BEHIND THE SCENES: How To Run Your Own Theatre Company

Actor-writer-director-producer (and BWW forum regular) Craig Hepworth tells us about life behind the scenes at Vertigo Theatre Productions...

I love live theatre. I don't think you can get the buzz anywhere else: the nerves before you walk out on stage, the applause (hopefully) at the end, all of it is electrifying... and that's just as an actor.

I've been working in theatre since I was a teenager and did my first major musical Fame. Since then I've continued doing musicals, but when I got in to my mid 20s I realised that I wanted to try new challenges.

So I decided in a moment of madness to set up Vertigo Theatre Productions here in Manchester. I had no idea if it would work or if I would just spend the next 10 years trying to put a show on stage.

I love the idea of fringe theatre in intimate spaces. Knowing that the audience are so close and can see every aspect of the show clearly, there is no room for mess-ups, so I knew that's what I wanted to do. I also knew I did not want to do it alone, so I brought in a long-time friend Adele Stanhope to run the company with me. We decided we would dedicate the company to writing new works and producing interesting already existing works which had not been produced in the UK.

We spent the first few years developing scripts and learning our craft, some scripts we used and developed (3sum, which premiered in September 2007) and some of which were never seen again.

When we got our first show on in 2007 it was amazing, knowing that we had written and produced it and that I had directed it and performed in it. It was at that moment I knew that my professional life was going to be all about Vertigo.

The highlight for me with this company are getting to work with the cast - a cast with whom I have become great friends - and every time we bring new people in the connection between everyone just gets bigger. It really sounds clichéd but it's like they have become my second family. And the fact that some of them had never acted before, and to see them turn into these great actors which are getting rave reviews, is incredible.

My partner Karl Burge now owns the company along with myself and Adele and that's another thrill - working with someone I love and with my best friend, it does not feel like work.

The company has been on a roll since 2007, when we enjoyed a successful production of Dog Sees God: Confessions Of A Teenage Blockhead, a UK premiere which after its initial run at Taurus in March 2008 transferred to the Lowry Theatre. That was a feeling I will remember forever. The Breakfast Club was a huge hit for us (and allowed us to wear 80s gear which is always a bonus), and then recently M, a new thriller written by me and Adele, which scored rave reviews and saw the company move in to a more grown-up genre.

And now comes Rage, a play we have been working on since 2005. Rage is a look at campus shootings in America and asks the question, "Why do these things keep happening?" This is such a personal piece for me and so different for Vertigo which makes it all the more exciting. When I saw the events of Columbine unfold on TV it was something which stuck with me and still does now.  That's why this play feels so important for me - because all the questions I wanted to ask when I watched the Columbine news reports I get to ask now.

With an incredible cast, I really hope that the journey through rehearsals to the stage is going to be something quite special. Yet again I'm writing (along with Adele), directing, producing and playing a role. Sometimes I wonder how I do it and why I would want to put myself through that. I mean, I don't sleep for three months, I have a breakdown every time something goes wrong and I'm having to wear so many 'hats' that I feel I should invest in a hat shop, but now I'm finding the balance. I know the director hat never comes off and I'm great at balancing all the others, and I know if I do slip that I have Karl or Adele to pick me up and point me back in the right direction.

And whenever I do ask myself, "Why the hell am I doing all this?", I think back to the last production we did and the feeling I got on opening night or when the reviews came out, and then I remember.

 

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