It doesn’t get much more “behind-the-scenes” than Sydney Smith.

As the stage and company manager for BalletMet, Smith is the main liaison between the dancers and the company, as well as the person in charge of knowing and calling each performance at the theater.

Calling a show requires Smith to know every cue throughout a performance, down to each light, curtain and set move. She stands backstage, headset on and music in hand, ready to give the crew their signal.

And she’ll do just that for our upcoming performances of Michael Pink’s Peter Pan, Feb. 10-12 at the Ohio Theatre. Below, Smith shares what it’s like to be backstage during a show—and provides a little insight into the inner workings of Peter Pan.

Q: Tell us about your prompt book.

A: For opera and dance, I typically have a score with all of the sheet music. If the sheet music doesn’t exist (usually for newer works), I may even call an entire show off the blocking/choreography only. (I had to do this for Lambarena during Night and Day.) On one side of the prompt book I have the music and on the other I have blocking pages. On the blocking pages are mini ground plans of the set, and I can draw in where the dancers are at any given point. There are also lines for notes—for Pan in particular, it’s really important that I document which dancers are assigned to moving certain set pieces and doing certain effects. I have all of the standbys cues I have to give to the crew in the music. Basically, anything I say over the headset goes into my score. Everything is very specifically timed, so when it comes time to call the show, I’m paying more attention to my score than I am my blocking pages.

Q: What all are you hearing on your headset?

A: I typically have about 10 to 15 other people on headset who can hear me and vice versa. These include the light board operator, sound operator, most of the crew on the deck and my assistant stage manager. The crew communicates with each other a lot via headset, so I will hear them give each other “clear” or “set” when they can’t see each other during scene shifts. Sometimes they ask me questions about what’s coming next or how much time there is until the next intermission. Our head props person usually acts as my deck manager as well, so she is the one who acts as my eyes and ears backstage. (I usually can’t see much, and I stay tethered to my console). If anything goes wrong, she (or whoever can see what’s happening) will let me know, and then we work together to come up with a solution as quickly as possible.