Directing in an unusual space

From sightlines to removable staging

Jay Cundell Walker

Director

2024, was my second time directing for Skipton Musical Theatre Company in the beautifully refurbished Skipton Town Hall. After spending millions of pounds on the building, the concert hall is now fully restored with the addition of raked seating and a certain amount of lighting on the rig.  The ceiling of the hall is a real thing of beauty and the venue works wonderfully for musical concerts. But the stage has been removed and replaced with deck which is adaptable, but noisy and of course there are no wings or any spaces in which to store props or scenery. That is more challenging for a full-scale musical.

Sound familiar? I know this is the situation which many of you will face when putting on your own productions. I find that each musical needs a different approach. Last year for Calendar Girls we had to be very aware of ‘exposure’ for our brave female cast. So, we put the orchestra in front of one side of the stage and ensured the women’s modesty was preserved by performing mostly on the stage. We had a small area front of stage which saved too many scene changes and we did use a lot of entrances and exits through the audience which I always enjoy.

This year, for our production of Oliver, I wanted the children and ensemble to have the luxury of lots of movement space for their scenes, so we put the band on stage, then the projection screen, then a small raised area with steps down to an enormous space on the floor, which gave us a massive area for the large cast scenes. Entry and exits were mostly through the audience and every prop used had to be brought on and removed by the cast, with virtually nothing pre-set. There was no scenery whatsoever.

I wonder what next year will bring? I actually enjoy working with a flexible space and having to find new annual solutions. I’m sure you all have stories too of challenging staging. Maybe this could be a regular item- solutions I have found for difficult spaces!