NEWS
Mercury’s Emily wins top theatre job
19 May 2010
Last autumn 24 year old Mercury Theatre technician Emily Holmden made her professional debut as a Lighting designer for Through the Leaves, a Mercury Company production in the Mercury Studio Theatre; next month sees her rubbing shoulders with the elite of London’s theatre makers.
With her eyes set firmly on a career in an industry dominated by men, Emily applied for and successfully won a prestigious internship working with leading female lighting designer Paule Constable who designed the lighting for Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Love Never Dies, the sequel to The Phantom of the Opera and is a recipient of three Olivier Awards and a Tony Award for Lighting Design). Emily’s internship is an unpaid role where she will be shadowing Paule on every aspect of lighting design for a new large scale production by the English National Opera of Idomeneo at the London Coliseum. The production of Mozart’s most deeply felt opera is being directed by Katie Mitchell and conducted by Olivier Award-winning Musical Director Edward Gardner. The cast features some of Britain's best Opera singers, including Paul Nilon, Robert Murray, Sarah Tynan and Emma Bell.
The placement was offered through Women in Lighting, an organisation launched by Paule Constable at the end of last year, which aims to provide female theatre technicians with a forum to network and share experiences. Emily’s placement is the first of several training and mentoring programmes Women in Lighting plan to run over the year.
For Emily who grew up in Billericay and attended the Anglo European School in Ingatestone this is dream come true
'It all started with a visit to see Starlight Express when I was nine or ten. I was never any good at the theory of physics at school but I loved the practical elements and in the eighteen months I have spent at the Mercury as a general technician I have built up so much knowledge. Paule and I have a similar background in that we both studied English and Drama before turning to technical theatre and I love the way she sublimely influences the audience through her use of light in a production.'
For more information about women in Lighting go to www.wiseonline.org