Celebrating World Theatre Day with Production and Theatre Technician, Daniel Philipson 

Today is World Theatre Day, and to celebrate we sat down with our Production and Theatre Technician, Daniel Philipson, to learn about his experience in theatre and his time so far at the School. 

To create a production at the School involves a lot of collaboration. From the wardrobe department, our Pianists, our Ballet Teachers, and our students, each person and department bring together their specialised knowledge to create the final piece and make everything go smoothly. 

We are thrilled to celebrate this day and to share our conversation with Daniel.  

How did you get involved in theatre? 

My first foray into the world of theatre was in elementary school through an extracurricular activity after school. I was part of a company called Confident Kids, where we learned poems, monologues, and dialogues with our friends after school. Ever since that point, I had a burning desire to be part of theatre. 

What projects were you working on prior to starting at the School? 

Prior to applying for this role, I stage-managed a couple of productions that I took to Edinburgh Fringe Festival. I took a whole show up there and managed it, which taught me to be versatile in the production process 
 
What appealed to you about the role and the possibility of working at the School? 

I liked the idea of being able to work on multiple productions across multiple venues and being able to manage all the different aspects, whilst being in a great theatre environment. It is fantastic being able to hone the department and make sure that I know exactly what’s going on and I’ve crafted what it looks like. 

What has been your favourite production or piece to work on at the School so far?  

So far it would be the Ursula Moreton Emerging Choreographer performance which is on this week at White Lodge. It’s been great to see the creativity of the young minds coming onto the stage. They put so much joy and thought into what they’re doing, and you can really see that.  

What would be your dream production to work on? 

My dream production would probably be in a producing role of a brand-new musical theatre piece – something that takes a couple of years to develop. Being a part of that whole process would be interesting. 
 
What do you wish more people knew about theatre and production? 

I wish more people knew about how much time and effort goes into making it as perfect as you see on the stage. There’s so much behind the scenes that no one even thinks about. We are really looking at the smallest details to bring a production to life. 

You recently ran a stage lighting workshop with our students. Can you tell us a bit more about that and how you found collaborating with them and teaching them those skills? 

We ran a lighting workshop for Year 7, 8 and 9 students in the lead up to this week’s Ursula Moreton Emerging Choreographer performances. The purpose of this was to help them understand what we do with theatre lighting and how they can use it to make their pieces impactful. It was great to see the young minds thinking about what they can do, and how they can work within parameters that we have to achieve their vision. They bring their big idea and we work with them to make it feasible so they can create maximum impact. 

What do you love most about working in theatre, and at the School specifically? 

I love seeing the productions happen and being in the performance spaces as they are performing, I think that’s what I enjoy most. 

Seeing the start to finish process is amazing and it’s wonderful to help the students bring their production together. They are so enthusiastic and thankful to see their pieces come to life.

We have our annual Summer Performance season coming up, which is one of our biggest productions of the year. How have you found working on this so far and what are you most looking forward to about this production? 

I’m most looking forward to working in the large venues that we’ll be performing in. It will be interesting to see how we take our set up and operations from the Margot Fonteyn Theatre at White Lodge and the Linden Theatre at Upper School and move them to Opera Holland Park, and the Linbury Theatre and Main Stage at the Royal Opera House. I’m excited to see the translation process of that, to see how it goes from one stage to the other.

Is there anything else you wanted to add about World Theatre Day? 

It’s wonderful that the School celebrates this day. I’m excited to be a part of it and it is very fitting to also have the opening of our Ursula Moreton Emerging Choreographer production on this day.