Politicians may refer to speech writers (if they acknowledge them at all) as people that make things backstage happen for speeches. Anybody that has a major event such as a rally, a parade, a concert, an art show, or any other event may refer to the people who organize the event as the people who make things happen backstage.
It is likely that most people know that the word comes from the theatre. Backstage literally means the actions that happen behind (or sometimes off to the side of) the stage that allow or have allowed things to happen on the stage. Today, even in the theatre, things that happen elsewhere allowing what appears on stage to happen are referred to as happening backstage. They don't have to literally happen backstage. They can happen in completely different buildings.
The origin of the word backstage is literally putting the two words back and stage together. The origin of the word back when used as an adverb as it would be if the word were the phrase "back stage," comes from the word aback becoming aphetic (having the disappearance of the first unstressed initial syllable). The origin of aback is from the Middle English word abak or the Old English phrase on bæc meaning "to the rear."
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I was taken aback(stage) by this post!
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