Stage One, the charity committed to developing and supporting producers for the commercial theatre industry, is hosting a record number of aspiring producers in production companies across the West End on its highly successful Apprentice Scheme for New Producers. The unique training programme, created to fill a skills gap in the industry, has flourished since its inception in 2007 when 3 Apprentices were placed for 1 year. This autumn, Stage One is proud to have 10 Apprentices in residence, as 3 existing placements will move into their second 6-month period and 7 new producers - of which 6 are women - will start on the Scheme.
Completing their Apprenticeships are Holly Reiss finishing at Playful Productions,
Peter Huntley at Really Useful Group and David Sloan with
Sonia Friedman Productions (SFP). Between them, the productions that they have worked on include, Wicked, Dirty Dancing, Onassis, Krapp's Last Tape, The Misanthrope, Yes, Prime Minister, La Cage Aux Folles (West End and Broadway), Legally Blonde, Jerusalem, All My Sons, A View from the Bridge (Broadway), A Little Night Music (Broadway), La Bête (West End and Broadway), Private Lives, The Prisoner of Second Avenue, Goodnight Mr Tom (UK tour) and The
Willy Russell Season.
The aim of the scheme is to offer a 1 year hands-on paid training opportunity for emerging producers to learn about all aspects of commercial theatre production, working in established producers' offices on productions in London, on UK tours and on Broadway. Stage One appoints enthusiastic producers of promise and places successful candidates with two hosting production companies, who train, guide and mentor the Apprentices for 6 months each. The experience offers a practical and detailed knowledge of producing commercial theatre across all departments. Placements also offer trainee producers increased confidence via an invaluable entrée into the commercial world and a chance to network within the industry to help develop their own projects in the future.
SFP, Ambassador Theatre Group and Playful Productions are regular hosts and other West End production companies include
Mark Rubinstein, Kenny Wax, MJE Productions,
Mark Goucher,
Colin Ingram Ltd,
Lee Menzies, Fiery Angel and James Seabright. Productions that the apprentices will work on this autumn include Ghost The Musical, The 39 Steps, La Soiree, and Shrek The Musical, Clybourne Park, A Flea In Her Ear, The Children's Hour and The Dirty Dancing UK Tour. The scheme has grown with thanks to support from the Society of London Theatre, the Eranda Foundation, The Underwood Trust and the Mackintosh Foundation. Stage One's ambitions for 2011 are that the Apprentice Scheme will become a rolling programme which places Apprentices throughout the year as opposed to the current two entry points offered during a year.
The most successful producer of the Apprentice alumni is Jamie Hendry who was placed at
Sonia Friedman Productions in 2007 where he co-produced the West End transfer of That Face and Olivier Award-winning La Cage aux Folles. This offered Jamie an amazing opportunity to put all his placement training into practice. He has since set up
Jamie Hendry Productions, currently producing Legally Blonde the Musical, Birdsong and Onassis in the West End, and is now firmly established as a commercial producer.
Chief Executive of Stage One,
Nick Salmon said: ‘In such a high-risk industry, it is imperative that we offer emerging new commercial theatre producers as much training and support as possible. We are confident that all the apprentices will easily gain employment in the sector once their placements come to an end and we hope that some of them take the further ambitious step to commercially producing, knowing that they have the support of older and wiser hands.'
Carole Winter, Producer and Stage One mentor, said: ‘MJE helps the apprentices to build confidence, contacts, practical and creative skills in a safe environment and without risk. Week by week they take on more responsibility and become a valuable member of the team. The apprentice scheme is the best training and support scheme available to young entrepreneurs, who by their very nature, have ideas by the bucketful but not necessarily the experience or knowledge to know how to take them further.'
Holly Reiss commented: ‘It seems increasingly difficult to make the step from small scale producer with tiny budgets to commercial producer in the West End but this is still very much my aim and I hope to use all I have learnt so far to enable me to produce refreshing and exciting work on a larger scale and to hopefully make a contribution to the life of British theatre.'
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