TakeOver
TakeOver is a week-long festival that students from the performance degrees at York St. John University put in the York Theatre Royal as part of their degree. As much as it can sound as just performing in the festival, this module pushes end encourages the students to have responsibilities in the different departments that are needed for a festival to run smoothly, such as marketing, production management, wrap around, programming, and creative engagement. I choose to be part of the producer’s team, as one of my jobs on the side is to work in backstage, design/program/operate lights and sound for performances. I am already employed as casual worker in backstage at York Theatre Royal, as well as the technician for Out of Character Theatre Company, besides being a handy and recurrent contact at York St John when any assessments, events, and society’s shows need a stage manager and/or technician. Therefore, I opted to be in the producer’s group to continue gaining experience, as well as to be supportive to those who want to get involved in the field.
Every team has been having steering group meetings every two weeks, where group members would talk within each other and their York Theatre Royal mentor, in order to learn and follow up regarding each of the members responsibilities. Even though there is a group of various people involved in the production management team, I have been assigned to operate every York St John company’s show, having by my side other colleagues to shadow/learn how to operate shows.
During TakeOver week, I have been in charge of making a schedule for every member of the producer's team- dates and times they have to be in, and what they must be doing. Not only was I programming sound in QLab and lights, for 95% of the shows through the whole week, but also operating them. Another part of my role was to help student and professional companies to set up their staging, for instance, one of the biggest sets on that week was when I helped Northern Rascals Theatre Company build up their set for Sunny-Side.
On the last day of TakeOver, I had to de-rig the whole of the Main Stage, I was mainly in the 'flyers' which is for pulling up and down every single thing that is hanging from the ceiling, whether it is BP, wings, bars holding lights. That area in particular is very physically demanding as it is mainly heavy lifting/dropping, demounting the weights that were supporting the bars. I have not had much experience in the flyers area, as every other time I had to do a de-rig in the past, I was involved in other areas; as a matter of fact, the flyings was the only area I have not done that much in the past.
