Production Manager and Technical Director Stacy Sherlock writes about her experience working on our production of House/Home at HIVE as part of our Prime Placements Program:
As I walked into the Pi office yesterday, a great feeling of accomplishment washed over me as I handed in the final budget. I did it! I completed my first professional production as a technical director/production manager and as a team we achieved this amazing project within our budget. What a fantastic feeling!!! HIVE was simply an amazing learning adventure.
I had first encountered the HIVE experience while attending the Magnetic North Theatre festival in the summer of 2008. As an audience member and theatre student, I realized that this was the kind of theatre I wanted to create and I’m proud to have been a part of this experience. It was not only in the way our company worked together, but it was in the way all the companies produced HIVE that was so inspiring to me. This group of companies were together, sharing the environment, and working as a whole…it was like nothing I had ever seen or worked with. These positive energies working together truly made the space buzz with excitement, encouragement, and support.
As we began working on the early stages of this production, every aspect of the Pi team was invited to be part of the creative process. We worked as a group imagining the space, discussing the house as an entity, and visualizing all the possibilities. We were all allowed the freedom of input and freedom of discussion. Personally, I love creating theatre in this fashion! You don’t really know where you’re going or what direction the piece can take you. But that’s all part of the adventure! As a technical director … well it’s hard to predict aspects of the overall technical elements if we are still playing right up, until or even past, opening night. But that’s what creates intriguing theatre, live theatre, living theatre… This ambiguity in creation allowed me the opportunities to problem solve in a non-traditional theatre environment. Because of the way we explored our project, I feel that I am now better prepared for my upcoming productions. It is directly from the support of this company that I am now continuing on my journey in technical direction. It is an honour to receive such positive feedback on my abilities and I am delighted to hear their appreciation with my work.
Within the HIVE environment it is the company that truly risks the most in its artistic presentation, which gains the most from this experience and the process as a whole. I believe that our team allowed ourselves the liberty of exploration and I am happy to say I helped put it all together. Thank you for this lovely experience and I hope to see you all soon!
Stacy’s Prime Placement was generously sponsored by Theatre at UBC
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