On 19th April, we had the opportunity to speak to an actual
T.I.E director called Gail McIntyrefrom the West Yorkshire Playhouse.
First, Gail explained what her job was and what it entailed.
She is an Associate Director of West Yorkshire Playhouse
and is constantly planning, programming and delivering
work for schools. She works with musicians, actors,
playwrights, physical theatre practitioners and a lot
more people. Each piece they create is aimed at a
specific different age group but this is subject to
change as she receives feedback from teachers
all the time whether the age group they performed
it to be right and whether it should change.
She also helps direct the annual Christmas production
at the West Yorkshire Playhouse. All the work is for young
people, both touring and in the theatre. Gail is passionate
for it but her job is becoming increasingly more difficult as
funding is decreasing. She finds touring more exciting and
challenging as you are performing to people who wouldn’t
usually come to the theatre so you introduce drama to
people who wouldn’t usually either voluntarily go and
see it or don’t have the opportunities to go. She is adapting
a book into a piece of theatre by working with a poet.
The art is not to loose his skill as a poet when adapting
it into a script but stay true to the authors story and style.
We then asked Gail some of the questions we had
thought of in preparation for meeting her.
Do you enjoy your job?
“Yes, it is exciting and challenging to try and create
a good piece that will challenge and inspire. Different
things happen when you work with different people who all
have different skills”.
Is there anything you’ve ever worked on where
you’ve thought ‘please let it be over’?
“No but there have things I’ve worked on where the
combination of people has been difficult. You have
to have your own point of view but embrace
everyone else’s and recognise your strengths and
weaknesses as well as everybody else’s”.
Are there any age groups that are more
difficult than others?
“No, they’re just different. You just have to
find the thing that inspires and engages them.
The process of feedback is constant; you have to
talk to as many people as you can”.
Is there a hierarchy for roles?
“Whatever happens, I am responsible, even if
it was the team. We are led by a different
creative artist at one time like the writer, then
the director and so on. I choose who leads
certain part such as I will ask a specific
person who I think has the right experience
to do a certain thing such as a certain
monologue or scene. I make the final
decision as to whether or not we actually
tour the piece in schools. Everybody gets
the credit if it’s a success but if anything goes
wrong, I get all the blame”.
Do you use song and music?
“Yes, we use it for allsorts. The latest piece
has live pieces and a composer has created
an emotional journey. In ‘The Worm Collector’,
there was an underscore to clarify the setting
with the limited set. The composer sits in on the
rehearsals and composes bits as he goes along.
In a different production, the composer improvised
throughout the whole performance”.
How do you connect with different communities
and audiences?
“The use of forum theatre is a great way to include
audience participation and sometimes, some of the
actors are in the audience for example, in ‘The Snow Queen’,
some of the actors playing robbers were in the audience
and actually started robbing some of the audience members.
I love involvement of the audience as they are working with the
character and they have a voice. There is an ongoing discussion
on how to get people into the theatre. Because I go into schools,
I am already promoting and encouraging people to come into the
theatre that way. There is also an audience engagement officer
in the marketing team whose job it is to fill seats”.
How long does it take to make a piece of Theatre In
Education from scratch?
“The latest project that is about to be perfomed at
the West Yorkshire Playhouse was commissioned in 2008.
The writers had 9 months to a year to write it. It varies.
We plan 2 years ahead: we have allsorts going on at the
same time. Then you have a few months of designers
looking at the focus of the piece and what you want to
people to see. We have a 3 or 4 week rehearsal process
but it depends on who you’re working with and whether or
not there is a workshop attached. Allsorts of things are
happening during this time including booking the tour and publicity”.
What topics do you cover?
“It’s not just down to us what topics we do,
it depends on what we get funded to do for example,
I really want to do a piece on child carers but we only
got the money to do a piece on knife crime”.
Where does the funding come from?
“We get some of it from Education Leeds but at
the end of the year, that will end.
We also get funded through the West Yorkshire
Playhouse through the Arts Council.
Outside businesses such as The Royal
Armories and The Home Office give money
to cover certain topics. You just have to go
out and get it, like a pitch”.
You mentioned that you an actor do
you ever direct yourself?
“No I never do that. Sometimes, when
people direct and act, they find it hard to
separate and see the other actors from an
actors point of view”.
Do you ever go to other Theatre In Education
companies for inspiration?
“We go see lots of work fro inspiration.
are never any new ideas, just what you do with them”.
