From YEP to Rep: putting young people centre stage
Damon Fairclough spoke to members of Young Everyman Playhouse about working with the Everyman Company
As a theatre with an eternally youthful spirit, young people have always been at the heart of the Everyman. The Everyman Youth Theatre was a breeding ground for numerous famous faces during the 1970s and 1980s, and since the youth programme was relaunched as Young Everyman Playhouse (YEP) in 2012, thousands of young people aged between 14 and 25 have been involved. Under the direction of Matt Rutter (Director of YEP) and Chris Tomlinson (Associate Director of YEP) – they have engaged with programmes for Actors, Directors, Marketers, Producers, Technicians and Writers.
With the return of the Everyman Company in 2017, YEP’s role took on an added dimension. One place in the 14-strong company is reserved for a YEP Actor and other opportunities are built into the season to ensure that YEP plays its part in the theatre’s creative output.
Artistic Director Gemma Bodinetz (Director of Paint Your Wagon and Othello for the 2018 season) is confident that this policy brings immense benefits.
“The company is an amazing opportunity for all actors involved to flex every aspect of their craft,” she says. “It feels to us that it’s also a rare opportunity for YEP actors to test their skills and grow their acting range in the most supportive and collaborative of environments.”
For Nadia Anim, the YEP trainee in the 2018 Company, the experience has proved to be an amazing opportunity. Having appeared in three of the four Company productions, she has now gained six months of serious experience with a uniquely versatile and dynamic professional team.
“I think it’s great being the person who’s learning,” she says. “I just enjoy watching people who’ve been in the industry for such a long time, watching them play and make their own choices. It’s fascinating to go to a rehearsal and see them do one thing, then go in the next day and they’re doing a different thing. It’s been really exciting.”
Phil Rayner, another YEP Actor, agrees. When the possibility of auditioning for A Clockwork Orange came his way, he jumped at the chance.
“It was a great weekend,” he remembers. “I turned 21, auditioned for A Clockwork Orange, then found out I’d got the part the day after my 21st birthday. They rang me that morning and said Nick Bagnall (Associate Director) was really impressed and he’d be thrilled to work with me. It was mad!”
For Leah Gould, the YEP actor who played Bianca in Othello, the prospect of learning Shakespearean language seemed particularly daunting.
“At the read-through, Gemma Bodinetz told us not to feel stupid for asking a question. That wasn’t just aimed at me, it was for all the actors. At first I couldn’t get my head round it. But just sitting in on rehearsals – even when I wasn’t needed – helped a lot."
“Even pronouncing some words was a challenge. I only found out about a year ago that I’m dyslexic, but Golda Roshuevel (who played the lead in the company’s ground-breaking gender-swapped production) helped me a lot because she’s dyslexic too."
“I’ve loved the experience. On the Othello press night I found out I’d got into drama school, and I was surrounded by professional actors. It was overwhelming!”
It’s easy to see how Leah’s Company experience will prove invaluable once she begins the next stage of her career, and Phil’s time in A Clockwork Orange has also set him up for what comes next.
“I’ll be touring in a show over summer, then it should be time for next season’s Everyman rep auditions. I feel like this year was just a taster for what it could be like if I got the full company part. If not, I’ll still be doing work with YEP. I love doing shows with them. I do think I’ll go to drama school in the next few years but at the moment, it’s a very good time to be around Liverpool. I feel like it could be an opportunity missed if I was to go down to London.”
For Nadia, full-time membership of the Everyman Company has accelerated her future plans.
“One thing I’m doing is looking out for an agent,” she says. “The Company productions are a great time to meet new people, especially when other cast members’ agents come and see their shows. You can talk to them, then maybe email and see if you can have a meeting. So doing the shows and being in the season has pushed this forward for me. It’s on my doorstep now whereas before, it was just a thing I thought I’d do eventually.”
If YEP Actors are feeling the benefit of the packed company season, YEP Directors have also been at the project’s heart. Running as a two-year course for those who aspire to direct professionally, the strand includes tutorials, workshops and mentoring sessions that help young people take control of their own careers.
Nick Bagnall, who directed A Clockwork Orange and The Big I Am for the 2018 company season, is full of praise for the way that YEP and its directors contributed to his shows.
“YEP is a vital ingredient in everything we do at the Everyman, including the company,” he says. “The directors’ course has produced some crackers who have been integral to my productions, and I’ve continued to embrace their development by continually throwing work at them away from the Everyman. They’ve never let me down. They are the future. And it’s very bright.”
Leah Bush worked alongside Nick on A Clockwork Orange, and loved helping the cast get to grips with Anthony Burgess’s extraordinary script.
“The language in the show is called Nadsat,” she explains. “It’s a mixture between Russian and cockney rhyming slang. So a lot of time was spent making sense of it with the actors. It was a learning experience for all of us.
“There were also a few occasions when Nick couldn’t be there, so I ran the full day rehearsals. We’re used to directing our own shows, so it’s good for us to learn how to be an assistant director. It’s a completely different role. But now I feel I could go and apply for jobs in national theatres or wherever, because I’ve experienced it in a really safe learning environment.”
Jack Cooper, who graduated from YEP Directors in 2017, agrees that it’s crucial for assistant directors to understand their role. He returned this year as a freelancer to assist on The Big I Am, and says:
“I think the biggest part of the job is being able to get into the director’s head. Once you can do that, you begin to unlock possibilities. It can be awkward, because it’s about understanding that it isn’t your show. You’re helping to bring the director’s vision into being.”
This is the kind of professional insight that can only be truly learned on the job, and with his nascent career already up and running, Jack is grateful for the opportunity to have a go with YEP.
“Working with this company is brilliant and energising,” he says, “but it’s also really daunting. Gemma Bodinetz said to me that one of the big things you need to ask yourself is whether you can give a note to an actor who’s been doing this job longer than you’ve been alive. You do feel the weight of that sometimes, and because they’re a Company, you might feel they’re an exclusive club. But they’re not. They’re some of the friendliest, most intelligent people I’ve ever met. You learn an awful lot from them.”
For James Anders, who assisted on Othello, the learning process sometimes worked both ways.
“The thing that stuck out most for me was helping the actors with their lines and just being a bit of a crutch for them,” he says. “Obviously Othello is massively wordy, and some of the actors had never done a full-length Shakespeare, or they hadn’t looked at it since they finished training. So one of my main responsibilities was making sure they were comfortable with the language – and that meant I had to be comfortable with the language. There was a lot of going home at night and Googling what Shakespeare’s words mean!”
All the YEP Directors have proactive plans to take their next directing steps. Leah has recently worked on a show at Liverpool’s new Hope Street Theatre, and appreciated the way that YEP was able to assist.
“You can go off and do your own thing, so for instance, when I was directing at Hope Street Theatre, Tommo (Chris Tomlinson) was getting my rehearsal space for me, which meant I didn’t need to go out and spend my own money. They will support us in that way. Even if it’s not YEP related, you can still get the support if you need it.”
James is already on tour with his next show, a production for schools called Mathstronauts.
“I’ve set up my own theatre company called Dragonhide,” he explains. “Then after the summer I’ll be freelancing. And I’ve been offered the studio space at the Everyman to put on my own piece.”
Having already set out on his own freelance directing adventure, Jack is a year ahead of Leah and James, and is already clocking up some serious experience.
“I scratched a show last year for Northern Stage in Newcastle,” he says. “That was my first professional solo director gig. That absolutely came about from my contacts at the Everyman. And I have an itch to get back into my own rehearsal room. The rep season’s helped me get back into that. It’s made me feel ambitious and supported.”
He pauses, and reflects on the difference that YEP has made to his budding career.
“I don’t know what I’d be doing with my life without YEP,” he insists, “but I know it would be far less enjoyable. In fact,” he adds with a nod, “it’s been life altering. It has. It really has.”