Growing Pains

'Growing Pains: A Scratch Night' was the end product of the Old Vic's Theatre Makers programme, a six-month course for 18-30 year olds that aims to explore and develop contemporary theatre making practices - from writing and directing to producing and beyond. Out of over 200 applicants, 20 were selected to take part in this year's course.

For myself, it was an amazing opportunity to meet and work with like-minded individuals, and to further develop the skills I have been working to build over the last few years. The course itself was split into two halves; with the first weeks dedicated to masterclasses with industry professionals. This involved workshops with producers (Zoë Robinson of Headlong, Ameena Hamid of Ameena Hamid Productions), writers (Charlie Josephine of Cowbois), and directors (Ned Bennett of Pomona @ The National Theatre).

The latter half of the course was dedicated to the development of the scratch night. Having spent the last few years working on my technical theatre skills with the University of York Drama Society, I was keen to try my hand doing tech for a larger and more well-equipped venue. As the Lead Technician, I was in charge of facilitating all of the lighting and sound aspects required for the scratch night. With 13 pieces comprising the final event, coordinating with the multitude of directors and exploring how best to achieve their creative vision presented a very welcome challenge. Once in the venue, I continued working on developing and programming the required technical aspects, and liaising between directors and the venue's duty technicians.

On the design front, I primarily focussed on the lighting, putting the skills I had learnt in my recently-acquired ETC Eos training to the test. Using Theatre Peckham's technical specifications, I was able to build a virtual 3D model of the space, allowing me to program the more complex sections of the scratch in advance of arriving at the venue. With movement sequences, dramatic monologues, Shakespeare and a K-pop rap, the scratch night required a huge variety of different styles. To assist with this advanced programming, I built my own lighting keyboard using an old Tipro-96, with a layout based on the ETC Ion's.

For sound, whilst most of the audio was sourced or created by the show teams themselves, I assisted in the creation of a number of soundscapes and effects, as well as liaising with and bringing in external designers for more complex areas. For the scratch, projection elements were created by Geneve Chu, and programmed in by the duty technicians.

Alongside my role as Lead Technician, I also took part in the scratch night as a cast member: as part of the ensemble in the three short Escapism movement pieces, as 'The Suit' in A Midsummer Night's Commercially and Strategically Viable Dream, and as Neville Robert Asquith in Post Mortem Questions.

On the whole, the Old Vic Theatre Makers course was an incredible experience from start to finish. From developing new skills to meeting immensely talented creatives, it was an incredibly rewarding venture that I could not recommend enough!