That time I was the co-director of a political theatre company
Photo by Brittany Stilwell
In our final year at drama school in 2015-2016, we devised a political theatre piece about the refugee crisis, working under the guidance of a guest director. It was one of those times where things just clicked into place, we all felt so strongly about the message, and about our work together, and didn’t want it to end with an end-of-term performance. Somehow, members of the public heard about the show and came to see it (the performances were open to the public but most of the time people who attended had some link to the school or the students), and they were so moved by the show they gave us feedback while in tears. We knew we had something special, and more importantly, a cause.
We decided to form a theatre company and take the piece to the Camden Fringe Festival. We applied, and were awarded, some funding from our University, but in order to receive the funding we had to register as a legal entity. And that’s how I found myself the co-director of a political theatre company with no experience of any of the practicalities of running a company! But I was very democratically picked (though I didn’t exactly volunteer, haha)
It made (sort of) sense. I was the assistant director for the show, and I love love love a spreadsheet, and as far as I know, no one else in the company shared my passion for Excel. So it wasn’t completely out of the blue that I’d found myself doing a lot of admin and planning and logistics and organisation for our first show.
I also performed in it, of course, with one monologue penned by myself, and another scene devised with my best friend (the show was cabaret-style with many different vignettes).
We performed at the Cockpit Theatre in London in the summer of 2016. It was a wild time getting the show ready for the fringe, and we got so much help and support from our guest director, the University and the staff there (even though we were technically recent graduates by then), everyone was supportive and really believed in us.
One reviewer reported crying, laughing, and most importantly, vowed to donate to a charity helping refugees.
The following year, we took another show to the Blue Elephant theatre in South London, this time about the climate crisis. For this show, I took on a production role only, rather than performing (it was a bit much to do both). It was a really important, meaningful show with great writing.
As these things go sometimes, a couple of years after graduation, the company started to disperse. Some members moved abroad. Others changed the direction of their careers. We continued to believe in the company’s mission and supported each other’s projects, and went on to do smaller-scale performances such as storytelling at family events, but that climate crisis show was the last full-scale show we staged.
Years later, I am still filled with so much gratitude that my first experience outside of training was in political theatre, in theatre with a true message and heart. That I got to start learning the skills that would go on to make me a living for almost a decade now (theatre production management, coordination, marketing) with my friends and peers, who all believed in the power of theatre to make a difference in the world.
