Applause
GUILDFORD SCHOOL OF ACTING
With sass, wit, and a pulsing 1970s score, Applause presents show biz in all its glory and ferocity. The updated musical version of “All About Eve” concerns superstar Margo Channing and her ambitious, scheming assistant, Eve Harrington.
Applause was not my first experience venturing into production management however my previous encounter with the role of Assistant Production manager had occurred in my second year whilst I had also been working at Regent's Park Open Air Thetare, so working on Applause was the first time I was able to fully commit and apply my full attention to the role.
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Due to the nature of the PATS schedule, with Applause being the final show of the semester following BAAM's cohort production of The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee and the other half of the BAMT cohort's production of Company, it meant that initially aside from supporting various department who were also working across all three shows, my workload was fairly sparse.
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Despite this, I tried to keep a consistent presence, checking in with various departments as the weeks went on, until my workload ramped up following the fit-up for Spelling Bee, due to all three shows sharing the same base for their set. the importance of cross-production teamwork was stressed due to all shows ultimately benefiting from the work the previously had done.
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Once Spelling Bee had finished its run, myself and the APM for Company worked very closely throughout the fit-up and pre-production week in order to prep the space accordingly (which involved a lot of masking!).
A photo of me fixing the curtain track between shows on the final Saturday.
Myself and Freya Inglis (ASM) signing the back of the set.
Myself and Rebecca McCarthy (Prod LX) fitting up the curtain track in the turnaround between Company and Applause.
A picture of the Company set, which I helped to fit up, during their focus.
My main responsibility within the role was assembling a swish track to hold two curtains to be used in the show, one being a slash curtain that I pieced together myself and the other being a fabric curtain that was hemmed by one of the ASMs. This was my first time working with tracks and I was very happy with how they turned out as a project that I had to do largely solo.
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One of the biggest challenges myself and the other APMs faced was the absence of our production manager throughout the pre-production week meaning we had to take a lot of initiative and go with our gut instincts when it came to assembling and making safe the set, handling and managing a lot of issues independently. However, we were able to hold down the fort and successfully manage the space in the time our PM was absent and achieve all that we set out to.
PROFESSIONAL SHOTS by STEVE PORTER
