Company Manager
The Globe Theatre (Shakespeare's Globe)

Abi C

00:00:02 My name is Abi C, and I’m a Company Manager in theatre. A Company Manager is someone that literally just encompasses the welfare of anybody involved in a theatre project. So that does – that includes wardrobe, that includes obviously the actors, I’m dealing quite – quite closely with the Director, and just ensuring everyone’s happy, really. And you just – it’s being a Mum, that’s the only way really of kind of summing it up. I work on things that could – are very short term, I mean whether that’s eight months or three months or anything. And it’s the project managing. So seeing something from the initial concept through to completion. And doing the best job, really.

00:00:46 I love the fact that when you ask me what – what a typical day is? I can’t answer that, because the phone could start ringing at any time in the morning, and it finishes at, you know, silly o’clock in the evening, which is probably the down side. But during those – during those hours it’s just so varied, you can’t get bored. I’ve got lots of friends obviously who work in industries and different places, and they live for the weekends, they don’t enjoy what they do. They all envy me, because I just seem to enjoy what I do.

00:01:14 As a kid I always knew where I was heading, in that sort of world of make believe. And I was very sort of fortunate, I grew up in a – in a pub actually ironically, which was a local that was used by all theatre people. And I think I fell in love with the theatre people and the fun that they created. And so I think that’s what kind of set me on the path.

00:01:38 I remember quite vividly going to see a show called 42nd Street, at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane. And I was – it was on my tenth birthday. I just remember watching it, and coming away from that, the whole experience, and just knowing that I wanted to work in the theatre. But also as a 10 year-old I was aware that I didn’t want to dance, or sing, but I wanted to almost sort of put it on, if that makes sense. I wanted to be involved in actually making it happen.

00:02:10 I have moments of recapturing that feeling that I had when I was ten. I suppose it’s in that applause moment when you think God they’ve really enjoyed this, and we’ve managed to pull it off. They have no idea the carnage that there’s been backstage, the problems that we’ve had during rehearsals, the arguments and everything else, the tears and tantrums, because we’ve just – we’ve just got away with it. We’ve just done it, and it’s obviously very special.

00:02:37 I went to a performing arts school when I was 16, so I did A-Levels there. And then – there is a path where you could go on to Drama School, or go on to University, but I went straight into work. And I think the reason was at that time the money issue was quite a big issue for me, I couldn’t get round the fee – the fees that I had to pay. I was offered a TV job, a running position. Or a non-paying theatre job. And I took, romantically, the non-paying theatre job. I don’t know why. But – and from then I just carried on working. In theatre.

00:03:16 I think if I could do anything it would be – in all honesty it would working, continuous working, on huge shows, and big spectacular events. Such as the Olympics. So yeah the big – the really big things. I don’t ever want a quiet life, I think.

00:03:35 There’s always going to be your parents or whoever – your careers adviser sort of saying to you – no, you should go for something steady, you should do something that matches that sort of profiling. And actually if you’re passionate about something, there’s a hundred and one ways of getting there. And absolutely I was faced with a lot of – there’s no job security, where you going to get, you know, it’s low pay – and, I don’t know, you work round that if you – if you really want to do something.

00:04:04 ENDS