by Priscilla

Aug.04, 2009, under Backstage Blog

I first got involved with Priscilla in October of last year, three months before rehearsals. I am responsible for the smooth running of the show, for everything that happens on stage technically, for the safety of the actors and the day to day running.

Priscilla was hugely challenging purely because there is an awful lot of set and no space to put it. With all productions, but particularly with this one, I cut to scale every piece of set, every piece of furniture and move it around a plan. I work out where it is going to live, how I am going to get it on, how am I going to get it off and I do this about a month before rehearsals so I give myself at least a fighting chance. If I know where I think thinks are going to happen, I can sort out problems as they arise.

Jo Miles

I knew most things were going to live in the air offstage. I asked the production manager what I had at my disposal to store props and he told me I only had the two wings, because everything else had to go to wardrobe due to the amount of costumes. We solved the space problem by constructing a big storage pallet that is 6 metres long, which also carries another pallet below it. In that way we are able to store all the props offstage.

The bus is wonderful. It was hard putting it on, there were so many teething problems, so many unknowns with a new system, but you have that on any production. Now she behaves herself, but occasionally she lets us know who’s in charge.

The technical period was very challenging, because as soon as you thought I’ve fixed this I know how to get it off stage, I found it didn’t fit and that was a recurring issue. It is part of the joy of doing the job, but sometimes it is a bit of an uphill struggle.

I fell into theatre when I was 18 years old. Someone said to me that I would be a really good little assistant stage manager. I didn’t train, I learnt by getting it wrong and asking a lot of questions. I am a great fan of people learning by not knowing anything and then asking people and making mistakes. You learn more that way. I started at 18 and 24 years later I seem to have fallen into musical theatre, not by choice, but musical theatre is it for me. It’s more technical and complex and from my perspective the more problems the better. I need to be challenged. I love the challenge. For me getting a show on, getting it to first preview and making sure it works is the best feeling in the world.

The bar hoisted high in the wings

Towards the end of the aria one night we realised that we’d lost all communication to the bus. It was down stage and shoe was extended out over the audience with Oliver sat on it, stuck. I realised that we couldn’t move the bus or the shoe and I couldn’t bring down the front cloth. I also thought it was unfair for me to make a backstage announcement and leave Oliver out on his own in front of the audience. So I decided to walk on stage and made an announcement to the audience, telling them we had a technical hitch, really to support Oliver. Then Tony and Jason came out of the bus and there was a little bit of adlibbing until we got the bus working again.

Priscilla is like nothing else that I have ever worked on. You can’t come out of Priscilla without feeling great. It is a feel good show. It looks fantastic, the costumes our amazing and it makes you smile. It really genuinely makes you feel good. I love it and I will miss it terribly when I leave.