I’m Ben and would like to pursue a career in directing. I have been a student at Artz for 9 years now and would like to become a director in youth theatre. This is why when I was offered an opportunity to co-direct a show alongside some one who has done it for 20 years I was delighted to accept this offering and couldn’t wait to get started.
Getting to work with a cast as unbelievable as they were was honestly one of my favourite parts of doing this show, and I can honestly say that I was proud of them all as they did an excellent job throughout the shows and really made it come to life.
One of the biggest challenges for me was having to take on the role of performing onstage as well as being a stage manager and taking more of a lead backstage making sure people were ready in the wings at the right time with the right props from the right sides and on top of that trying to keep myself as available as possible.
Something else I had realised was the importance of communication. This moment of realisation had occurred on the opening night when we lost our comms with the other director who was at the back of the theatre as all of them had died. This caused many issues which would affect how smooth the show had ran and had caused cues be missed on and off stage. This was an amateur mistake which would not be allowed to be made again.
But we learned from our mistakes as in the shows which followed this one we had fully charged comms as well as spares at the front and the back of the theatre. We also had managed other peoples positions better with someone in the stage left wings as well as on the door which would free them up to do any emergency jobs such as grab the superglue which was missed from a scene in the previous show or to let the show run as smooth as it did.
This was only made possible by all the backstage team and some of the older cast who would distribute different jobs among themselves in order to keep me as available as possible and free me up for were I was needed most. I would explain to them what was needed, when and were. This would require them to focus on these jobs whenever they would be needed and would allow the show to run as smooth as possible which is one of the main challenges for a show like this one. Making sure it flows smoothly.
Overall, I would like to thank the whole cast and all the people who had made this experience possible for me as it was extremely educational and I really enjoyed it. Finally, I’d like everyone to know how grateful I am and would certainly do this again.