MICHAEL DEACON – ON PLACEMENT WITH CREATION

Today’s blog post comes to you from Michael Deacon, who’s currently on a placement with Creation! He mentions a show which is still in development, we hope to officially announce it soon!

Hello! I’m Michael and I’m on a placement with Creation as part of my university degree. I am currently a third year student on the BA Theatre Directing course at Plymouth Conservatoire. I’m on this placement until Christmas and am really excited to be working with the company. I am from Bicester, just outside of Oxford, and having worked with Creation before on their live production of The Tempest back in summer 2019, it’s really lovely to be working locally and with a company whose work I’ve loved being a part of before. I worked on The Tempest just after completing my CertHE qualification in Acting from Italia Conti, and just before I left for Plymouth to pursue Directing. Although I’ve performed and been involved in productions through my teenage years, The Tempest was a totally new experience for me in terms of realising what theatre could be, and how adventurous and innovative it could be. Now at the other end of my training I’m delighted to be back working with Creation, who are not only a bunch of creative geniuses, but also all absolutely lovely individuals to work alongside. My time in Plymouth has consolidated my ambitions to go into Theatre Directing, and this placement is a great chance to see how professional directors work, and all the different elements of how a theatre company works before I leave university and try to land work in the industry.

When I thought about who I wanted to try and work with for this placement, I thought about where I want to be based once I graduate next summer, and also work I’ve seen or been a part of that I’d like to do more of, Creation were my first choice and I’m delighted that Lucy was happy to take me onboard!

I’m already having great fun just a couple of weeks into the work we’re creating this season. I’ve been in meetings with Gari Jones & Graeme Rose about the digital project of A Christmas Carol and have been supporting this. I’m enjoying their process and ideas around the material, and we are now beginning to solidify some of the ways we want to bring the story to life. I think by the end of this week we’ll have a really good idea of what the piece looks like! I’m very excited to be involved with this, and especially looking forward to getting involved when it comes to recording the piece. I’m also running Saturday Drama Clubs with Eloise Sheffield, she is a fab facilitator so I’m learning a lot from her, I led one of the Play in a Week weeks this summer, and now have jumped into the 4 different pieces the 11+ groups are working towards 3 weeks in, so I’m excited to assist Eloise direct and shape those pieces, and hopefully bring some of my own training and experience along to help enrich the classes for the participants.

Thanks Michael!