A Coffee with Emily - Coffee Morning 4.0

Our fourth coffee morning was with the amazing Emily, General Manager at new writing powerhouse Theatre 503, and freelance production manager!

We hope by reading this snapshot of our chat that you can learn something new to kick start your own journey in the arts. Also you can hear the conversation in full over on out YouTube channel (https://youtu.be/yz69zKE6A3E)!

With that lets get into it...

Q: What was your first paid role in the arts?

A: My first paid role in the arts was in stage management. I started as a stage and production manager for the Ovo Theatre in Saint Albans, for production of Lucy Kirkwood's mosquitoes. It was the sort of thing that I was thrown into the deep end.

Having a go at everything, learning how to do everything. And it really just opened my eyes to sort of the professional world I'd done a lot of and drama before, and I really got to see the, I guess the progression of how it goes from education then the jump into the professional world. I made lots of mistakes, but I also learned so many things, and that is the beauty of your first job in the arts it's learning everything for the first time.

Q: I think that's probably one of the most connectable roles that we've had as a first paid role to what you actually do now! It's really nice to see that it can be a pipeline too. So do you want to talk us then, through your career journey from that first role to where you are now.

A: I always feel it's interesting to start with how I even got into the arts. I went to the University of Kent, and I did a English degree, and in my first term a friend of mine was like, I'm gonna go audition for Pride and Prejudice, and I was like, Oh, I'll come with. I'd never read the book, but I was like, I'm gonna go have a go at it! I ended up being cast as Mary Bennett and so I ended up joining the Amateur Dramatic Society and the Musical Theatre Society. Even though I started acting, I just I liked it, I didn't love it and I wasn't very good actor. So I was like, I'm gonna move on from this, and I started doing a bit of production management behind the scenes. At our university production management was a variety. of things you kind of did a design job, a stage management job, production management job and a bit of directing and producing as well, so you were doing sort of everything under the sun. But I would love that adrenaline. I love the backstage part of it all. I did that then graduated into covid, as many people did and then took a masters at Guildhall, which was in collaborative theatre production and design, which basically meant that you were in a group of about 10 people and you did 4 productions over the entire year each with. a budget of £500.00 so you got a real experience of fringe theatre which was really great.

From that I ended up taking on a lot of stage management roles. I worked for the big house uh, who are a charity in Islington, and then I also worked as a freelancer and in that did two freelance roles at Theatre 503 as a freelance production manager in the beginning of 2023.

It was actually on a whim that I ended up applying for the general management role. I was working pretty much freelance full time as a production manager and I had also got administrative job at Mountview working in stage management when I noticed that the GM. Roll was available, and I was like this could be something that I'm really interested in. I feel like I match a lot of the skills, I love what they're doing with new writing. I love how ambitious and bold they are! And so I applied and now here I am talking as general manager of Theatre 503 so it feels like quite a steady and sudden uh jump. But it's also really exciting.

Q: Nice! I think that's so great because you can really see how you've gone between different stage management roles, trying different bits out. But I want to ask what do you actually do day to day if you're one of these roles? Because I think we give these titles out, but people might not entirely know what they really mean.

A: t's such an interesting question as well, because I almost always ask when I go into a role, what they expect from me, especially when I was working as a production manager because for a lot of people, it is such a different role, depending on what you do and the production. But for me and in fringe specifically, because that's mainly what I've worked on, what a production manager is, is someone who oversees everything. So they're making sure that all the elements of the production are working in tandem, overseeing the production budget but, rather than the producer who oversees everything like fees and such my production management role would just be looking at how much the set cost, how much do the lighting and sound hires cost, that part of the budget, and then liaising with the producer on that. Then looking at kind of everything from a practicality standpoint, you know, if the set I don't know, if the set has a roof for example, how will that affect the lighting? Or if they want to bring in haze, how is that going to affect the safety within the venue? Do you need to isolate the fire alarm? Things like that. It's a lot to do with things like risk assessments, assessing everything that's happening from both a cost perspective, but also like a get in and putting up the set perspective. I think that's for me the main elements of a production management role.

I think general management specifically what I do now, which is, falls into more of operational side with elements of producing, and other bits and bobs, is also kind of overseeing but for the whole venue, the building itself. So that's holding it, taking in phone calls, box inquiries, checking your emails, but it's also doing things like the financial management, so I run payroll. It's running things like other budgets, hires in the space , ensuring that everyone coming into the space is well held, and is happy to be there, and also is enjoying themselves and knowing what they can and can't do while they're there. I think that kind of covers the basics of it. And then it's also the more kind of wider aspect of that is, communicating with everyone so that can be an audience member coming in asking an inquiry about maybe accessibility, it could be a cast member uh working out how they're gonna get someone to see a show that's sold out, or a member of the Board coming in who wants to introduce other people or show people around the space.

Especially now as 503 is opening a second building, in the next few years which is our studio, specifically for new writers. It's now also the thing of being a general manager of 2 buildings, and how that works, and how you, you know, work around those things, both opening and make sure that everyone's happy and safe in those places, too.

Q: One thing I want to touch on that you mentioned, and I did this as well, is that you went.

to a 'traditional' university, before going to a drama school to do a further qualification.

What did you find the main differences were in that training? Obviously you did English rather than theatre but I think a lot of people watching might be either coming up to that point of looking at university, or might be considering training for the arts, so what would you say are the pros and cons, and what did you take from doing both?

A: Yeah, the pros and cons, I think of doing my English degree, and then having theatre as an additional thing that I was doing outside of it was that for me theatre felt like a break, because obviously it felt like a break away from the work which was English. And for me it

made me actually realise that that was what I wanted to do. In the same way that some people go to university, and they, you know, they do a science degree, and they go this is exactly what I want to do, and then other people come and do the same thing and go actually, this is can be opposite of what I want to do, but going to uni was the only way for them to realise that. It was the same sort of thing in terms of doing English and being like I love reading, and I enjoy like an analyzing stuff, but that isn't what I want to do with the rest of my life, and working in theatre was actually somethingI could see myself doing for the rest of my life.

And then I think for me doing a masters specifically in collaborative theatre. Which I remember when I applied for I was like, I'm not sure this is the right thing for me. Maybe I should choose something more specific, but it was perfect, because it meant that I could have an overview of everything which is kind of, I guess what I'm doing now in terms of being a general manager. I learnt what it was like to be, even though I didn't work in those roles, various roles and the differences for example a designer versus a director versus the different parts of stage management on a on a big stage versus being on a fringe or a kids show. That was the biggest pro of doing that degree.

On the other hand, I worked at Mountview for about 3/4 months as a stage management assistant, and that meant I got to see how their courses worked as well, which is really interesting as their courses were very similar, but were much more like rigid in the terms of like, you learn the different aspects of stage management. You learn how each thing works. You learn about production management and there are the offshoots of things you can learn, but they aren't like compulsory.And it was really interesting, cause I think it meant that I could go oh, if I'd gone down this route, if I'd gone to maybe Mountview, If I'd gone to do a stage management course, these are the things I would have learned. But because I went and did the collaborative theatre degree It meant that I actually got more of an overview of everything. And for me it's ended up being perfect.

Q: I did a very similar thing, I went to the University of York for my undergraduate degree. I did do theatre, but the course is theatre: writing, directing, and performance. So we kind of got that really big overview of kind of all the roles, and it was especially in the 1st year like you tried them all separately in different modules. So we were all acting. We were all directing. We were all writing. You could choose to do like stage management, lighting design, set design, producing. And it's where I first found out about producing. I think to me, especially when coming through Am Dram, we all just kind of did the producing work to put the show on. I don't think I realised it was a proper job. It was just putting on a show. That's just what you do. I didn't kind of make that connection that someone actually does this job professionally as a single role. Doing the course at York was really helpful to really isolate my skills actually. So I'm really terrible at directing. So I realised I'm not going to do that. I thought I wanted to be an actor. I enjoy it. But I really hate auditions. So I'm not gonna do that. And then it was sort of the producing and writing and stage management as well I found I really enjoyed. So then, with my masters, I wanted to really specify and kind of almost do the opposite of what you did with your masters, and really specifically learn about that discipline.

But now I'm gonna ask you, which everyone seems to really tricky. Question, what your favourite project you've worked on has been, and why?

A: I look at it between 2 things. So I look at like um what I, my favourite as a general manager, as of a building, and then what my favourite is as a freelancer.

I think, as a freelancer, my favourite has been probably Splintered, which I did at the Soho Theatre. It was a cabaret show about the experiences of queer Caribbean women, off the top of my head. And it was just so joyous and so much fun, and the team was so wonderful to work with It was one that shows that even when difficulties came up everyone would band together and be like right? How can we fix it. There was never a blame game there was never this thing, this is your responsibility. Everyone was like, oh, this thing isn't working. We're gonna all make sure we get together and make sure it works. So make sure the show goes up, and it's the best it can possibly be. It was just such a joyous experience.

Then at 503, having only been there what since September. I think my favourite has been a woman walks into a bank which was our 23 international playwriting award winner, which we put on last November/December and end up extending because it sold so well. But it was such a fantastic play to be a part of. It was was written, directed by Roxy Cook and it was so interesting to watch that switch you have to go on as being both a writer and director and knowing like these are things I wanna edit to the script. And these are things I want to do as a director. It was just so exciting to see that come together!

Q: To round off what woudl your biggest piece of advice be to someone who wants to start work in the industry?

A: This advice I got from Ben Wallace, who ran my course, and it is basically, have a go at everything if you can. Because even though, like, for example, I don't know how to like properly program lights, I've learned enough that if someone said I just need a state on, I can do that, I know how. Or, if someone's unavailable to do something, I can read a lighting plan and go, I know where these lights go, and it can open so many doors.

Also being able to just understand the language, understand the you know terms and stuff which, when you first start, is so scary because, I mean my biggest thing was always I'm so worried about making a fool of myself, so I always say in my first production meetings to ask. I remember on my MA , where pretty much everyone else came from a background of doing theatre degrees, I was like one of maybe 2 or 3 people hadn't someone said 'I'm gonna do the show end on.' I was like, I don't know what end on means. So, I just asked, and it felt like such a thing at the time, but now I give it as advice to everyone. Just ask. From just asking a question, suddenly everything opens up, because as soon as I learned, what 'end on' meant, my brain went, Oh, everything else you've been saying makes sense to me now because before that I was lost. So do and try as much as you can.

The other thing is also in regards to that is also being safe. Never take on too much. I've done that. I'm sure everyone has done that in some time. I'll take on these 4 things at once, and I'll be completely fine, and then halfway through and think like, maybe this was a bad idea. But it's always great to get stuck in I think just getting stuck in is such a positive thing to do.

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Phew! Have you got any coffee left? We certainly haven't!

Do't forget to check out our upcoming coffee mornings and Open Office Hours to come along, chat, get advice and have fun!

We'll see you soon!

Team Flood x