BECKY Saville has just worked a 60-hour week to perfect a very cunning murder plot in Keswick, writes David Ward.

She has not personally bumped anyone off and doesn’t intend to. But she recently spent a very long week as part of the team taking Frederick Knott’s classic thriller Dial M for Murder out of the rehearsal room and on to the main stage at Theatre by the Lake.

Becky is TBTL’s company stage manager. She manages both the 14 actors hired for the summer season and the stage management team, the unseen, black-shirted heroes of any production.

She is the vital lynch pin during tech week, the hectic five day run-up to a first night, when everything that makes a show has to be brought together: set, furniture, props, sound, lighting and, of course, actors.

“My job is to run the week and to keep the communication flowing between the cast, the director and designer and the technical people,” said Becky. “When the actors arrive on stage, I give them a tour of the set, point out any hazards and make sure they are clued up about health and safety.

“Then we begin a run-through from the top of the show. Actors have to keep going - they can only stop the tech rehearsal if they feel unsafe. Members of the creative and technical teams can call a halt - but they have to tell me why and where they want to go back to.”

Tech week can last as long as it likes - some last a lot longer than others - so long as the show is ready on the day of the dress rehearsal. “Dial M for Murder wasn’t as difficult as it could have been. I’ve had better and I’ve had worse.”

Becky also tots up staff overtime and ensures that the theatre sticks to union rules that define the hours actors can work and when they get their tea breaks. She is also the person in charge during a performance; if something goes wrong, she goes on stage to tell the audience why the show has to stop. She does not get many nights off.

You can see why someone once said that a company stage manager has to have the patience of Job, the wisdom of Solomon and the organisational skills of God. “You have to create the illusion that you know everything,” said Becky.

She grew up in Bradford and first trod the boards at five, when she joined a drama club, performing regularly till she was 18. She decided that she wanted a theatre career - but not as an actor, so she went off to the Arden theatre school at the University of Manchester and emerged as a stage manager.

Her career began with five long winter months at Butlin’s in Skegness, working on Bob the Builder and eye-opening Club 18-30 weekends. After a spell as stage manager back at the University of Manchester, a longer spell freelancing in London and some national tours, she spent three happy months as assistant stage manager with Dundee Rep. And then she boarded a cruise ship for seven months, sailing round the Caribbean and other exotic spots, working on shows both on stage and on ice.

“It was a good way of travelling and I learned to skate, after a fashion. But it was hard. I worked seven days a week and for one week in three I was on call 24-hours a day, when anyone on the ship could contact me to do anything. I was once called at 6.30am to pick up a delivery. You take a trolley because it’s usually something big. This time it turned out to be just one box of Bic pens.”

Back on dry land, she worked at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and on a national tour of Annie. “After that, I started getting more and more jobs through people I knew. Most of it was weekly touring - pack up on Saturday night, travel on Sunday and unload at the next venue on Monday.”

And then, in 2014, came stability at Theatre by the Lake. Becky, who lives in Penrith with her partner and a hamster called Joyce, is now working on her third summer season. Four plays - Watch It, Sailor!, Dial M for Murder, The Vertical Hour and Elektra are now running; there are two more to come – The Rivals and Iron.

“It’s great here, I love it,” said Becky. “I couldn’t be happier. It’s a bit of a cliché but it’s like a family. We are all good friends.”

Box office 017687-74411 or book online at www.theatrebythelake.com.