Yesterday we concluded our rehearsals at Theatre by the Lake with an open dress rehearsal of Ophelia in their studio theatre. Ahead of our Manchester showing, we caught up with our brilliant designer Louie Whitemore.
Photo by Chris Lewis Photography
Q: What got you into working in Cumbria and becoming the associate designer at Theatre by the Lake?
LOUIE: Well, I am born and bred from Cumbria, but I'd been in London for 18 years. In 2017 I was asked to do some work at Theatre by the Lake and I was super excited because I'd always wanted to work there. I did two shows, Miss Julie and Handbagged, and then I was lucky enough to return subsequently. Then over the pandemic I did a lot of campaigning and tried to do as much as possible to make sure that this gem of a building stayed open. And I suppose as a bit of a reward and because I knew the building quite well, they set up these associate positions and I was lucky enough to get a place.
Q: What drew you to Ophelia as a project?
LOUIE: Well, meeting the company [The Moonlighters Collective]. They were really, really great. They had an excitement about them and the project had obviously had a lot of thought put into it in advance - that was a really clear thing that made me interested. It also strikes a personal note, I have friends who and have taken their lives and I've raised money for charities that help people in Cumbria for these kinds of matters, so I wanted to be a part of how that might be able to be put on stage and potentially help people in the future.
Q: How would you describe your design for Ophelia in three words?
LOUIE: Adaptable, fragile, atmospheric.
Q: Jumping back to the beginning of your journey, how did you first get into design?
LOUIE: To be honest, it was a complete accident. I started out wanting to be a stage manager and in order to get into the school where I studied you had to do a bit of set design - at the time I didn't know anything about. So it was entirely by accident that I ended up doing design. I went on to do it as a specialism, as part of my university course and then as a master's degree and there's just something about combining forces with lots of different people with lots of different skill-sets creating one vision that I just thoroughly enjoy about the job and that's why I've been doing it ever since.
Q: Do you have any advice for anybody reading this who might like to be a designer?
LOUIE: It's a tough world, a really hard job, and it's always been hard, that's not a new thing. I think it's very useful to be honest and clear about that. But if you put in the work and you can get a fantastic career out of it and it will take you on a mad crazy journey. My tip would be to contact as many people as possible. Build your resilience and don't take no at the first hurdle, try as many different things as possible. Say yes to things; it might be that it's not strictly design, but it might be volunteering backstage, which means you learn some technical skills that you can then feed into your design work. It's all about making as many connections as possible and learning as many diverse skills as possible because it's the designer's job to pull those skill-sets together.
Q: If you could wave a magic wand and change one thing about the industry, what would it be?
LOUIE: I think the industry is fantastic. I've been lucky enough to be in it for 18 years. However I think the thing that bugs me the most about our industry is where we place value regarding success. We seem to only judge people to be successful if they've worked in certain venues and done certain scale shows but I believe that fundamentally if you wake up every day and you are a theatre designer and that's a job that you want to do, then you've made it and that is success. Just because you haven't done a show at a massive London venue doesn't mean that you're a failure. If you are consistently working doing consistent work, that you enjoy, and that you feel makes a difference, then that should be what we are all judged on.
Q: And lastly, any closing thoughts on Ophelia?
LOUIE: I'm looking forward to the next iteration of the show after this R&D, and I hope people can see that there is a potential here to make an even better show. We're just not quite finished yet. So hopefully people give us a chance.
Ophelia tickets (12th August, Manchester, 7.30pm): https://www.eventbrite.com/e/ophelia-rd-performance-tickets-688465387507?aff=oddtdtcreator
Louie's Website: https://www.louiewhitemore.com