| Professional Profile: Becca Gill-Theatre Development Co-ordinator |
| Written by Captain Ross | |
What is your name? Becca Gill What is your profession? Theatre Development Co-ordinator What does it entail? Strategically developing the theatre infrastructure in Dorset, Bournemouth & Poole! In normal language that means being able to write sentences like that one and put them into a myriad of funding applications for supporting local theatre and dance artists. Managing projects such as our showcase of the best local performance work - Homegrown. Producing events for large scale outdoor festivals such as Inside Out. Meeting with artists and supporting them to develop their practice. Producing a local performance work. Bringing in funding to support youth theatre and projects within education. Generally, coming up with ideas of how to develop theatre locally and putting them into action. How did you get into it? I studied Drama and Education at Central School of Speech and Drama in London. Whilst at Central I took as many job opportunities as possible, standing in as Education Officer for Trestle Theatre Company and working in the Education department at Hampstead Theatre. When I graduated I applied to work with Total Theatre and was whisked up to Edinburgh Festival where I co-ordinated the Total Theatre Awards (awards for Physical & Visual Theatre). In Edinburgh I met a lot of very interesting and influencial people and learnt very quickly how to market myself. When I left Edinburgh for London I continued to work for Total Theatre Network part-time and also took on Freelance Assistant Directing roles at National Theatre and Soho Theatre. I set up my Performance Company - Fervent and wrote, directed and produced our first piece at Camden People Theatre\'s Sprint Festival to sold out houses. In the meantime I worked for Circus Space and developed my skills in flying trapeze - bound to come in handy at some point! Fervent were offered a place in the Hong Kong Fringe Festival and were gearing up for this when I saw a fantastic job opportunity in Dorset, developing theatre... and I got it... Did you need any qualifications? BA HONS and 3 years experience What tips would you give to someone interested in your profession? Broaden horizons - see as much performance as possible. Take opportunities to be part of youth theatre/dance. Read lots of plays and become familiar with different performance genres - performance art, physical/visual theatre, new writing, puppetry/mask work etc etc.. and look for HE courses that give you a breadth of performance skills and knowledge. How competitive is it to get into your area of work? Very What do you enjoy the most about your profession? Every day is different… What do you enjoy the least about your profession? Arts funding system What’s the most interesting thing you have done or the most interesting person you have met? Recently... www.insideoutdorset.co.uk        |
