I was asked to work on The Dumb Waiter by Kazeem Akinsanya, the director for whom this was his Masters’ dissertation performance, regarding the performance being enhanced by looking at the characters and their story through a non-white lens.

While working on The Dumb Waiter, the main issue that I encountered was lateness from the two cast members. However, the director and I tried to use this time to our best advantage and get in pre-rehearsal discussions in this time so that we could be best prepared for our shortened rehearsal. This show felt like my first ‘job’, despite the fact that it was not paid, and being asked back by Kazeem because he liked the work I did on The Godless War made me very confident in my abilities as a stage manager.

In addition, it taught me a great deal about working in an environment not tailored to me as a student: despite having been a student at Bruford until the previous month, I found myself unable to send emails, access the props store, or open most doors, as the staff thought I would still register as a student and did not consider giving me a ‘visiting company’ keycard. This was an interesting problem to navigate, being both an alien and at home at a theatre, and it gave me a greater appreciation of the systems which had been set up to help me as a student, and the skills to navigate around them and seek out assistance where necessary without delay.