I started dancing at the not-overly-young age of 11 as part of the Les Bois School of Dance in Bridport and, though it gave me a good sense of co-ordination, rhythm and basic technique, it never sparked any real passion in me and always felt somewhat of a slog. I learnt jazz, contemporary and tap in a very English way with clear goals (exams) with a practised schedule and formula in how to succeed in those exams. The bi-annual performances would reconfirm why I was learning though, as I buzzed off of the adrenaline for weeks prior to, and following, the shows.

At 15, in search of something a little more creative, I started Nikki Northover’s Bridport Youth Dance and was awestruck (and fairly intimidated!) by how talented and creative the young dancers around me were. I had never heard the words “here’s a 32 bar phrase to do your own choreography in” before and, though I found it extremely difficult at first, I eventually started learning how to engage my brain whilst dancing: instead of running on auto-pilot and performing the movements instructed to me like the robot I’d been for four years. Nikki is a brilliantly inspiring teacher and her passion for creative youth dance is reflected in every incredibly motivated student and each stunning, professional-appearing annual performance put on at The Bridport Art Centre. It was through Nikki that I met Niki McCretton: a highly successful performer specialising in contemporary dance as well as physical theatre and early-years, and a sporadic guest-choreographer for BYD. Through dancing with Niki and working closely with her choreographing a solo for the 2009 show Flux, we became friends and she became something of an idol for me.

photo from the Elves and the Shoemaker, by Farrows Creative

The tills of Somerfield mustn’t often have been the setting for career-changing conversations but for me they were one evening when, during one of my part-time till shifts in roughly 2006, I told Niki that I wanted to go into musical theatre. She paused, sighed and mentioned that it’s not a very creative industry to get into and left, shaking my rock-hard ambitions that I’d been nurturing for years. So, I endeavoured to find out more about Niki’s world and why it was so much more creative than musical theatre. I was not disappointed! After shadowing her at a gig of Throw Me A Bone (a solo, physical-theatre show for children) in Portsmouth and working doing admin work in her workshop, I was blown away by the creativity and freedom she had in making her own shows but also by the amazing drive and energy she has. It scared me learning how hard you have to work to become established as a solo-show producer/performer but what scared me most was that that didn’t put me off.

At the same time, I was still doing my A-Levels at The Thomas Hardye School and struggling with the constant negativity I received when expressing my wish to not go to university. I’d decided, after seeing friends and family go through uni and end up with degrees that didn’t mean anything more than £20k debt,  that it didn’t make sense for me to go knowing that I wanted to have a career in performing. Having passed with 5 As at AS level and en route to doing well at A2, I was constantly being asked “Which university are you applying for/going to” but never “are you applying for/going to university?” or even, god forbid, “what would you like to do after 6^th form?”. It was very frustrating and I found myself applying to a few drama schools through UCAS so that I had a ‘proper’ plan or route to tell people when questioned. When auditioning, however, I soon realised that drama school wasn’t right for me either as, every time I asked how much room there was for devising your own work, I was answered with a sharp intake of breath at the ‘D’ word. I started trying less and less as I discovered they weren’t offering what I wanted.

photo from the Elves and the Shoemaker, by Farrows Creative

Feeling a bit lost I decided to concentrate on earning money and travelling whilst keeping creative through teaching after-school drama workshops at Primary Schools. I offered to help Niki whenever I could and I worked for her and her partner Marc Parrett a few hours a week doing everything from finances to sewing an Enormous Turnip together. I went away for 6 months to South and North America and, on my return in September 2010, Niki and Marc gave me a key to their new theatre, The Lyric, for my 20^th birthday. They offered me the job of Assistant Producer and understudy for their theatre company Stuff and Nonsense and co-manager of The Lyric and I couldn’t believe my luck! I started full time 2 days later and have been working here at The Lyric, Stuff and nonsense’s HQ, ever since.

The Lyric Theatre is a very special place to work as it is an incredible old building chock full of amazing memories from its time as the original Electric Palace Cinema to The Bernard Gale School Of Dance. I used to walk past its closed doors every day on my way home from school and wonder what was inside and I feel very lucky to have been part of its rebirth as The Lyric. So many local people have memories of the theatre – whether they’re of going on dates at the cinema (to their now-husband-of-fifty-years!) or of ballet dancing in the workshop upstairs as a toddler. When we eat our lunch on the sunny front step we often natter with the passers-by who love to pop in to see what we’re up to, tell an anecdote or two and wish us luck with our venture – it’s lovely! The town itself is also a great place to be – I find it amazing that we can have three theatres in town and still have sell out events but each one (us, The Bridport Arts Centre and the Electric Palace) offers a different type of entertainment experience and we all support each other. I used to find it suffocating living in the same small town that I grew up in but, having gone away and travelled and also moved out to a shared flat, I genuinely love it and enjoy nothing more than working at the theatre all week and being able to pop around the market and cycle to West Bay beach on the weekend. I visit my friends at uni and my sisters in London often and but I always like coming home to Bridport.

 from the Elves and the Shoemaker, Tessa Bide performing with Toby Gascoigne, photo by Farrows Creative

As part of my job with Stuff and Nonsense, I’ve been working a lot with puppets and making work for children which is relatively new for me: I had taught children but never made shows for them and performing as an understudy in The Enormous Turnip and The Elves and the Shoemaker saw me puppeteering for the first time. Nearly one year on and I now run puppet-making workshops for adults and children and feel comfortable performing and directing puppetry, thanks to the mentoring of Marc (puppet-maker and director for Stuff and Nonsense and all-round puppet genius!). It’s hard to pick the most exciting thing that I’ve done as part of my job so far but one of the top three is definitely helping make The Elves and The Shoemaker last autumn and seeing the devising process first-hand. It was a great process to be part of and waking up feeling excited to go to ‘work’ as I knew I’d be writing a song about bread shoes or helping choreograph a dance with magic dancing-shoes was brilliant. Performing as Belinda (in Elves) at The Salisbury Playhouse in front of my parents was also a huge moment, though I’m not sure how much of it my Mum saw as she started crying from the moment I walked on stage! Although it isn’t quite as fun, working on the producing side has been invaluable experience too as I know now that the performance itself really is the tip of the iceberg! Before we even start making the show we’ve spent 18 months brainstorming ideas, writing venue packs, marketing packs, teacher packs, negotiating with venues to get bookings, organising print runs and marketing schemes, selling outreach projects to schools and auditioning actors. It’s a lot more work than I’d have ever thought but I’m so happy I’m learning it now rather than by trial-and-error when I’m making my own work later down the line (though I’m sure there’ll still be plenty to learn!).

The next, very exciting thing on the horizon, as well as performing my first Christmas run (Elves for three-and-a-half weeks at The Theatre Royal’s Drum Theatre in Plymouth) is my first solo tour next spring. I’m hitting the road with Niki’s one-woman, physical-theatre show Muttnik: First Dog in Space and my first booking is The Lyric Hammersmith on February 11^th 2012. I can’t believe how lucky I am to have this experience and I’m 100% determined to throw everything I have at it. Rehearsals start soon and I cannot wait! In the long term, my aspiration is to start producing and touring my own work. I’ve made this into a massive psychological mountain as I haven’t made anything solo in a long time and I’m nervous that I won’t be able to do it but I’ve expressed these anxieties to Niki and she said she’ll help me get started: setting me tasks and challenges along the way. My job is amazing and I feel lucky to have it every day. I feel at the moment that I’ve made the right choices as to my training but I won’t write-off going to uni or training at a drama school (or maybe Gaulier in Paris) as, later down the line, it might seem like the right time to go. I know now that there definitely isn’t one way to get into theatre and my aim is to help others learn that too!

For a bit more information about Stuff and Nonsense Theatre Company please go here: http://www.aloadofstuffandnonsense.co.uk/ and please have a look at the Lyric Theatre Bridport who are raising badly needed funds, go here: http://www.sponsume.com/project/bridports-lyric-theatre-needs-your-help

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