Work Experience

Royal Exchange Theatre Manchester
Frankenstein (April 2018)
On Thursday 12th April 2018 I visited the Royal Exchange Theatre in Manchester to shadow their Stage Management department on the production "Frankenstein". During my time there I shadowed the ASM (Assistant Stage Manager) and SM (Stage Manager) through the matinee performance. During the show, they ensure the cast's safety, move set pieces onto and off stage and help maintain the artistic integrity of the show.  Due to the fact that the Royal Exchange Theatre is in the round, I got to see how the show runs from outside of the auditorium. Actors running endlessly so they don't miss their cues, dressers constantly running after them picking up any costumes that were dumped on the floor during quick changes, its a very interesting and different way of theatre than Iv seen before. Along with seeing that I saw how some of the different effects in the shows happened, they used a lot of different "Tricks of the Trade" to create stunning effects easily. 

During the evening show, I shadowed the DSM (Deputy Stage Manager). Throughout the performance, the DSM calls all technical cues including Lighting, Sound, Video and Flys. At the Royal Exchange like many places they also call all the cast entrances using a cue light system shown in the photo underneath. As you can see the DSM also has a clear view of the stage, they also have a TV monitor which has 4 different views of the stage. These cameras are also infrared light which allows the DSM to see whats happing during the blackouts.
Although above everything that I saw during my time there, I got to see how real professionals do their jobs and how hard every single person in that theatre works, from one of the cast members on stage to one of the cooks in the green room, everyone's roles are vital to making the Royal Exchange Theatre in Manchester such an amazing place! 

Oldham Coliseum Theatre

Relatively Speaking (April 2018)
During April I also had a couple of visits to the Oldham Coliseum to shadow their Stage Management department on 'Relatively Speaking". During my time there I have shadowed the DSM (Deputy Stage Manager) during rehearsals, tech week and performances. 

Much like the Royal Exchange Theatre in Manchester, the Oldham Coliseum is a producing theatre, which means that the company create their own shows. Unlike the Manchester Place and Opera house, where professional tours use their theatres for a couple of weeks whilst on tour.

During my time there I got to see how hard all of the stage management teamwork during each part of the production from design meetings to performances, and its been a great experience to see how professionals create brand new shows.




A Taste Of Honey (May 2018)

I also attended the first cast get together and read through for "A Taste Of Honey". During the day all the cast and crew got to meet for the first time, they also got to see the set design for the show. The designer brought a model set down to show everyone, they also had photos of the costumes on the wall.

After the meet and greet they started the first read through. I noticed how the actors were already falling into their roles even when they've only just met each other.

After the read through the director started with some warm-up activities that would allow the cast to get to know each other and also get to grips with their own characters.

On Saturday 19th May I then revisited to see how rehearsal's were going. During the day then ran the start of act 2. I noticed that there had been quite a lot of script changes since I was last there, although it worked very well.

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