A rodent in central stage door made a rasping sound (6)
I believe the answer is:
grated
'made a rasping sound' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'a rodent in central stage door' is the wordplay.
'a rodent' becomes 'rat' (rat is a kind of rodent).
'in' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'central stage door' becomes 'ged' (I am not sure about this - if you are sure you should believe this answer much more).
'rat' inserted inside 'ged' is 'GRATED'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for grated that I've seen before include "was jarring" , "Shredded; was irritating" , "Rasped or scraped" , "Nutmeg and cheese often are" , "Shredded; was discordant" .)