Covid, Graduating & The Industry
Lauren Alexandra Taylor
I trained at RADA on the Technical Theatre and Stage Management course, and in my second year, I decided to specialise in Stage Management.
The thing I most enjoyed about the course was the tight-knit community of the school. I personally think the main perk of going to a drama school instead of a university is how much smaller a drama school is. As cliché as it sounds it truly did feel like being in one big theatrical family. I was normally there 10 am till 10 pm, 6 days a week. I spent more time with the people at RADA than my own family! On the flip side of this, being around the same people day in and day out for 3 years was, at points, very draining. I looked forward to the holidays where I could take a step back from the ‘RADA bubble’, but in the end, always spent most of my break with my friends from RADA anyway! During my time at drama school, I also loved how practical the course was as well. I have lost count, but I think during my 3 years of training there, I worked on at least 30 different productions in a variety of roles from ASM to lighting crew.
Graduating with a degree in theatre during the year of a pandemic wasn’t ideal, to say the least. In 2020 I took to ‘Stage Managing’ several online events. It wasn’t what I had imagined my first theatre job to be, but I did manage to transfer a lot of my organisational skills I had gained from my work on ‘real life’ productions to the virtual world zoom and break-out rooms.
Going into 2021 I was the Stage Manager/Covid-19 Officer on an R and D for the production company - These Girls. Even though we had to remain 2 metres away from each other, and had half of our faces hidden with masks, it was such a joy to be back in a rehearsal room with people in real life. I’m so excited for theatres to reopen (fingers crossed for this summer), so we can all get back to being in a collaborative, creative space and also be able to share an end product with audiences.
I feel like Covid-19 will have a massive impact not only on the industry but also on our culture in general. The lockdown has forced everyone to put their lives on pause, which has been a massive change for the theatre industry, as it is normally so fast-paced. I hope that this change of pace will filter into the industry post-Covid-19, as I feel slowing down allows people to take a step back, and look at the fuller picture, which is beneficial in any industry.
During the first lockdown, the world also saw the BLM movement rise to the forefront of everyone’s awareness. I hope that all the conversations had in that time will be remembered by everyone going forward as the industry opens up again and that people will continue to feel empowered to hold certain theatres and institutions accountable for any promises that were made in Summer 2020.
Whilst I have only just started my theatre career, my main goal in life is to set up and run a film and theatre production company. I want to create work that tells the stories and gives a voice to the otherwise unheard communities in our society. As well as this I want to be in the position to provide jobs for talented people, currently under-represented in theatre at the moment. I want to showcase representation in roles both onscreen/stage and behind the scenes.
It is the norm for me to be the only non-white person in a creative space – especially in a backstage role. Discovering a platform such as Backstage Niche, which allows myself and others working behind-the-scenes to be ‘seen’, was a prospect I found very exciting and feel lucky to be a part of.
2021
