Alumna Spotlight: West End Lighting Designer shines bright at Jubilee

It was pretty obvious from a young age that I thrived in creative subjects. In my early years at RMS, I was always in the art studio at lunch and break times. My friends and I spent all of our spare time in the art department.

In Year 9, I started to work with the Performing Arts Department. I did LAMDA (London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art) speaking exams which really helped me, and by the end of my time at RMS, I was doing a lot of public speaking. I knew there was something about acting and performing that I really enjoyed but it wasn’t necessarily the performing side of it.

At one stage, I thought it would be fun to do a school play and auditioned for a musical. I sang for the audition, but the truth is, I am not very good at singing! Mrs Isherwood, the drama teacher at the time, suggested I try working backstage, so I thought I’d give that a go. I knew I wasn’t a singer and thought working backstage would be fun.

As soon as I started working on the show, I loved it. I was involved in the performance world but without having to perform. I was the deputy stage manager which meant I called all the lighting and sound cues. There was a part-time teacher who came in and did the technical support for the shows and he said to me, ‘You’re really good, how long have you been doing this?’ When I explained it was the first time I had called a show, he was amazed and suggested I also try lighting. He taught me how it all worked.

One of the great things at RMS was that we did a show every two years at the Watersmeet Theatre in Rickmansworth; it was a big theatre with more equipment and more responsibility.

I got my first job in a local theatre while I was still at school, doing stage management, sweeping the stage and doing lighting.

Midway through Year 11, I knew that lighting was what I wanted to do. I researched where you could study it and, in Year 12, applied to six drama schools. I managed to get into my first choice, The Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, where I studied lighting design for three years.

As I did my degree, I found out quite quickly that you have to be very good technically to be a lighting designer, so I basically spent three years learning how to be an electrician and had a few part time electrician jobs at different venues. I learnt most of what I know now at Sadler’s Wells and Hampstead Theatres.

During my third year at university, there was an opportunity to be an intern on Hamilton when it came to London. Hamilton had been really big in the States before it came to the Victoria Palace Theatre in London. The lighting department was huge. On a normal show there are three people in the lighting team; a designer, production electrician and a programmer, but on this show there were ten of us. I was the intern doing paperwork and happily learning from the room. Initially, I interned for six weeks but I was kept on for longer, they eventually put me on payroll and I officially became a lighting assistant.

I took everything I learned there and applied it to the smaller shows I worked on afterwards. Since then, I’ve continued doing assistant work for Hamilton.

In 2022, I was honoured when the UK designer from Hamilton asked me if I would like to do the show for the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee. The performance was planned for two audiences, both live and film, so there were two teams working on the production. I worked on the live performance side. We worked for two days on-site; putting up the rig on one day and then practicing on the next, followed by the performance day. It was amazing to be part of that historic day.

Looking ahead, I am going to be working on an opera in Strasburg. I’m working with a director called Katie Mitchell who has changed the face of theatre in the UK. Working with her has been a real career highlight and I have admired her work for a long time. It is amazing to think that I am now collaborating with her as the lighting designer on an opera.

Lighting is a very male-dominated career but RMS taught me that it doesn’t matter what you want to do if you are a woman.

• The Royal Central School of Speech and Drama. THE CAUCASIAN CHALK CIRCLE BY BERTOLT BRECHT | A VERSION BY FRANK MCGUINNESS Directors: George Evans & Jesse Fox, Engineer Theatre Set & Costume Designer: Sophie Thomas Vocal Coach: Ben Joiner Costume Supervisor: Alison Cartledge Sound Mentor: Ben Grant Production Supervisor: Shaz McGee Puppetry: Dave Emmings Singing Coach: Deborah Garvey BA (Hons) Acting (CDT) Course Leader: Catherine Alexander Performed by BA (Hons) Acting CDT students, working alongside students from the BA (Hons) Theatre Practice

There is a prestigious lighting award called the Knight of Illumination. Historically, 87% of the nominees for this award have been men, the remaining 13% are women but 9% of those nominations are for one woman! The female representation is very small and few women have broken the mould. I’m glad to be able to ride in their wake but it is a pretty harsh environment at times.

Looking back, I am really grateful that RMS taught me to be curious. This has been invaluable and I use it every day. I had major self-confidence issues when I first joined RMS and was cringingly shy, to the point where I almost wouldn’t talk to people. By the end of my time at RMS, I was deputy head girl. It’s a bizarre thing to say, but I also suffered really badly from eczema before I came to RMS. Within two weeks of joining, it completely cleared up and I have never had it again since. My body had obviously been reacting to stress and as soon as that was gone, the eczema went away. I found a place where I fitted.

I did lots of charity work and public speaking at RMS. Those things were in me all along but I had never been able to access them. I feel really lucky that I was in a place that nurtured the things that I was good at and developed them.

I feel very lucky to work doing something I love. When I was at school, I woke up every day feeling excited; now I am just as excited to go into work. RMS set a very high bar for that!