On Tuesday 12th October, Jessica Farmer, the West Yorkshire Playhouse’s education officer who came into fourth period to talk to us a little bit about The Offstage Choices Day coming up on Friday. We thought this was a great opportunity and took advantage by interviewing Jessica and (with her permission) record her answers to use them in the theatre section of our ‘Creative Leeds’ videos.
First of all were the introductions. We set our chairs up in the drama studio so we could all see Jessica. She told us about a production they are preparing for at the Playhouse, Aladdin. She explained how all the workshops in the offstage choices day were based around Aladdin and revealed that some of our work would be used in the actual production! We then each introduced ourselves by giving our name and a recent production we had been in and/or attended. I explained how I had recently been to London to see ‘Les Misérables’ and ‘Pricilla Queen of the Desert’ and told her about ‘West Side Story’ which I did in September alongside Emily and Imogen from the diploma team and also about the forthcoming professional pantomime I’m doing (‘Sleeping Beauty’) all December and January as a senior ensemble.
Jessica then told us to discuss in pairs, different jobs in the theatre. Emily and I came up with MD (Musical Director), choreographer and backstage workers. Jessica then told us that there are many jobs in the theatre, more than you’d expect and we talked about some of the more unusual and unheard of jobs, for example fly men who manage all the set that flies in!
We then had our chance to ask Jessica our questions. (We also have this information on flip cameras)
Frankie asked:
How long have you worked at the theatre?
Four and a half years but I started off part time. I was on 3 days a week until I stared working full time which is 5 days a week.
What is your favourite project to date?
I really enjoy the connections national theatre project. I enjoy seeing young people on stage.
Have you got any future projects you’re excited about?
In summer, there’s the young theatre makers project which I’m excited about. Also, at Christmas, there’s Aladdin, there’s something every season to look forward to.
Imogen then asked:
Do you enjoy your job and what does it entail?
I really enjoy it! I do a lot of different things, plan for future projects, I work with young people a lot and I have to see on average, a performance a week. I get to work with lots of different people and there’s a real variation.
Bethany then asked:
How do you connect with the different communities?
That’s in the Arts Development Department, there are 3 parts to it; creative education which involves companies going and performing in schools, creative communities and first floor for 11-19 year olds.
How has technology influenced your work?
We use new technologies a lot more now. We use Facebook, Twitter (these are mainly to promote first floor as a lot of young people go on these), Flickr, YouTube and we sometimes do backstage blogs.
Emily asked next:
What creative process do you go through when establishing a project?
All the staff are project managers with a range of skills. We go through what will work practically and artistically and deliver workshops on the production we’re currently working on.
How do you decide what is involved?
We make connections with the current projects. We sometimes do workshops on a theme or respond to requests made by schools.
Next, I asked:
What began your interest in theatre?
I was in a local amateur drama group from the age of about 7. I then went on to do GCSE and A-Level drama. I then did a theatre studies degree and a Masters in applied theatre studies. I’ve always been interested in being part of a theatre but not everyone that works at the Playhouse is theatre trained. I have similar training to that of a drama teacher.
What additional training did you have to go through?
My masters was the training in a sense though not necessary, it was very beneficial. However, my job did require 3 years experience working with different groups and everybody nowadays has to go through health and safety training and child protection checks.
It was the Tomas that asked:
What merchandise do you sell?
Our income is split into two. Firstly, we are a registered charity and are therefore funded by the Art’s Council and Leeds City Council (however, there are to be cuts in the theatre sector which is bad news for us). The second sector is making a profit from the restaurant, bar, programmes and any merchandise we sell for certain productions e.g. we sold teddies at the pantomime last year.
How does it affect your income?
Basically, we make extra cash in the profits side to put in the charity side.
How do you promote it?
We try to sell it to children over Christmas because children are the best people to convince their parents to buy things. We also do deals and promotions with meals and try to tie everything in with the current productions.
It was Francesca’s turn to ask:
Which type of play attracts which type of audience?
It’s a balancing act with audiences as we have two spaces; the Quarry and the courtyard. The Quarry is the larger of the two and is used for things like Shakespeare and pantomimes. We put on two contrasting productions so we’re not competing against ourselves. We’re always trying to bring in new people and we work out a target audience for the type of production.
How do you go about pleasing them?
We look at feedback and research with surveys over the summer season about how we’re doing. You can’t please everyone all of the time and in tight times, we sometimes have to go for the obvious or safe option.
The next question, asked by Olly was:
How do you know when a project is a success?
When we meet our financial targets, receive good reviews, we judge from the audiences’ reaction, when the feedback is good, the amount of tickets we’ve sold is high and sometimes audience members approach us and give us face to face feedback.
What do you class as a failed project?
You never really get a failed project but if we get bad reviews and not many tickets are sold then we would say it’s unsuccessful.
Then Seb asked:
What opportunities are there for promotion?
If I get a promotion, it would mean moving away from delivery work.
Are there any you aspire to achieve?
I would like to move on to management at some point but I would just miss the Playhouse too much!
Finally, Jack asked:
What are the benefits of days like Offstage Choices?
We give young people new experiences and show them what opportunities there are for them. Ultimately, we try to enhance learning within all the projects we do.
So that was it. We had asked all our questions and come to the end of the hour so we thanked and said goodbye to Jessica until Friday.
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