Throughout the process we continually strove to meet the high standards and criteria of Arts Council England.  We always sought to meet each of their 5 goals:

Excellence – We always promised to commit 100% when working on our show, be it devising or rehearsing. This meant our expectation of one-another was very high and we hope that our quality of work reflected this.

For Everyone – As demonstrated, our company ethos seeks to celebrate everyone and their individuality, with our show reflecting a variety of characters and performances styles layered within.

Resilience and Sustainability –  We showed our resilience throughout the process, it was tough at times, but we pulled together as a company and created a strong show. Sustainability would be a huge issue for some companies, not for us. We do not rely heavily on props, set and costume and could therefore tour relatively cheaply, making us adaptable and thus a sustainable company.

Diversity and Skills – This is what sets us apart. We are nine individuals who all bring different skills and strengths to the table. We all originate from different areas of the UK, showing our diversity as a company.

Children and Young People – Whilst Kalopsia was not specifically created for children, it was certainly suitable for young people. Furthermore, being a diverse and talented group of people, The Pin Hinge Collective would not disregard the idea of creating a children’s show.

One of my key responsibilities as the Producer is to handle the company’s finances. This means taking charge of a few different jobs. Firstly, I must ensure that we have the right amount of funds needed to carry out the project. If not, then it is my obligation to find a way to raise them. Once I have done this, I must distribute the money between the different departments giving them a budget to spend. From then on, I must take care to safeguard that no one over spends and causes issues with the budget.

We began this project with £166 which the Lincoln Performing Arts Centre had given us to help us create the show. This was our commissioned money as shown on the budget doc. I knew from the start that this would probably not be enough money to source all the props, set and costume we may want. Consequently, I began creating ways that we could raise more money.

The first involved me organising a quiz night at ‘The Swan’, a local University pub. We themed the quiz around the topic of ‘love’ keeping with the ethos of our company and show. We managed to raise a total of £200.

I also organised a second fundraising event which took the form of a raffle. Its first prize offered people the chance to win a luxury stay for two at a local B&B. This event also helped us to raise a further £130.

Having raised a lot more funds I was able to re-evaluate our budget and finances. This meant that each department within the company had more opportunity to source and buy the things they needed. To maximise the budget, I asked that each head of department (costume, set, props, marketing) provided me with a list of items they wish to buy before going ahead and buying them. I stated that the list should include the price of the item, place of purchase and any additional costs such as postage. I would then evaluate their lists and confirm whether they could go ahead and make a purchase. When evaluating their lists, I was checking for a number of things; the cost wasn’t to high, whether or not we definitely needed the item, whether I thought it could be sourced cheaper elsewhere and if there were any hidden charges. Once I had given the ‘ok’, they were free to go ahead and make the purchase. I would then immediately reimburse the team member upon presentation of a receipt. In my opinion, this method was a great way of keeping track of our expenditure and ensuring we did not overspend on the budget. If I had just given each head of department their own budget, it may have resulted in the funds depleting much easier.

Becoming the companies Producer was a mixture of both my own choice and by appointment of the rest of the group. At the time, I knew little of the role and its requirements. I was simply aware that the producer tends to make the ‘final call’ and is responsible for ensuring the team is heading in the ‘right direction’. Because of this, I knew that a good producer would need to be a good leader. Someone who can make decisions but also delegate and push a team to fulfil their own job roles and tasks, making sure they hit deadlines.

Whilst I feel that taking on this role was a huge and daunting challenge, I was willing to accept its responsibility and believed that I had the necessary leadership skills to undertake it successfully. I began researching the role, discovering what would be expected of me and how to good be a successful producer. In his book So You Want To Be A Theatre Producer? James Seabright points out that “[t]he producer is responsible for delivering a good show, on time and in budget” (Seabright, 2011, 5). Despite being a relatively broad definition, his advice gave me direction. I knew I needed to immediately begin to thinking about our budget and planning ways in which we could raise funds for the show. I also started deciding what we would spend the money on, considering how I would divide the funds up between things like marketing costs, props, set and costume.

In addition, Seabright states that a producer is often “involved in every aspect of a show: creatively, financially, administratively, technically and promotionally” (Seabright, 2011, 5). Consequently, I began having regular meetings with each member of the team, discussing their progress and setting them targets and deadlines to hit. I believe that this was important in establishing a consistent expectation and work ethic throughout the process. Furthermore, the quality of communication meant that each department worked alongside one-another, ensuring that one wasn’t relying upon another to complete their task.

Works Cited

Seabright, J. (2010) So You Want To Be A Theatre Producer? London: Nick Hern Books.

Despite having assigned roles within the theatre company, we hadn’t created the company itself at this early stage. Thus, we began discussing a variety of components that we knew were key to establishing a strong, coherent company. These included; an ethos/mission statement, company name, logo and a code of conduct that each member of the group would be expected to adhere to.

Eventually, The Pin Hinge Collective was born.

One thing that very quickly became clear, was that we wanted to create a company that celebrated individuality within our shows. We regularly drew upon the ‘anthropological nature’ of human beings and what shapes us as individuals. We often discussed what it is that defines us and how we are affected by our surroundings and upbringing. In many of our preliminary sessions I was responsible for running ‘material generating’ exercises that helped us to form and develop ideas.

In one session, I used an exercise that I had learnt during a workshop lead by playwright Rob Drummond, he called the exercise ‘Building worlds’.  During this rehearsal, we made significant developments in creating a narrative/plot line for our piece. I explained to the team that they must spend five minutes continuously writing, simply answering the question “Who are you?” as this question related to our company ethos. Once they had completed this task, I read out each of their stories. Some consisted of true events, some were made up, some followed a narrative, whilst others just consisted of random thoughts.

What was striking was that nearly all of them touched upon our aspirations within life. However, this did not just refer to success and wealth, but towards our aspirations and expectations of love as well. This was a key moment for us, as it was at this point that decided that our show should focus upon storytelling. We were curious about the topic of ‘love’. We wanted to investigate how each of our experiences and understandings of it differed. Thus, we continued to develop upon the idea with further exercises that drew out answers based on our own beliefs.

The process began with myself approaching Dwain back in early December 2016. I expressed an interest to work with him and explained how I admired his work ethic and was particularly interested in his directing ability having worked with him on previous projects. From there, we began compiling a list of people we believed that would share our theatrical interests and be equally committed as ourselves, striving to create a fantastic show.

As well as this, we believed it was vital to consider people that would suit specific roles, targeting their strengths and personal skills. Whilst we had an idea for the role of each member we contacted, we also realised that it was very important that everyone understood that we were merely ‘suggesting’ the roles that may suit them best and that they were completely open for discussion. In addition, we made it very clear that this wasn’t ‘our’ company and that instead, it was all of ours equally. We wanted a group of people who would be willing to work collaboratively throughout. We felt that it was crucial to set this ethos and mentality from the beginning to ensure that a strong team dynamic was developed immediately. After much deliberation, we settled upon the following group of people; Dan Galley, Emily Bickerike, Emma Haigh, Jace Lodge, Holly Lomas, Megan Avery and Sam Coggin. With myself and Dwain Brown, we made a team of nine.

Luckily, everyone we approached was overjoyed at the prospect of creating a theatre company together. And so, from that point on we went from being nine individuals to a team of artists.

Upon coming together for one of the first times, we began discussing the roles that we would each like to undertake and the style of show we would like to create. As previously stated, all roles were open to everyone. We decided that the best way to choose who would be most appropriate for a role, would be to evaluate each of our strengths and weakness within the group. We then aimed to distribute the skills of each individual most effectively to the best suited role. One-by-one each member of the group began pitching their qualities to the rest, expressing what role they would like to do and the reasons behind their choice.

Luckily, we seemed to complete this task with ease. There were no clashes with people wanting to do the same role and everyone appeared to have the best tailored skills for the position they had chosen. Perhaps this had a little to do with the fact that myself and Dwain had purposely targeted a well-rounded bunch of people, rather than sticking with our friends. Finally, we settled on the following roles:
Producer – Jay Petherick
Director – Dwain Brown
Stage Manager – Dan Galley
Assistant Stage Manager – Jace Lodge
Marketing – Emily Bickerdicke
Costume & Make-up – Emma Haigh
Props – Megan Avery
Set – Sam Coggin
Choreographer – Holly Lomas