Graeme Braidwood Photography

So happy for Rae Mainwaring, Clive, Tess et al on the (Covid) delayed press launch of Bright Places.

Absolutely devastated to hear that Nigel Ellacott has passed away. Nigel, along with his professional partner Peter Robbins, was a big part of my theatre education. Whilst studying ‘legitimate’ theatre at Middlesex Poly I moonlighted with Barrie Stacey Productions to get my Equity card and Nigel and Peter were usually a very big part of those. ‘Full up for comedy’ when lighting their shows, was my first lesson.

As well as the incredible talent, quick wit and artistry I shall always remember the backstage stories, long drives to theatres and stopping at favourite Happy Eaters on the A1. Such good times.

I got to take pictures of Nigel once at the Royal and Derngate and was treated to a special treat of a personal greeting. The picture of me in the DSM corner of Edinburgh Kings was taken by Nigel. Just previously I’d taken a very poor, out of focus picture of Nigel in his cat costume just before we did a performance of Pinocchio. He then grabbed the camera and, without thinking, took one of my favourite pictures of myself.

Gone too soon. Thanks, Nigel Ellacott

Several days ago was the Birmingham edition of the National Youth Theatre Summer Course and the sharing was at the Mac. As always the energy and creativity, if harnessed, could power a medium sized village.

Amanda Bonsall is a Derby based singer who made the journey down the A38 for her new headshots. After whittling down her gallery Amanda has 101 shots to find her new headshot that will adorn many a flyer for one of her big band gigs. That choice won’t be easy but this image stood out for us whilst we were checking our progress. By the way, a singers headshot probably is a little different to an actors headshot but I definitely struggle to articulate it to anyone. Please check out Amandas website especially if you are in the East Midlands and need some singing lessons www.amandabonsall.co.uk

The Grand, Wolverhampton has featured a lot in my life. I suppose anyone with a passing interest in drama is going to be very aware of the theatre local to where they grew up. But because of my subsequent work it has featured more than most, probably.

It was a genuine thrill to take pictures on the stage for the rehearsals of ‘I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change’, an in house production about to go up for a run at Edinburgh Festival (directed by Karl Steele). Whilst taking pictures of the REALLY talented cast I couldn’t help but do a mental check list of the milestones I’d experienced there. Here are some of them ...

1. First experience of proper pantomime. We were always taken by Auntie Dolly and the biggest memory I have is wondering why the leading man and best friend were played by really attractive women.

2. First time performing on a big stage with the cubs doing the Gang Show. It was just chaos backstage with hundreds of small children trying to go up and down the stairs from dressing room to stage.

3. First time being out acted on a stage in a youth theatre show. I was cast in a peripheral role in Wolverhampton Youth Theatre’s Silver Sword. For someone wanting to be an actor this was not good.

4. First and only time being a DSM in a ‘rep’. I was part of the stage-management team when the Grand decided to do a summer season in a rep style using local actors. Two weeks rehearsal, I decided, was not enough to rehearse a play properly.

5. First time photographing a big pantomime. Wow, those shows are bright. And colourful. With my experience of lots of children’s theatre I shouldn’t have been surprised but somehow being behind a camera the lights seem to almost assault you.

Lots of other memories and the Grand must be very special to thousands and thousands of people over the years. Always amazed by it. Thankful that it’s still here.

My studio leads directly onto the pavement and isn’t accessible to wheelchair users unfortunately. So I packed up some lighting gear and travelled to Tamworth to meet Sam Lawton and do her new headshots in her home. Sam is represented by Visable, an agency for actors, models and presenters with disabilities and who has worked on shows for Netflix and a really big show that no-one is allowed to know about yet. The kitchen picture was our attempt at a full length length shot whilst also capturing the realities of a wheelchair using working from home, self-employed woman but there is a more straightforward one in case it is needed. Sam’s cat does not yet have representation.

Probably the penultimate show of Youth Theatre Season - a term that l’ve come to describe the hot months of the year, when producing theatres retreat from the rehearsal and green room and cede their stages to young people. Derby Youth Theatre presented ‘The Latest Tragedy’ which is a sad hymn to the conveyor belt of bad managers in small or medium sized businesses and how it affects the minimum wage and zero hour worker the most. How those workers find ways to cope whilst dreaming of a life outside of the four walls they scrape a living in, is the heart of the show.

A while ago I was entrusted by Derby Theatre to capture all the staff for their new website and to ensure that there was a uniformity to the images. When I was still a touring stage-manager it would have been fantastic to know who you were about to meet. (Although, when I started touring some major theatres didn’t even have email.) Recently I was asked to go back and do some more images for people that had joined the theatre recently. Just a lovely confidence and easy going ness about all of the images I took - here are just a selection - which is impressive when having your picture taken by a stranger probably isn’t many people’s favourite things to do.

Going to try and write about some past shows that I had particular fun with but didn’t post or share.

The first is ‘The Gingerbread Man’ by Front Door Theatre (https://www.frontdoortheatre.com) that was started during Covid. I have great admiration for everyone that found a way to still be creative during that time and Dan Ellis (CSM at Derby Theatre) is one of those people. As theatres were shut he decided to incorporate puppetry, music and no little talent and take theatre to the people (and children in particular) who were stuck at home. Which I think is a genius idea in theory and one that works brilliantly in practice. It also shows the talent that lies within the stage-management teams up and down the country.

The Christmas before last I took pictures of his ‘Christmas Carol’ and I loved it. So, funny, inventive and also atmospheric. A few months ago it was ‘The Gingerbread Man’ which was equally as good. Both shows sold out almost immediately and I understand why. Even though we can now go to the theatre it remains a genius and lovely thing. The images were taken from the dress rehearsal indoors, dress rehearsal outdoors and first performance.

Vincent is a returning headshot client and talented actor who managed to fit me in between raising money for Cancer Research through some impressive cycle rides. And just to say that if you turn up in gloriously colourful outfit, before you depart for the England vs Switzerland match, I might have to take a picture of that too.

My screen time management got a little out of control on Thursday night/Friday morning. But thanks to Stan's Cafe Theatre and The Commentators for the best coverage of the night.

A political post. My apologies.]

I’ve got the election on my mind today.

I remember, vividly, watching the dying seconds of the last Labour government. A helicopter tracked the journey of Gordon Brown making its funereal way to Buckingham Palace and I wondered how long the new, budget slashing, Conservative government would govern over us. Today it feels like a period that theatre and the arts in general has barely survived. It has been grim. It is grim.

So, I’d like to give a small, personal thanks to those people over the last, well, especially the last 5 years, who have given a voice to people like me. I haven’t joined any organisations that are on the front line against the relentless, chaotic Conservative machine and I don’t shout on Twitter (not even after Fatima and her next job in cyber). But I care what happens to the country and have needed, like a drowning man, to hear the rants of people like James O’Brien (and many others) to feel, over the last 14 years, that there is hope. That there are other people who see the damage that is being done.

Another ‘person’ to say what a lot of us are thinking is Jonathan Pie. A character invented by actor Tom Walker who probably wouldn’t exist if things had turned out better. When I first saw Jonathan I remembered that Tom had had a small role in a show at the Birmingham REP that I’d photographed; The Quiet House by Gareth Farr. So, here are some images of Tom in that 2016 show and the thought that, 5 Conservative Prime Ministers later, there were a few good things to happen between 2010 and 2024.

Derby Theatre are on the hunt for someone to join their marketing team. A lovely collection of people and fabulous theatre.

Marketing and Press Officer – Derby Theatre Closing: Mon 8 Jul 2024 Marketing and Press Officer Job Salary: £24,957 This new position will support the development and implementation of Derby Theatre’s Audience Development strategy. MAIN TERMS & CONDITIONS OF SERVICE Salary: £24,957 Contract: Full time, permanent. Hours: 39 hours per week ...

Looking forward to sharing a work in progress of our new show in development When We See Ourselves next week at from In Good Company at Derby Theatre There's a great programme of shows, workshops and discussion over two days: https://derbytheatre.co.uk/festival/departure-lounge-2024/
Photography by Graeme Braidwood Photography

June 22nd was Windrush Day and a timely post from the Royal and Derngate reminded me that the Community Choir there put on ‘Send Me The Pillow’ this time last year that I was asked to photograph.

‘Part verbatim, part theatre, part musical’ it celebrated the 75th year of the arrival of HM Empire Windrush at Tilbury Docks. Just a wonderful, joyous celebration and reflection on that event which I hope is shown in the images.

At the end of last week the Crescent Theatre members were told to look out for some ‘exciting news’ to come. A summer party? The cast of ‘Consent’ had lost their collected minds and booked a run at the Edinburgh fringe? No. The Crescent was going to take over the running of The Old Rep. So, yes. Exciting and surprising news.

The Old Rep is an extraordinary theatre, in my opinion. Apart from its history of launching many famous careers in its heyday, the auditorium, in particular just invokes some awe in me. I’ve toured to many theatres in my previous career and present one but I can’t remember one that looks and feels like the Old Rep.

But running a theatre is not easy, to state the bleeding obvious. With the council declaring bankruptcy recently it’s not surprising that they didn’t need the extra worry of the Old Rep. Many theatre goers in Birmingham and further afield would fear the worst if it went dark indefinitely. Once a theatre goes dark it takes a huge amount of energy, goodwill and money to start again.

So, I feel a great deal of excitement and pride that the theatre that I’m a member of has taken over the lease of the Old Rep. It’s in good hands.

Oh, fun fact. The auditorium picture of the Old Rep with the National Youth Theatre Summer School on the stage got me banned from Twitter. Still don’t know why.

Images of shows, rehearsals, concerts, workshops is what I do most of the time and love doing. The opportunity to do poster images, though, allow me a certain creativity that those events do not. If I’m in a rehearsal room I’m there to capture the creativity, imagination and energy of that group of actors, designers and directors. With posters, though, it feels almost naughty making big creative choices of a production that someone else will direct and grow.

Poster images are interesting. Often, at that stage, nothing currently exists, save for a title and one or two ideas in someone’s head. But they are so important. They does so much heavy lifting for a show that it’s got to be right.

It’s rare for anyone to come to me and have an absolute cast iron image in their head that they want to make manifest. But as long as there’s a starting point we will discover, together, what works. And that moment ... ‘oh, it’s that!’ ... is great.

These three posters for the next Crescent Theatre season are a great example of the variety of shows done by the theatre and the variety of settings you can find yourself in. The Jekyll & Hyde image was taken in the bar, the Night Watch image was in the theatre basement where all the old furniture for sets is kept and the Earnest image was captured in a lovely Hall Green garden just before a huge hailstorm.

I’ve been a member of the Crescent Theatre, if you disregard the duration of my stage-management career when I certainly wasn’t a member, for 40 years. OK, fine, 23 years.

My first role was Romeo in a science fiction, musical version of the famous play since you ask.

I remember that I was always told that the Crescent wasn’t a normal amateur theatre company. Well, that’s true, it had its own theatre for a start. But the main difference, I was always told, was that it was ‘semi-professional’. Or, as good as amateur theatre gets. The phrase implies that a lot of the membership could be professional if only they chose to be. And that certainly was and is true of some of the membership then and now.

Whenever I direct or act in something at the Crescent, I inevitably get into a conversation where I have to state that the production is ‘amateur’. Which makes me want to hastily add ‘not that kind of amateur theatre!’ I hate myself for even thinking it. But, if only ‘semi-professional’ made sense - it doesn’t - it might go someway to describing what we do at the theatre.

CONSENT - currently in the studio theatre - has possibly the strongest cast I’ve ever seen at the theatre. If you check the CVs of the actors and the director you’d understand why I really want the theatre to be known as something a little more than just ‘amateur’. Even then you won’t understand how someone with a lifetime employment in education (for example) might electrify you with their performance, if you take the chance of buying a ticket. They have chosen not to pursue the life of an actor. But they could have.

We are amateur theatre. We are. But, blimey, you should see some of the stuff we have put on and continue to put on. // www.graemebraidwood.com