Kady Nankivel – My time on the Lighthouse Young Producers scheme

Coming from a strong theatre background, it’s been a long-term dream of mine to start my own theatre. I’ve tried my hand at a variety of different theatrical roles, both onstage and offstage, but I didn’t know the first thing about the administrative tasks it takes to produce a show or event.

The flexible nature of my MA Historical Costume course allowed me to go to the Lighthouse in Poole once a week to work in their office alongside their Creative Engagement team and lend a hand on a variety of events, the biggest one being the second annual Poole Pride festival.

As an LGBTQ+ individual, it’s important to me to get involved in the community wherever I am. Though Bournemouth and Poole are not my home, I officially feel like part of the community now! Balancing my studies and this work placement at Lighthouse never felt like a Herculean task, it just felt fun. My tutors know of and support work placements and extracurricular activities, inviting us to expand our practices and make it part of our learning.

In addition to working on Pride, I got the opportunity to work with students visiting the Lighthouse for their NT Connections performances, and I got to attend the BBC Gardeners World Fair at Beaulieu, where the Lighthouse had a garden set up, complete with live painters painting the gardens they saw.

It’s been such an enriching experience and one I will never forget. From working with different computer programs that help schedule and plan events, to talking with accounting on how to manage a creative budget, and even getting to shadow some technicians while they ran lighting and sound for plays, the Young Producers scheme offers a little something for anyone. I am the kind of person who loves knowledge and learning new things, so I wanted to try my hand at everything. And that wasn’t an issue! In fact, it was encouraged and supported.

While none of my projects at Lighthouse focused on costuming, it did allow me to meet local creatives and see shows and performances that gave me inspiration for my projects at AUB.

The first time I visited the Lighthouse (months before I worked there), I saw the NT Live production of The Importance of Being Earnest, which was what my first Historical Costume project focused on. I’ve interfaced with people like CBeebies’s Chris Jarvis, local drag personalities like Dandy Issues and Venezuela D’Vina, and comedian Chloe Petts. I also got to see West End and Broadway hit The Shark is Broken completely for free, starring Ian Shaw, the son of Jaws star Robert Shaw.

Now that my time at Lighthouse is coming to an end, I get to focus a bit more on costuming by working with the Dorset Opera as a costume volunteer. The Technical Director of the Opera, funnily enough, works at the Lighthouse as well!

I will take what I learned from the Lighthouse and its amazing teams with me as I finish my MA and go into the world of theatre. Whether I remain in the UK, return to America, or broaden my horizons even further, both my time with the Lighthouse and my opportunities through AUB’s MA Historical Costume course have better equipped me to handle what’s out there.