Getting into and getting on in technical theatre & live music
As our Cluster Lead in the eastern region of England and Director of Culture Works East, Elli Chapman knows all about industry engagement. We caught up with her to get her views on industry skills, entry routes and why a roll of gaffa tape is an indispensible tool...
Like many people in the industry, I think I 'fell' through all the right doors to get into the industry.
My family were involved in education and theatre, so I really knew that world from an early age, and I did a lot of volunteering. I got my first job as a box office assistant at the Duke’s Playhouse, and while I was there I trained up as an Assistant Stage Manager in their new youth theatre ...and that was it really!
I think I was very fortunate to be able to access volunteering, and theatres do have a huge amount to offer in terms of knowledge base and skills in staff, so the Duke’s helped me develop that as a stage manager but also opened my eyes to a range of careers available within the creative industries.
I think the kind of route I took into the industry is still around, but exists much less. Nowadays it’s much harder in general to find opportunities or entry routes as a young person. And since there are so many different routes, it’s difficult to know what qualification to do. In my own case, I had to jigsaw qualifications together to suit the career I’d gone into.
"The theatre I worked in helped me develop my skills as an Assistant Stage Manager, but also opened my eyes to the range of careers available in the creative industries"
No two days are the same in my current job, and that’s one of the things I really like about the arts in general.
Culture Works East uses high quality creative arts, media and creativity to inspire young people to discover and reach their full potential. In this way, we provide engagement, social inclusion, education, training and support to young people aged 13-25 years old, particularly those considered hard to reach.
A lot of the work we do is very practical and youth led – marketing or promoting an album, working with young people on a fashion show, supporting them to project-manage activity. It provides real life experience. We spend a lot of time supporting the development of young people’s careers, and a lot of time promoting what we do, and developing new projects.
I’m really enthusiastic about our work as a Skills Academy Cluster Lead. I was keen to submit an application in the first place because we’ve got a long history of developing employer engagement in partnership with our local Founder College, City College Norwich.
"No two days are the same in my current job, and that's one of the things I really like about the arts in general"
It’s been an interesting road – and a challenging road – but it’s felt like a really good way of keeping that work alive, making sure we could offer leading industry professionals the chance to go and interact with young people, and to show them that there are many, many careers for them aside from performing.
A lot of young people think ‘I can’t act or sing, so what can I do?’ – and the only reason I got into this industry myself was that there was someone doing it in my family. But as an industry we have so much to offer: I do a lot of work with events and festivals and I’m always hearing staff say that they need young people with the skills to work in this industry.
In terms of approach, we’ve been working closely with regional networks – the eastern region has an ever-developing and exciting infrastructure across theatres, outdoor and music events as well as community arts, heritage and arts organisations. We’re trying to tie all these different people together through events and meetings, so that it’s beneficial to all of them. A bit like festival dating! So we’ve got an event at the Start Up Lounge on 16 February, which will bring industry and education together in a room to experience and learn about the work of the Skills Academy, the local Founder College and existing members. I hope that it will begin to develop dialogue and ideas for collaborative working.
"Every day at work I see young people surprising themsevles, and being creative. They'll certainly use that in any job they go on to do: I don't know many jobs that don't rely on creativity."
One of the exciting things about Culture Works East at the moment is the focus on practical and entrepreneurial skills for young people. And that’s one of the ways we’re looking at the challenge of funding for the arts, with (at the moment) a special focus on tackling youth unemployment: creativity and cultural engagement can absolutely help do that.
Every day at work I see young people surprising themselves, and being creative. They may not go on to use that in a specifically ‘creative’ career, but they’ll certainly use it in anything else they go into. Creativity is really a skill – we work with so many non-creative organisations that are full of creative practitioners.
For Culture Works it’s very much about breaking our sector right open and showing others what we have to offer. I don’t know many jobs where people don’t have to rely on their creativity.
• Embrace opportunity – if I hadn’t done all the volunteering I did as a teenager, and then got involved again as a young artist, I wouldn’t have embraced my passion for the arts and realised it was something I had to do
• Be flexible – at the moment I’m talking a lot to young people about developing portfolio careers, and thinking about how their skills might fit into a number of different scenarios.
• Be yourself – someone will see something in you that they want to develop, and that can be invaluable.
• Take a roll of gaffa tape everywhere – as a former Assistant Stage Manager, I can tell you that a smile and a roll of gaffa tape solves everything.
Culture Works East is an Industry Member of the National Skills Academy for Creative & Cultural, and Elli Chapman is leading our Cluster Leads programme in the eastern region. For the full listing of these events, please see our calendar.