Anthony Watson - Production manager?

Over the last couple of months between touring Oily carts 'Tube' I was offered the chance to production manage a new production. A designer friend of mine (the wonderful Holly Pigott) asked me to come and production manage the show she was working on, Handel furioso. This was a new opera from isle of noise and was essentially a Baroque jukebox opera. Maybe the first of its kind? So when asked by Holly i of course like any freelancer said yes and then i figure out if i can do it. Having worked in the industry for a few years now i had an idea of how to do it but never had the experience.
Once i agreed i meet the company on the first day of rehearsals and then it was full spring into the production.

As any true production manager i took charge of the budget and scheduling. I found out about the money i had which was a small amount which struck fear into me wondering if it was even possible to do it on this type of money. As any responsible person to do was to create a very organise excel spreadsheet. After day one i was very proud of my spreadsheet. Color coded tabs, sums, headers, It was all very nice looking and i could start to stop panicking just a little.

I got a final design from Holly and as we headed to the new rehearsal space we agreed with the space that we could use there workshop to build the set and bring the design together. Final rehearsals happened the week after the construction day. This meant that they had an actual finished set for the final rehearsal and run through rehearsals.

So by the point of arriving at the get in day at the Arcola theatre we were very prepared. I full set all props, lighting, projection all ready. By 6PM we handed over a tidy finished space over to the director to have a full run through with every element of the show.
I felt very proud of getting to this point, especially as we still had two days until we opened.

Im very happy and proud of how this production has gone, its been very smooth and incredibly well. Ive received very good feedback from my employers and the company. I think mostly because i came £1000 under budget!

For more information check out the facebook page.