Two-day intensive session for those not in employment, education or training offers crash course in sound, lighting and stage management
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“The aim of Tech Academy is to give people a crash course in the technical aspects of theatre production – hopefully to act as a springboard that will get them into long-term careers,” said Matthew Jameson, artistic director at The Space on the Isle Of Dogs.
The Westferry Road theatre and arts centre is running a two-day session for up to 15 people who are living in Tower Hamlets and are not currently in education, employment or training.
It’s intended as a gateway to working in the sector.
The pilot scheme, which is supported by the East End Community Foundation, aims to give participants a solid grounding in the key technical elements needed for a fringe theatre show – lighting, sound and stage management.
“Across two intensive days we’ll deliver an introduction to all things technical,” said Matthew.
“The staff here, including our executive director Sarah Reed, have a wealth of experience in the industry to pass on – we want to provide an environment where people can learn safely and fail safely so they get a real understanding of what it’s like to work in this environment.
“We cover vocabulary and terminology because it can be terrifying for people to feel out of their depth if they don’t know the right words to use.
“There’s a lot of jargon and we’re here to demystify and clarify what’s happening.
“We’ll also be showing people all the equipment, how to set it up, treat it with respect and use it in a safe and responsible manner.
“The course covers things like manual handling, working with ladders, hanging, focussing and programming lights.
“The idea is to cover everything to see a show through from setting it up, pressing the buttons to make it go and then clearing up at the end.
“It’s every single step you need to be aware of to work behind the scenes on shows at venues like ours or in bigger theatres.”
opening doors to opportunity
While the course doesn’t lead to a formal qualification, The Space hopes it will result in opportunities both within its own programming and at other venues.
“We’d like this pilot scheme will develop into a longer-term programme at The Space in the future,” said Matthew.
“The uptake has been fantastic so far and there’s clearly potential to take it further, which is what we’d like to do in the future.
“There is an identifiable need here and we want to help people explore careers in this sector.
“We really hope these Tech Academy sessions are the springboard for participants to find a discipline they love and identify with.
“While the course covers a range of skills, for longer term opportunities people tend to gravitate to a particular area.
“They might prefer working with lighting to sound, for example.
“We hope these sessions will help participants discover those pathways.
“That might be more on the stage management side – learning how to mark up the props table and how to run a show safely and efficiently back stage.
“It can also be very important for theatre-makers, directors, writers and actors to understand how it all works – what’s possible and what roles everyone is playing when they’re doing the fluffier side of creating performances.
“In the end, all the departments have to work together to make something far greater than any of them are capable of individually.
“This is something I’ll always love about live theatre – that the planning and talents of a group of people can come together to create something extraordinary.
“That’s when performance is at its peak – a well-oiled slick machine, where actors are not bumping into the furniture, everything is exactly where it should be, the sound and lighting are perfectly in sync and the audience are responding to it.
“It’s just wonderful to see.”
a grounding before specilisation
While the Tech Academy sessions are intended to deliver a good grounding, they’ve also been designed to test participants.
“We set up what we call obstacle courses up as part of what we’re doing and an element of one of those is where Sarah and I perform a short, two-page scene,” said Matthew.
“We’re going to be asking the participants to operate a series of sound and lighting effects based on the scene as though we were doing a real performance.
“But actors can be fallible. What happens if one of us makes a mistake?
“Maybe some things will go wrong. That’s just show business.
“One of the lessons we aim to pass on is that live theatre is unpredictable and anything can happen.
“We have to be prepared as theatre-makers to find a way through, to keep that audience there and engaged.
“It’s really important to recognise the power that technicians have and their responsibility.
“Theatre relies on the power of the imagination – the incredible acts of trickery by the people audiences don’t see so that sounds, music and light can help transport them and set their pulses racing.
“That making all of those happen at the right time for what’s happening on stage is also a performance and takes real skill.
“I hope that the people who participate in Tech Academy will feel that technical theatre is demystified and is a real and plausible career that they can consider.
“People should know that it’s not highly specialised, that you can learn the buttons to press and see the routes through to get gigs.
“Hopefully, this time next year, they’ll be preparing to go up to the Edinburgh Festival, and a couple of years down the line, they may be touring internationally.”
key details: Tech Academy at The Space
The Space on the Isle Of Dogs is currently recruiting participants for its next two-day session – set to take place in August or September, 2026.
Applicants should be Tower Hamlets residents who are not in education, employment or training.
The course is free to attend and includes lunch and snacks.
The application form can be found here on its website.
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