The Long Read (with pictures)

[1399 words | 5 minute read]

By Hannah Lobb | Head of Production, Theatre Making Family.

I’ve worked at Theatr Clwyd for 16 years and have seen plenty of changes over that time. This one of course is by far the biggest and most exciting.

I’ve been working in theatre since before I graduated. At 16 I was told by a brilliant drama teacher that a career backstage was a real option for those of us who loved the arts but didn’t want to perform…and how right she was!

I studied stage management and technical theatre at Rose Bruford College. I have worked on some incredible productions over the years, up and down the country and in a variety of different stage management roles.

I was working in Harrogate in 2008 when I heard of a Deputy Production Manager role at Theatr Clwyd. Having previously worked in Chester, I already knew of the venue’s fantastic reputation and, after 12 years in stage management, I thought I’d go for it.

Fast forward 16 years and I am Head of Production, and no two days are the same. I look after the production team which includes the scenic construction workshop, our scenic art and construction teams, wardrobe teams and lighting & sound teams.

I make sure everyone is talking to each other when making and building a show, I help co-ordinate the budgets and schedules, and I also have insight into the shows that visit us on tour, or are presented by our local theatre groups, and what they will need from our team.

It’s bonkers but brilliant and the new building will be no different.

Since I started, our department has always worked across multiple sites.

Our construction workshop team has always been offsite, located in Mold Business Park since 2006. The team build all the sets in this space before transporting them up to the theatre. Our scenic team would paint them in our paint shop, which includes a paint frame.

We are so lucky to have this space and are one of very few venues to have one in the UK. It means our cloths can be hung and painted, and then move next door straight onto the stage.

We also have storage facilities which keep some of the costumes and scenery that have been made over the years.

In January 2022 when we moved out of Theatr Clwyd, to our temporary offices in Mold, we knew we faced more challenges. We were now based across more sites than ever before. Our wardrobe team moved out of the building and into a costume workroom in our offices in Mold, our technical teams had an office based on our theatre site and we added new performance spaces, Theatr Mix and The Big Top.

Over the last two years, we have created some incredible productions. These have included Milky Peaks, Celebrated Virgins, A Pretty Shitty Love, The Great Gatsby (in the Dolphin Pub in Mold) Truth or Dare, Fleabag (Welsh language version), Sleeping Beauty (in the Big Top), Kill Thy Neighbour, Constellations/Cytsearu and Rope, plus we have welcomed over 80 visiting and community shows. It’s fair to say it’s not been quiet!

These shows being created across multiple spaces has been a huge challenge but also a huge success. Communication between the teams has been vital, especially when moving between sites. It’s been an amazing couple of years but now we are looking ahead to our new exciting future.

We waved goodbye to The Mix at the end of last year and took over the Moondance Theatr for Mother Goose. It was huge to be back in the space and gave a taste for what is soon to come.

The future is so hugely exciting to think about. The spaces have always been incredible, but they were ageing and the technology in place was beyond the end of life. Today’s technology will make things efficient, reliable and consistent – without 45-year-old dimmers and cabling hanging by a thread in sight!

What’s been great about the re-development is we have been involved in some of the decision-making process. As a team, we know the theatre spaces inside out and it’s been great to have an input into what we would like to see. It’s an opportunity to update and change elements of the spaces that have never worked for us. We’ve had a new construction workshop built at the back of the theatre building to allow us to make all our scenery onsite. We’ve had the rehearsal rooms remodelled, and one has been made double-height so we can create platforms for the actors to rehearse on.

We’re adding new lighting bars in spaces where we know we need them and we’re adding moveable bars to the grids in both theatre spaces to give us more flexibility as well as it being safer for our team. We’re upgrading the infrastructure to allow for modern intelligent lighting equipment to be programmed more specifically than ever, but these need data sockets as well as power sockets. And we’ve made our backstage spaces and control rooms more accessible for all. Doing upgrades like this will help with future-proofing this amazing theatre.

I’m so excited for everyone to be back on site together all under one roof. Collaboration is going to be at an all-time high for our team.

The lighting workshop will be only a few steps away from our construction workshop, rather than a whole site away. Our wardrobe team will be able to pop along the corridor into rehearsal rooms. Things will move forward so much quicker meaning we will have even more time to be creative and play.

We’ve adapted so well to different spaces but having spaces specifically designed or redesigned for what we need will mean more innovative elements for shows can be created. It will be like having new toys and a new house all rolled into one. It also means our connections with other departments and areas of the building will be so much stronger.

Our open plan office in the town centre has really strengthened collaboration and moving that forward to the new building is really exciting.

Cross-collaboration between departments has always been something that I’ve been involved in. But moving to the new building and the future I’m excited for this to grow even more. I was really lucky to have such a supportive teacher in school, so it’s great to provide support and encouragement to those wanting to get into the industry. I love having work experience students and apprentices within the production department.

This year we have also been involved in BBC Bring The Drama workshops showcasing what lighting and sound can do on a show. People are blown away by the process and it makes me so proud that we can do this kind of work. I’m also involved in the weekly stage management workshops for our local young people. We go into all the nuts and bolts of backstage details. The group started during covid before we left the building, and it’s great to see it grow. The new building will give so much more opportunity for this and many other groups. I can’t wait to take the group into the scenic workshop to see our scenic artists at work.

It’s such an amazing and unique space. It used to be that the industry didn’t want to reveal the magic behind the stage but only show the magic onstage. But that’s changed. Now people are so intrigued by how things happen, how they get made and the mechanics behind how things work.

I can’t wait to share this with more people and fling the doors open wide on my incredible team.