lady, pure of heart, soul and body of whom he could create this being. Of her seed he created a child not of actor or techie and named him Mike. Mike grew up learning the ways of both actor and techie. He was liked and respected by all.
One day when an actor decided not to show up for the show and the techies were all stumbling around drunk in the light Mike decided to act. He wrote down the names and numbers of the cast and crew on the sacred contact sheet. Then on the next day he called everyone before the show to make sure they were there. He suggested to the actors that they should look over their scripts, and they did. He hinted that the techies check their duties and presets, and they did. During the show he followed the show from the temple of the booth noting when something went wrong. After the show he praised the cast and crew on what they did right and informed them of what needed work. The next night everyone appeared on time and completed their duties. Over the next week the show improved ten-fold. The actors were on que and knew their lines, the techies were alert and stayed invisible within full blacks. To praise their work, Mike threw a "Castum Partem" and everyone rejoiced. There was much boozing, dancing and loud music. Unknown to Mike the police, a people of differing beliefs, had planted a trap. They imprisoned Mike under the guise of "disturbing the peace". As a sign to others the police strapped him to a boom and paraded him down the street to the theatre where they hung him from the fly loft to die slowly. His followers took his death as a sign that they should carry on his work. A few dedicated "ASM's" who had studied under Mike wrote down his words and ideas for others and became known as the first Stage Managers.
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