icould

Chris Stafford

Chris Stafford

00:00:02 My name is Chris Stafford, and I'm Projects and Development Manager for Shakespeare's Globe Theatre. Essentially I work in Globe Education, which is the education arm of the Globe, and I manage and co-ordinate all of our programmes and projects for schools, young people and teachers, outside of our local borough of Southwark - which is essentially all of London, nationally and internationally. We have a massive education department, there's 25 full time-staff which deal - which works with approximately I think about a hundred thousand people of all ages and abilities a year. I've got an opportunity where I can work with teachers, and work with students, and work with brilliant creative people within the Globe, to create programmes of work that hopefully offer to students that Shakespeare actually might be quite interesting, and the characters might be relevant to them.

00:00:53 I knew I wanted to be involved in Performance and the Arts. And originally, I think as most people do, they would say they wanted to be an actor, and I definitely wanted to be an actor. And that was really important to me. But then I also thought I wanted to be a teacher as well, and wasn't quite sure how can I be an actor, and how can I be a teacher? And I had a very, very good Drama Teacher who - she was an actress - and she said to me that if you want to be an actor you've got to want only that, and want it more than anything else in the world. And straightaway I decided I didn't quite want to be an actor.

00:01:32 I looked around at different Universities, and there were lots of different Drama and Education courses on offer. But in the end I decided to go to Drama School, so I did a three year training at the Central School of Speech and Drama. That for me actually was the biggest turning point really, because it's quite focused - it's an incredibly focused course. It's actually 10 till 6, five days a week, and incredibly intensive. Which was quite good, because it prepared me for the world of work, I guess.

00:02:02 When you're training something so - in such a vocational course, I did leave with some thoughts that actually it's going to be given to me. And actually it never was. It was quite interesting that there was almost - after you do your holidays after your graduating, and drink quite a lot, you then realise - there is no job waiting for me, I've got to go and make it myself, and go and find it. I was very lucky that I opened the Guardian one day within six months of leaving, and saw a job here at the Globe. And I was - I applied for it because it was a job that I was very excited about. However, I thought I'm not going to get it, but sod it, I'll apply for it. And I started six years ago.

00:02:44 Instead of getting pocket money, my Mum and Dad would send me to a Speech and Drama Teacher. And - so I used to see her every Friday, and she really inspired me because she got me excited about the Arts. The other person who, I guess, inspired me was my Dad. And probably in some - probably in many ways for the wrong reasons - because my Dad doesn't like his job. And he's been in the same job for about 25, 30 years, and can't wait for the day he retires. And my Dad really - guided me to really go - and suggested to me that I should go for something that makes me happy. And go for something that I'm not going to be counting the hours till the day's over.

00:03:29 In five years' time I hope that I'm either at the Globe or another similar sized Arts organisation. But hopefully being a Director of an area of work, so Director of Education. I guess my career to me is more than a life, is more than 10 till 6. It's - it's really important, and it doesn't define who I am, but it's very key to who I am. I do enjoy coming in, and I don't mind that some weeks will be much longer than 40 hour weeks and - because fundamentally I love what I do.

00:04:03 ENDS