Bruno Poet and James Farncombe, both highly experienced freelance theatre lighting designers based in the UK but working worldwide, started the Making Theatre Podcast in June 2020.
Their initial intent was to interview leading stage lighting practitioners. However, in the context of the pandemic, and the existential threat facing every aspect of the performing arts, they decided to turn outwards, and broaden the scope to involve people from all over the theatre community.
The result is an ongoing series of informal yet revealing conversations, each episode featuring a different discipline, and a guest talking in-depth about their experiences and their responsibilities in the complex and sometimes messy business of making a show. From ?ght direction to stage management, via lighting, sound and set design, from acting and directing to costume, props and voice coaching, and everything on the way, the Making Theatre Podcast offers an insight into the working lives of celebrated theatre-makers, their routes into the industry and their unique perspective on the work. The aim is to create a comprehensive listening resource for students, professionals and inquisitive members of the theatre-going public alike. It will provide a detailed introduction to each occupation onstage, backstage and in the surrounding industries.
It is an opportunity for even the most seasoned practitioner to learn more about their colleagues and how their contributions all ?t together when making a show.
For anyone who has paused at the list of names in the back of a theatre programme and wondered what on earth it is they all do, the Making Theatre podcast o?ers them the chance to ?nd out.
Making Theatre is a hugely collaborative business. As theatre makers, we are all interlinked and interdependent. Our community is vast and diverse. It is also disparate, and despite the many ways in which we in?uence one another’s work, many elements of production often function alongside each other with only the barest minimum of interaction.
While remaining sensitive to the ongoing disruption and loss wrought by the pandemic, rather than dwell on the crisis, the podcast seeks to celebrate the many and varied aspects of Making Theatre. It looks to the future, with the hope that a broader awareness and understanding of each role in theatre will help to make our working practice that little bit more considerate and e?cient.
About the hosts: Bruno Poet works extensively in opera, theatre, dance, and live music. His award-winning, genre-spanning credits include Frankenstein at the National Theatre, Miss Saigon and Tina the Musical in the West End and on Broadway, Akhnaten at The New York Met Opera, and world tours for Björk and Sigur Rós. James’s numerous theatre credits include Yerma at the Young Vic and People Places and Things at the National. He enjoys long-standing collaborations with pioneering directors Katie Mitchell and Simon Stone, and has lit productions in many of the world’s major opera houses, including Covent Garden, Paris Opera, Vienna State Opera and the Aix-en Provence Festival.
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