Legally Blonde
REGENT'S PARK OPEN AIR THEATRE
Omigod you guys, meet fashion merchandising major Elle Woods (Courtney Bowman) and her college sweetheart Warner Huntington III (Alistair Toovey). Popular, stylish, they have the perfect relationship. That is until Warner heads to Harvard Law School and decides that he needs a more 'serious' kind of girlfriend.
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Dumped, Elle embarks on a drastic plan to win him back. But, on the way, she discovers that there's more to love - and definitely Elle Woods - than meets the eye. Directed by Lucy Moss, co-writer and co-director of the smash-hit musical SIX, it's time to bend and snap, people!
Legally Blonde was my first production as Stage Technician at Regent's Park Open Air Theatre as part of their 2022 summer season, and my first time working on large scale, well-known musical which contrasted in greatly ways to my prior experience in drama school and pantomime. It was also my first time working professionally outdoors (excluding a small stint as crew on Twelfth Night at GSA in 2021) which meant I had to learn and adapt quickly to this new working environment.
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I was part of the team that helped assemble the (very pink!) set as well as get the entire space into working condition which involved assembling quick change tents, building the band pit and helping install the pieces of automation brought in for the show.
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As well as of being my first time working on an large scale production, Legally Blonde came with a lot of other firsts for me, including; managing a team of stage crew, learning about managing and maintaining a space both in normal and wet weather conditions, operating manual tracking treads, operating manual revolves, operating the manual teardrop mechanism at the top of the stage and operating the hydraulics system used in Act 1.
A photo of myself at the end of the show waiting for FOH clearance
The clothes rail set in SL ahead of the show.
The show relay by the hydraulics op in SR during So Much Better.
An excerpt of an early rendition of the stage track including a cut kabuki cue.
My track during this show was very hectic, with jumping between automation cues, as well as being on hand for any repairs or other dilemmas that needed mitigating - the SL tracking treads being particularly renowned from acting up every now and then, and the occasional duckling would need rescuing from under the stage, an unusual skill that I would say I have become rather proficient at.
I also was appointed for other small cues such as assisting with QCs, handovers and during the interval one of the my cues was going under the stage, into the ball pool set piece and resetting it into its Act 2 set up, which involved a lot of crawling and working in tight spaces.
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This show was the longest running out of the three that I worked on at Regent's Park and became a very well oiled machine very quickly in the process, which meant there was more time for me to observe and learn from the industry professional around me.
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For my professional debut, I couldn't have been part of a more exciting show with a more brilliant team of cast and crew that enabled me to grow and learn as a practitioner and have a great deal of a fun whilst doing so.
PROFESSIONAL SHOTS by PAMELA RAITH
