We are delighted to be re-introducing the Observer Mondays Directors Scheme at the Royal Exchange Theatre.
This Scheme allows one local theatre maker at an early stage in their career the opportunity to “observe” rehearsals for an in-house production.
The participant is invited into rehearsals every Monday throughout the rehearsal period, tech and into previews. This enables them to follow the process of bringing the work to our stages and the journey of the production. They aren’t an assistant director and are solely there to observe the process. The Scheme also afford them the opportunity to start (or continue) a dialogue with the theatre and to gain an insight into creating work for our spaces.
The successful candidate will also have a mentoring relationship with Nickie Miles-Wildin, Interim Resident Associate Director, and tickets to see the production. They also have a dialogue with the Assistant Director on the production (if there is one).
The “Observer Monday Directors Scheme” is a voluntary position. It is open to anyone over the age of 18 based in Greater Manchester at an early stage in their career. They should not have professional directing credits – but may have created work at a fringe level, as a student, as part of a youth theatre or through other training. As this is a voluntary position, it is for a maximum of one day per week.
The successful candidate will be invited to create a “diary” or “blog” about their experience. This may be published on our website.
We ask that people only apply for one production – please consider which production or which director you would most benefit from an opportunity to observe.
How to Apply
You can apply to observe any productions in our Summer Spring 2024 season – A TASTE OF HONEY, SWEAT and THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST.
Please bear in mind that you can apply for one production per season, and there are separate deadlines for different shows.
Candidates are invited to apply by submitting the following:
- An up to date CV or biog with particular reference to directing/theatre-making
- Expression of Interest – statement of no more than 300 words expressing why you want to take part in the Observer Monday Scheme and how you think it will support your development as an artist and why you have chosen this particular production – why this play and / or director
- Candidates can submit a video application if they would prefer – this should be no longer than 5 minutes in length
Send your application to literary@royalexchange.co.uk
Deadlines:
- For A TASTE OF HONEY – 10am, Friday 26 January 2024
Interviews will be held on 29, 30 and 31 January - For SWEAT – 10am, Friday 16 February 2024
Interviews will be held on 26 and 27 February - For THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST – 10am, Friday 12 April 2024
Interviews will be held on 22 and 23 April
Schedules
A Taste of Honey
A Taste of Honey by Shelagh Delaney
Directed by Emma Baggott
Shelagh Delaney’s iconic play, is a sharply observed portrait of working-class life in Salford in the late 1950s.
Considering the themes and setting of this play, we would particularly welcome applications from those who are from or based in Salford.
Emma Baggott trained at Goldsmiths College and the Young Vic. Recent credits include The Wonderful World of Dissocia (Theatre Royal Stratford East); The Snow Queen (Polka Theatre); Under Milk Wood (Sherman Theatre); The Social Care Workers Play (Almeida Theatre); Neville’s Island, Misfits, Stiletto Beach (Queens Theatre Hornchurch); She is Fierce (Royal Shakespeare Company); Leaving, How To Kill Your Mother, Copper & Steel (The Bunker); Normal (Styx); Attempts On Her Life (Royal Conservatoire Scotland); Love Steals Us From Loneliness (Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama); Dennis of Penge (Guildhall School of Music and Drama); Pomona, Mr Burns, X, The Christians (LAMDA).
Sweat
Sweat by Lynn Nottage
Directed by Jade Lewis
Lynn Nottage’s 2017 Pullitzer Prize-winning drama is a sweeping state of the nation play that embraces huge political and economic ideas in a magnificent gritty social drama.
Considering the themes of this play, we would particularly welcome applications from people from a Global Majority.
Jade Lewis is an award-winning director. She was a Boris Karloff Trainee Assistant Director at the Young Vic, A Creative Associate at The Gate Theatre and most recently Carne Literary Associate at Theatre 503. In 2022 she wrote and directed GET DRESSED! at The Unicorn Theatre, directed QUATER LIFE CRISIS at The Bridge theatre, co-created an original audio series World Of Curls with writer Yolanda Mercy for BBC Radio 4, and directed an audio drama NSA which was a part of Talawa Tales for also BBC Radio 4. Her most recent production was the critically acclaimed smash hit SLEEPOVA at the Bush Theatre.
The Importance of Being Earnest
The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde
Directed by Josh Roche
Oscar Wilde’s legendary quintessential comedy receives a dazzling make-over.
Josh Roche is an award-winning theatre director whose work includes the critically acclaimed sell-out It’s a Motherf**king Pleasure which sold out at the Edinburgh Festival and has just transferred to New York. His other work includes My Name is Rachel Corrie at the Young Vic. He has worked extensively as an Assistant Director, in the West End (Pressure, Farinelli and the King, Death of a Salesman) with Shakespeare’s Globe (Doctor Scroggy’s War, Eternal Love, Taming of the Shrew) and the RSC (Dr Faustus, The Alchemist). He was also an associate director for Nabokov on Blink, which toured the UK and Off-Broadway. Josh directed Audible’s first production in the UK, Radio by Al Smith, at the Arcola Theatre, and Orlando by Lucy Roslyn at the VAULT Festival, later taking the production to the Edinburgh Festival and New York. He directed Home by David Storey in The Minerva, Chichester Festival Theatre.
