As Production Manager for the performance programme, I support all the projects that get realised in our theatres and labs.

Ever since I started working here I have struggled a lot with some of the courses and how difficult it is to plan and organise for the production of their live events.

We have a lot of events throughout the year, and I am responsible for provision of equipment and for allocation of technical support as well as budget management. So it is key to have enough information to be able to plan in advance and provide the best possible support in time and within budget.

It may sound rigid, but I find a lot of comfort in Excel spreadsheets and in planning in advance. I feel that giving students some structure provides them with a solid framework within which they can be creative, they can make art. However, it is always a struggle to get enough information about what the students are going to create, what the expectations are, what support they think they might need, what equipment and when they need all of the above.

Having recently read Susan Orr/Alison Shreeve’s book Art and Design Pedagogy in Higher Education (Orr, S. and Shreeve, A. (2018) I finally understood that this lack of clarity is actually integral to the development of art and design students: the creative curriculum is “ambiguous”, is “sticky”, is by definition not fixed and not a fit for all mould. This of course helped me understand my conflict: my asking for structure whilst witnessing chaos (in the nicest, most creative way possible). Students’ ideas need time to develop and often this does not happen until the very end of the process. Creativity has to run its course. Not all students respond well to this. Some find it destabilising not to know what will happen next, not to be told exactly what to do at each step of the way, but eventually most students seem to find this flexible environment very propitious.

This importance of the process vs the final product is something I have been struggling with for quite sometime, even personally. Professionally, I have spent all my adult life putting on live performances and in my last place of work this happened daily. So I am very much used to delivering products on time, regardless of the process. I may be working from 6am to put on a show with a full orchestra, band, choir, comedians, actors, dancers, barely leaving the sound desk and often skipping meals: the show must go on! And it must be up to the best standards or the audience will want their money back…So now, taking a step back to focus on the creative process seems like a luxury I have never had. It’s taking me quite sometime accepting that a show may not be (technically) perfect, but I am coming to the conclusion that even the idea of perfect is subjective and so one might as well embrace the process and show where one got to, taking the performance as an opportunity to keep on creating as opposed to stopping the piece from carrying on living.

All that said, a little structure can still be useful to ensure the show actually goes up on time and is produced within budget. I need to find some flexibility in my structure and perhaps offer some points of contact when the process evolution is discussed, but never stopped.

Bibliography

Orr, S. and Shreeve, A. (2008) Art and Design Pedagogy in Higher Education: Knowledge, Values and Ambiguity in the Creative Curriculum Abingdon: Routlege