An enlightening insight to behind the scenes of a West End production

The dream for many of our performing arts students is to be involved in the West End, whether that is performing on stage or working behind the scenes.

We were therefore pleased to welcome former Bourne Academy student, Joe Martin to come back to school and share his experiences of working in the the West End production of Oliver! as a Lighting Technician and what life is like behind the stage!

During his time at Bourne Academy, Joe was always involved in school musical productions, Christmas concerts and end of term shows, and just fell in love with the idea of working with lighting as a full-time career.

He then went on to study Lighting Design at The Royal Central School of Speech and Drama in London and has since gone on to work at a host of West End productions such as Heathers, Dear Evan Hansen, Dear England, Hamilton and now Oliver! at the Gielgud Theatre. Mrs Parker and Mr Swinn were privileged to be given a backstage tour of Hamilton in the West End last summer where Joe shared some of the secrets not normally seen by the audience.

Students had the opportunity to ask questions about what it is like working and living in London and being employed by some of the biggest shows in the country. It was a fantastic for students to hear about these experiences and get useful advice to help them with their career prospects.

Hearing from former students is always inspiring as it helps our students realise the opportunities available to them in the future. We would like to thank Joe for coming back to Bourne Academy and sharing his ‘enlightening’ experiences with us and inspiring the next generation of technicians.