25 March 2024

Behind the Scenery - Backstage

Lizzie Donaldson - Deputy Chief LX

Welcome to Behind The Scenery. A new feature of the 1805 Journal where you can get to know the people who run your theatre.

Today our interviewee is Deputy Chief LX - Lizzie Donaldson. Lizzie is one half of the team in charge of lighting and sound at TRB (or "anything with a cable attached"...). If you have watched a production on the Main House or Ustinov stages, then Lizzie will have run the lighting or sound team during the build, and she might even have been up in the technical box operating the LX-desk during the performance!

Technical theatre work is hard, the hours are tough and the pressure can be immense. But, as we read below, seeing the production come together in front of an audience is hugely gratifying.

How long have you been working at Theatre Royal Bath?

I started here in February 2019. I was working at the Birmingham Royal Ballet at the time but I found the structure of touring life quite tricky. I had deferred my final year of Uni so I was still studying and touring at the same time. I didn’t like living out of a suit case and not seeing my family or partner.

I love Bath, I went to Uni here so when the assistant electrician job came up I thought I’d give it a shot.

Can you talk me through a standard working week when we receive a touring production?

Monday is usually our fit-up day, which is when we have the new show for the week coming in. We usually start around 8am, and we have a visiting touring team of technicians come in to our venue. We could have the first show on Monday evening or the first show might be on the Tuesday evening depending on the size and scale of the show. Once the show is in and up then we go into show running mode and we still have plenty to do.

A usual running week is: Fit up Monday/Tuesday, show running and maintenance tasks Tuesday-Wednesday, prep for the next week Thursday - Saturday, and then on Saturday the moment the final performance is finished we do an overnight get-out where we load everything out onto trucks, so it’s a blank canvas ready for the next show to come in the following morning.

What is the most challenging part of the job?

The hours! Instead of working 9-5 my working day often only starts at 5pm for an entire week. What I usually find is that when I get home from work at 11pm, my family/housemates are in bed, asleep. So the working hours are a challenge. And trying to maintain a social life within that is tough sometimes.

Is there a recent show that came in that was particularly tough?

…It’s so funny because once the trucks are packed and the visiting company leave, you just put a line through it and you forget and you move straight onto the next project. The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel in 2022 was a particular challenge, the fit up was maybe the hardest touring show that I have done since being here.

Oh wow, what made Marigold Hotel so hard?

For a start the day began for us at 7am and I had worked a Sunday concert the evening before so I was running on about 4 hours of sleep. The Marigold Hotel get-out that had been done at the previous venue had not been done very well... None of the equipment had been packed away in the correct cases! For us it was like trying to complete a 1000-piece puzzle without ever seeing the picture. Everything was in the wrong case. So, we spent longer than normal trying to find the right equipment, cables, units. The whole day became a scavenger hunt and all the while we knew we had a show happening at 7.30pm that evening.

"When I get home from work at 11pm, my housemates are in bed, asleep. Trying to maintain a social life is tough sometimes...!"

Are there any shows in your time here that have been a particular pleasure to work on?

The shows I particularly remember are the ones that we produce ourselves as part of Theatre Royal Bath Productions (TRBP).

I always enjoy the TRBP shows more than the touring shows. On these we get to provide our own team, we will have a lot more involvement from an earlier stage and we see it through from first ideas, right through to the end. Personally, this means I get a chance to program the show alongside the lighting designer and help the production electrician build all the practical lights on set. We also prepare for it to go on tour and I would help build the various side of stage racks. (The electronic racks that power and control the lighting and sound systems)

Noises Off was actually the first TRBP Main House show that I got the chance to program myself, which I was very proud of. I have also worked as production electrician and programmer on Dido and Aneus and A View From The Bridge in the Ustinov, which was a new level of responsibility for me. Those are my recent peaks!

Which upcoming shows are you looking forward to?

I like the big and challenging sets. Those are the things I look for now in a theatre experience, if it sounds and looks amazing then I’m usually quite interested!