“I discovered very early on during my degree that I didn’t want to be on stage. But I wanted to do something. At the time there wasn’t a tech course for students, but students could volunteer to work on productions at LAC. MY first empowering experience in technical theatre was volunteering on The Pilots by Reckless Sleepers. After this I realised that this was a way to stay working in the arts without the fear of going on stage. I then began to help out backstage wherever I could at Lincoln Arts Centre, and went to Edinburgh with The Lincoln Company to stage manage two shows. From then I worked freelance for Lincoln Arts Centre whilst getting my Masters and joined the team as Stage Manager from 2012-2016. In 2016 I became an associate lecturer, and in 2018 began having discussions about what a Technical Theatre and Stage Management degree would look like. This was validated at the beginning of 2019, and the course began that September.

“The University played a big role in getting me to where I am today, but Lincoln Arts Centre was also pivotal in this. Without that first show that I worked on, without the exposure I had to that side of performance and the arts, and without the building, I would not be a lecturer and programme leader for Technical Theatre and Stage Management.

“And this is why Lincoln Arts Centre is so special and important for students, the way it integrates students into a professional and working environment that they may not be exposed to otherwise. Even if you never choose to watch a show at Lincoln Arts Centre, just by being in the building you absorb so much. There’s a vibrancy here from being a place of learning from all of the Lincoln School of Creative Arts courses, that is amplified by its integration within a professional arts centre. It is no surprise that every stage manager who has worked on the Christmas show each year has gone on to stage manage professionally, they have been given the tools to go forward in their career in LAC.

“In an environment where the arts is dwindling, Lincoln Arts Centre is offering something uniquely special.”