Stage-Struck: Old Boys in the Performing Arts

“When I got the email asking to contribute to this article, I was on an airfield in Norfolk having tractor driving lessons for some scenes I was shooting the following week. That’s the kind of thing I do for a living these days. It’s utterly ridiculous and part of me does wonder when I will get a ‘proper’ job like most people I was at School with. “I was in most of the plays at School and, although I realise now that the experience of working on shows was an extremely valuable opportunity and planted the seed for my future career, being an actor was never something that was suggested as an option. Not that it was discouraged; it just wasn’t an option. It wasn’t until after university that I met someone who had been to Drama School and, on their advice, applied and got into the Royal Central School in London. I did a two-year post graduate diploma there, got an agent, and have been working professionally ever since. “Sadly, the Performing Arts, both as a career and an experience, is one where access is denied to many people which is why that earlier experience at School was so valuable. Many Drama School courses will not attract a grant and most that do will be in London where the cost of living while you train is pricing most people out of even applying. As an actor,

you live an uncertain, hand-to-mouth existence where you often don’t know where the next job is coming from. Wages for TV are less now than when I started 30 years ago. Theatre wages are not much more than minimum wage. Most of us have other jobs doing other things to pay the bills: which is why we survived the pandemic – we are used to being flexible. You live with constant rejection – in the last year before the pandemic, I didn’t get 21 jobs, but I did get six which saw me through. “The Performing Arts world promotes Roger as the glamour, the money and the high Launce in Two life, and for a tiny minority that is the Gentleman of reality. For the rest of us it makes Verona at the no sense to work in this world. It’s RSC hard, brutal, uncompromising and exploitative, but I have met some amazing people, travelled all over the world, seen myself at the cinema, and, to top it all, recently had tractor driving lessons in Norfolk. You work in this world because you love it, because it’s your craft and because there is no experience to match being on stage at the Royal Shakespeare Company, on your own, holding twelve hundred people in the palm of your hand and knowing that, at that moment, you are at the top of your game. It’s not a ‘proper’ job, it’s not for everyone, and there were easier options, but I’m hugely proud of what I’ve achieved and I wouldn’t change my life for anything”.

Roger as Stephano threatening Trinculo (played by Chris Ensor) in the School’s 1987 production of The Tempest

“I’m on a train leaving Edinburgh after two days watching shows at the Fringe Festival. Fingers crossed, I’ll be back next year with my own show. “Ah, the Festival. The best of humanity: a smorgasbord of creativity and hope. And yet … “American artist Taylor Mac once said, ‘comparison is violence.’ There are no winners in art, unless you actually win an award; or a 5-star review; or those two most delicious of words: ‘sold out’.

“This morning, I sat in a small room with an audience of sixteen, weeping as a man spun magic with nothing but words placed in the most beautiful order. Last night, I saw one of the biggest stars of the Festival: big venue, big audience, big show. Deserving of all the acclaim. For me, both performers are winners. As I think about my own prospective offering, I can feel my train has come off the tracks somewhere … I can’t stop thinking about how to win. “At School I wasn’t into sports. I can’t feign excitement at a team winning … anything. Competition just isn’t my vibe. Making stuff and sharing it with people: that’s my vibe. If people Andrew as Oberon then want to applaud or ‘like’ it, well, in the School’s 1998 production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream that’s lovely, but I don’t need it to be graded, or placed in a hierarchy. At least I didn’t at School. For me, School was a cocoon, very much of this world and yet separate. All I had to do was focus on my love: performing. Yeah, there were those pesky GCSEs and A Levels to contemplate, but let’s not focus on that. At School, I crammed in as many shows as I could (fourteen!). Two of those were my first ever solo cabarets. While I created them, my focus was squarely on that: creating. Bliss! “It’s been suggested I end this with advice (to any students interested in my line of work). I think I need the advice. Show business is, yes, a business, so inherently there’s competition; but that’s (as much as is possible) not our concern. Our job is to find our cocoon and create; to share that thing we want to share. It’s needed. So needed. So, focus on that. Practise that. Enjoy that. And then … do it again.”

“When I was asked to contribute this piece to The Bugle, I was reminded of the sobering fact that it’s been 22 years since I left Bolton School. At 40 years old, I’ve become somewhat of a nostalgic person and as I thought about what I’d like to write, I’ve reminisced, and I’ve rejuvenated my gratitude for my years spent on Chorley New Road. Whether I was competing on the rugby field or in the swimming pool, taking part in School exchanges to Bonn and Clermont-Ferrand or taking advantage of The Duke of Edinburgh’s Award schemes, I relished every opportunity to live my School life to the fullest. “In terms of the teachers, I always had my favourites back then – Christine Southworth (Art, exquisite!), Karsten Hiepko (German, wunderbar!), Ann Green (French, magnifique!) and Mel Shewan (English, brilliant and terrifying in equal measure!) to name just a few – and a special mention goes to Phoebe Pownall, who always encouraged and nurtured my interest in the Performing Arts. From Tom Sawyer to Cabaret to Shakespeare’s Measure for Measure, performing in the School’s productions were consistently a highlight of the year. Without them, I believe my career trajectory may well have panned out differently. “In 2000, I ventured down to the Southwest to study Drama: Theatre, Film and Television and German at the University of Bristol, which – following a year abroad in Munich – led to a relocation to Berlin for the four years following graduation. There I was fortunate enough to begin a career in television production, learning my craft at MTV Germany (producing music-themed documentaries and interviewing everyone from Janet Jackson and Rhianna to Dave Grohl in the process, if you’ll allow a little shameless name-dropping). Towards the latter end of my time in Berlin, I reignited my passion for the theatre and decided to move to London to immerse myself in its world-class stages, managing to carve out a niche career for myself in theatre journalism along the way. Over the years, I’ve served in the editorial teams of the London Theatre Guide, the New York Theatre Guide (as the bright lights of Broadway and working in New York City beckoned), Official London Theatre, BroadwayWorld and now at WhatsOnStage, the UK’s leading theatre website, where I’ve been able to marry my two career paths by producing stage-related video content. “Not everyone gets to turn their passion into their living and recently I’ve been reminded how fortunate I am to be in this position. When the theatre industry was devastated and temporarily forced to shut down due to the pandemic, I’d be lying if I told you that I hadn’t had worrying concerns about my future. But I stuck to my guns and, as has always been the way, I followed my heart rather than my head. Hey, it’s worked out for me so far … “Bolton School was that stage of my life where the seeds of a life and career with the stage were planted and for that, I’ll forever be grateful. To be, or not to be an Old Boltonian? Always to be.”

Tom recently interviewed fellow Old Boy Sir Ian McKellen (1951-1958) and fellow Northerner John Bishop who are appearing in panto together Anthony (left) with Mr Mitchell in the School’s 1988 production of My Fair Lady

“I got the theatre bug at School in my one and only appearance on stage ever in My Fair Lady in 1988 and, before that, as the front-of-house manager for Mr Shaw’s production of The Tempest. So Bolton School can take the credit/blame for getting me into pretty much everything I’ve done since. The attraction of theatre for me was the people that I got to spend time with, and the feelings that making a show happen and an audience experiencing your work can create. It’s still the same today now that I’m producing internationally and in London and I can see the young people I sometimes work with at my wife’s theatre school in Sussex finding their ‘tribe’ just as I did. “In my career, I’ve actually worked across the creative industries, not just theatre, as I have specialised in the creative use of digital technology. That’s meant I’ve learned pretty much everything on the job (my degree is in Law), but most of my early theatre experience came at University, the Edinburgh Fringe and then founding a small company of my own. “In the years since, and with my theatre producing business, Scenario Two, the challenges have remained the same, the shows have mostly got bigger and more expensive. I’ve always forged my own path by building companies or working with partners – and I’ve had more than my fair share of mentors from producers like David Puttnam to long-standing investors and true believers too many to name. “Being a producer is a tricky thing to define. It’s where the buck stops – and starts. You may have an idea for a show, need to secure the rights and financing, the creative team (director etc), you’ll need to find a venue and a cast and then sell all those tickets. It’s a real generalist’s role – at least the way I understand it. I suppose the main quality I’ve nurtured over the years is resilience. You get a lot of knockbacks in my line of work, things can be unpredictable (and therefore exciting too) and there is a lot of risk involved. But the rewards – both personal and financial – can be really considerable. I often tell parents that there are plenty of ‘proper jobs’ in the creative sector for people with all manner of skills – not just on the creative side – so if you think it’s interesting you should give it a look.”