Local Betws yn Rhos boy Andrew McDonald from Rydal Penrhos has recently been given a once in a lifetime opportunity to work behind the scenes at the Royal Exchange Theatre in Manchester in an innovative scheme called “Behind the scenes work week”.
Andrew has been working within the Rydal Penrhos Drama Department for the past four years since joining the school from Kings, Macclesfield. He has always had an interest in Drama and Theatre but it was with the encouragement of Drama teacher Mr Denis Lavin that Andrew made the move to try out his skills behind the scenes instead of on stage. He has since worked tirelessly on all school productions using his evenings and weekends to lead a backstage team and become an expert in the field of lighting, sound, stage construction and management.
It was this same Drama teacher Mr Lavin that found out about the unique opportunity offered by the Royal Exchange through his working relationship with the theatre (costumes at Rydal Penrhos productions, for example the up and coming “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” are normally sourced there, and pupils studying Drama for GCSE and A Level in the school often attend productions at the theatre).
The course which runs from the 9 – 13 July 2012 had 20 places available to Year 10 and 11 pupils and includes a week observing, learning from and working with the professionals from behind the scenes at the Royal Exchange. Competition for these places was understandably high. Selection depended on several key factors including the standard of application and where the applicant lived (the event is targeted at residents from within Greater Manchester). For Andrew to therefore receive a place showed how he excelled in his application.
The one-week course will comprise of a series of workshops led by staff from across the Royal Exchange Theatre Company and will cover areas such as Sound, Lighting, Design, Marketing, Wardrobe, Writing, Stage Management, Casting, Make-up, Technical Theatre and much more. Towards the end of week there will be the opportunity for students to put all that they have learnt into practice. For Andrew this is an opportunity to discover whether given his talent this is an area in which he would like to work in the future. He intends to study Drama, Physics, Economics and Design Technology in the Rydal Penrhos Sixth form and then make decisions on whether his future will lie in stage management or sound engineering or indeed another field entirely.
Staff work very hard at Rydal Penrhos to try to open up opportunities such as this to pupils so that they may make decisions on their future based on some experience actually within the field they intend to enter. There is an exhaustive careers and university programme within the school which works towards these ends.