The stage manager of a school play creates a rectangular acting area of 42 square yards. string lights will outline the acting area. to the nearest whole number, how many yards of string lights does the manager need to enclose this area?

In this item, we cannot be fully sure of the dimensions of the rectangle because we are not given its properties and the type. For the sake of showing the solution to this item, we assume the rectangle to be square such that the area can be calculated through the equation,
                    s² = 42
where s is the length of the side. From the equation, the value of the s is 6.48 yards. 

The perimeter of the rectangle is calculated through the equation,
                  P = 2L + 2W
Substituting the known values,
                P = 2(6.48) + 2(6.48)
                P = 25.92
Thus, answer is 25.92 yards.