Founded by John and Lyndie Wright in 1961, Little Angel Theatre, Islington is London’s only permanent puppet theatre. Samantha Lane, 39, took over there as Artistic Director and Chief executive in June 2015.
What led you to drama? I liked drama at school in Kent, did A level Theatre Studies and, like most young people who get the bug, thought I wanted to be an actor because I didn’t know about any other theatre-related work. Of course my Theatre and Performance degree at University of Warwick didn’t train me to be an actor anyway but a ten week module in community theatre in my second year involved working, teaching, facilitating in a local school and that felt right – and relevant.
Is that why you went into drama and education when you graduated? Yes. I got a job in Singapore (having blagged my inexperienced way in) teaching extra curricular drama for agencies. Then came three years teaching in a comprehensive school in Bromley, doing a part-time PGCE as I went. But I really wanted to get back into the industry so I went to Queen’s Theatre Hornchurch as Head of Education when I was still only 24.
You were gaining experience fast then? I certainly was and that continued through a year travelling with my boyfriend who later became my husband. While we were in Canada, I got commissions to run t-i-e projects. Back in the UK I went freelance working for companies such as Ambassadors Theatre Group, Bigfoot and V&A – who then gave me a job as learning and outreach manager at the Theatre Museum although in the end I concluded that theatre and museum and not always compatible cultures.
When did you start your long stint in charge of Almeida Projects? 2007 when Michael Attenborough was running the Almeida Theatre here in Islington. I had a pretty free hand to develop participation work and had two maternity leaves while I was there. My daughters are now 7 and 4 and the joy of working in a children’s theatre today is that I can sometimes bring them to work with me! When Mike moved on and Rupert Goold came in with different ideas it seemed the right moment to move on so that a fresh eye could help him to find new ways of developing them. I was going to start my own business. Then the Little Angel job came up – and here I am!
Does it help that the two theatres are five minutes from each other? Oh yes. For example, I’ve been able to bring in local businesses who work with the Almeida but who didn’t, until now, have anything to do with Little Angel. I’m getting different people involved. Because this is a children’s theatre some people think it’s nothing to do with them. Even I had only been here in the past because I have two small children. I’m trying to change that a bit.
What plans do you have for Little Angel? Well Little Angel Studios opened nearby last year and, although there are still improvements to the building to complete, that is now the focus of most of our education and outreach work. We’re experimenting with presenting shows for the youngest children there so that we can make pieces more immersive and participative.
How will you develop the education work? We already have many tried and tested workshops – for learners at all levels – along with courses and projects. I’d like some of these to be more responsive to the needs of the learners: more student-centred if you like so that we are constantly finding new and better ways of presenting the learning rather than doing things in a certain way because that’s what we’ve always done
And the shows themselves? I want more visiting shows, although not necessarily more visiting companies. Some companies bring more than one show. I also want, obviously, to go on producing high quality work for children at different age stages. For the moment, though, I am buying a bit of time by reviving Little Angel’s production of We’re Going On A Bear Hunt which has been very successful and popular in the past. I need to get back to basics and look at the hows, whys and whats of the work we make both now and in the future. We depend on the box office income, apart from anything else. I came in to this job with a slightly odd situation to deal with. Things hadn’t worked out with the previous artistic director who was here only six months and although senior management had made a magnificent job of keeping things going during the gap, there is a lot of work to do now.
There isn’t much professional puppetry training about. Will you be offering more? I’m currently talking to Creative and Cultural Skills which is part of National Skills Academy about our running four apprenticeships – two performers and two puppet makers. I also want to appoint some established practitioners as associate artists who would be available to mentor anyone who learns skills with us.
Little Angel Theatre seems to have a plethora of festivals. Are you re-thinking that? I definitely am. I want to go back to the drawing board and streamline the whole festival provision. There will probably be a festival of work by emerging companies which our mentoring associate artists will support instead of the several festivals Little Angel has run in the past. I also want to focus firmly on work for children rather than blurring the concept of what we’re best at. After all the very best “children’s” shows are for everyone anyway.