Curtains
GUILDFORD SCHOOL OF ACTING
You never know what happens behind close curtains. A cast preparing for a new Broadway musical, a sudden murder and a list of suspects. Can you guess whodunnit?
Curtains was my first production at GSA in which I was taking on a role within the stage management department. Despite having specialised into that pathway at the start o the year, my previous experience had only been amateur, and the experience I held at GSA at this point was being LX Crew.
The nerves that I had going into the process was somewhat subsided by the fact that I was in a team of ASMs who were all learning from each other throughout the process. Throughout pre-production, I shadowed the DSM in the room as well as sourced and made props including barrels of TNT.
The rehearsal room
The stage during LX plot
The cast on stage during placing call.
The onstage set up for the start of Act 2.
Once we moved into the theatre, I felt much more confident and secure in my position. As part of my track, I assisted with many large-scale scene changes including moving treads, barrels etc. Curtains also allowed me to explore pyrotechnics as there was a small robotic in the middle of the target which I rigged and fire twice in the show, rigging it once beforehand and once again amid the hectic interval change.
Curtains is an experience that I look back on very fondly as I feel as a first experience it equipped me with a lot of skills and principles that I stand by in my current work, and taught a lot of valuable lessons in teamwork and collaboration.
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PROFESSIONAL SHOTS by MARK SENIOR
