Junkyard

The production and my role:

Junkyard appeared on the spring line-up as the week 7 weekend show, with performances from March 28-30th, 2025.

I worked with a budget of £60 to source the many props for the production. It was important, as it was set in the late 1970s, to have time-accurate props, however it was clarified to me that they didn't need to be dead accurate, what was more important was that they weren't modern. Lots of these props were pre-existing in the DramaSoc storage. One of the highlights of prop sourcing was finding LED finger flashlights and deciding which colours each cast member got, it was a personal little detail that just added to the fun of the play. I was also responsible for sourcing building materials alongside the set designer as the actors were to build a playground through the play. As actors were using real tools, I also led a safety talk on how to use each of them and ensuring they only used the tools for their intended purposes to avoid injury.

There was a lot of movement onstage, with actors constantly coming and going. Therefore, I refined my method from previous stage management projects. Alongside an annotated script, I polished my template of my entrances/exits documents, transferred my notes into the document and then printed them out and postered them backstage for actors to utilise, if they didn't come to me. The venue we work in (Drama Society's The Drama Barn) doesn't have a typical backstage area behind the performance stage, instead having it's backstage area stage right, and stage left being the entrance to the building. Therefore if actors need to enter from a different side, they have to run around outside the building. This was a very fun and playful show to work on and I'm glad I got to be a part of it!