Director of The Pleasance Theatre Trust, Anthony Alderson, looks back on a career that has taken him all around the globe.
Uppingham School and the Edinburgh Festival Fringe (1984 – 1989)
My father took me to the London Palladium when I was a small boy. Although, I remember very little about the show, the excitiement I felt then still fuels my love for the theatre now. The following two winters I was given a singing part in the Royal Scottish Ballet’s production of the Nutcracker and, sitting in the wings watching, I realised it was backstage that interested me most.
At school in Uppinham I spent every day that I could in the theatre. It was run by Christopher Richardson, who left to set up the Pleasance in 1985. Aside from the wonderful school shows that Christopher staged each term, small touring companies would also visit each week. We helped them with the get-ins, occassionally being asked to help onstage during shows.
I first joined the Pleasance team for the Festival Fringe in Edinburgh aged 16, a time when there were no specific roles, we all did a bit of everything. Growing up in Edinburgh meant my summer holidays became about working the festival, returning to school before it ended was always an unwelcome interuption.
Guildhall School of Music and Drama (1989 – 1991)
When I left school in 1989, I was offered an exchange job, working as a Trainee Carpenter at the open-air Forest Theatre in Carmel, California. We built scenery during the day and worked the shows at night. I would have stayed, but without a work permit I had to return. That September I joined the Guildhall School of Music and Drama to study stage management. Inspired by Chris Todd the Master Carpenter, scenery building seemed the inevitable route. While there, I was awarded both the Cripplegate Medal and a Scholarship from the Guild of Painters and Stainers.
For the subsequent two years I worked for Phil Parsons as a scenery builder. We built scenery for the National Theatre, English National Opera, the Royal Opera House and various other West End productions. Fit ups would go on over several nights, always working when others had left. Having tea with Arthur Miller at two o’clock in the morning is a very fond memory.
Touring Production Manager (1991 – 1995)
With a desire to travel, I left for East Africa. What followed was a myriad of strange jobs, including building church pews and five months driving for a travelling sparkplug salesman across the African continent. Working the Edinburgh Festival gave me time to travel, which I did for almost eight years, returning each summer.
I did return to the Guildhall School some years later for a stint as their Master Carpenter, and I ran a theatre at the King’s School in Canterbury, but the travel bug took me and my girlfriend Candida Toller, to whom I am now married, off once more: two tours through Australia and New Zealand with ventriloquist David Strassman, and a season as Production Manager for an open-air production of Lady Chatterley’s Lover in Sydney.
Touring Production Manager/Associate Producer (1997 – 2004)
As Production Manager for Cheek by Jowl, I enjoyed yet more touring with Much Ado About Nothing. I returned to London, looking for something more rooted and, in fact, a departure from technical theatre. I worked as an Associate Producer for Glynis Henderson Productions, on the world tours of Stomp and Ennio Marchetto; the shows visiting more than fifty countries.
Maya World Documentary Films (1998 – 2001)
Between tours, with two friends, I created Maya World, a documentary film company. This took us to North India. Our first film, Dancing at the Crossroads, was screened by Channel 5 in 2001. Two further film projects in India included a week filming on the Ganges and at the World Social Forum in Mumbai – both extraordinary experiences.
Director, Pleasance Theatre Trust (2005 – present)
I was appointed Deputy Director of the Pleasance in 2004, and as Director in 2005. Whilst not involved in all of the festivals, my asscoiation with the Pleasance spans 28 of its 30 years. I feel I have done almost every job there. The festival community is a huge joy to be a part of.
I am also currently Vice Chairman of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe Society, Trustee of the National Student Drama Festival, a Director of Creative Islington, a Trustee of Blind Summit Theatre Company and I sit on the board of Red 61, a ticketing company. I am also immensly proud to be a patron of Waverley Care, Scotland’s leading HIV charity.
Anthony Alderson is Director of the Pleasance Theatre Trust.
www.pleasance.co.uk
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