We are now four weeks into this journey and my duties as producer have developed and fluctuated according to the tasks that need to get done. Due to our all-inclusive company ethos, I have had a hand in all aspects of the production; a personal goal throughout this process was to be ‘the ‘do-it-all producer’ (Seabright, 2012, p.5). This means that I am ‘involved in every aspect of a show: creatively, financially, administratively, technically and promotionally’ (Seabright, 2012, p.5) without taking control and becoming a tyrant. This was achieved through weekly production meetings in which everyone was updated on what goals had been met and which needed help from other members of the company. As producer, I found that it was appropriate to make sure no deadline was ever unrealistic by agreeing it with each member and that other members knew the tasks that I needed to complete too.

In initial conversations and rehearsals, the company established that we did not need a stage manager because we agreed that we wanted as many actors available for performance as possible in order to optimise the possibilities for the production. This meant that the duties of a stage manager needed to be upheld by another member and we agreed that this would partially fall on my shoulders.

As my role began to evolve I thought it was vital to understand the aspects of production that a stage manager was responsible for and I found that it tied into my role as producer extremely smoothly. It meant that I was even more involved with making Rubbish Theatre’s dream become reality.

‘Whatever the rehearsal method used, the ever-present and alert DSM will note everything that happens and will communicate all decisions, changes, questions and requests to the production manager and all technical departments by producing daily rehearsal notes or reports’ (Dean, 2002, p. 114).

Therefore, I was responsible for the rehearsal schedule, taking rehearsal notes, production minutes, managing props alongside regulating the budget and coordinating the production teams. There were times where any job that did not have an obvious handler went to me and this meant that my involvement with the show was truly engaged. I was absolutely ecstatic by this aspect of my role because I found that it meant I was always challenged and my knowledge of all aspects of professionally generating a production grew.

Soyza, R. (2017) Example rehearsal schedule.

Despite the ethos of the company the only job that was not up for delegation or deliberation was the task of the budget. The budget and finances fell solely on my list of to-dos and this was my hardest job: ‘producers are often thought of as the ‘money people’’ (Seabright, 2012, p.6). It became clear that this was going to be a difficult venture due to the direction that our production was going in. Rubbish Theatre was on track to creating something extremely abstract with ideas of a giant upcycled tree and a bike with an organ as it’s handle bars as part of the set. Therefore, control over the budget became something that was vital in making our wildest dreams something we could actually put on the stage.

Rubbish Theatre’s ethos of upcycling all of our set meant that the budget was not so wildly affected but we still needed things like nails and paint in order to make it. Similarly, our ‘all-hands-on-deck’ attitude meant that there were a lot of people involved in making the set which became problematic whilst I was sorting out funds. However, we transcended these issues by only allowing myself to purchase items after discussing with the director what was necessary and then sourcing the cheapest options.

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Works Cited:

Brunt, E., Clark, A., Crawford, J., Crockford, K., Kay, J., Pearson, J., Skelton, J., Soyza, R., Toon, J. and Watson, B. (2017) If An Orchid Was All You Had [Live Performance]. Performed by Rubbish Theatre. Lincoln: Lincoln Performing Arts Centre, 22 May.

Dean, P. (2002). Production management. 1st ed. Marlborough: Crowood Press.

Seabright, J. (2012). So You Want to be a Theatre Producer?. 1st ed. London: Nick Hern Books.