Today’s young performers, tomorrow’s stars of the stage – the Production blog

28 March 2012

The Production staff and Creative team were sat in the sun in that lull before the Senior Youth Theatre arrived for the start of the technical rehearsal of Writers’ Block chatting about how many of us had started what is now our career’s as the result of being in a youth theatre (some of us many years ago).

I must admit my initial reason of joining was not because of a great love of Shakespeare as  “drama” was classed as “a bit sissy” but being at an all-boys school when we heard the ratio of girls to boys was about 10:1 suddenly we wanted to “tread the boards”.

I’ve seen moments of  Writers’ Block which is absolutely fabulous and what is happening on stage is so far removed from what we did it doesn’t bare thinking about.

I can’t honestly remember a single show that I was ever in – I do recall we spent most of our time piling into a converted Ambulance (every drama group seemed to have one, usually painted yellow) then turning up at some old folks home to “entertain”? I was normally dressed in an old suit of my dads’ with trousers and cuffs rolled up sporting a drawn on moustache.

There was never bed blocking in those days, I’m sure the Ward Sister was saying “I’d get better if I was you Mavis, they’ll be back in a couple of weeks!”

Needless to say my days as a “thespian” did not last long, but that did not matter as I had much more fun behind the scenes still with the same great crowd but now, building and painting sets out in the car park, recording sound effects normally straight from the speaker of the television. I seem to remember the Milky Bar Kid adverts had some mean gunshot effects. 

Its long way from the show computers with Wav downloads that now run our sound effects and  the DMX lighting desk that control our moving lights.

But these are only cosmetic changes, because being in a youth theatre is still just as much  fun and judging by the number of ex-Watermill youth theatre members that I know who are now working in the industry the effect it can have on your life is just as strong today.

So I wish the Writers’ Block company a brilliant run and see if you can spot the ones who will be trail blazing in the entertainment industry in a few years.