Lead interview: Behind the Curtain with Spotlight IOW

Behind curtain the

WITH SPOTLIGHT IOW

By Emma Elobeid Pictures Julian Winslow

The professional performers from Spotlight IOW share memories of magic and mayhem as they prepare for their thirteenth pantomime season

Producer and performer Jayne Derbyshire prepares to take the stage

It is the second-to-last night of ‘Beyond The West End’, their flagship summer show; the secondto-last time that they will perform this particular set of songs from the musicals before shifting key and tone into Panto season proper.

“Christmas honestly wouldn’t be

Christmas if we weren’t in a Panto. I wouldn’t know what to do with myself,” admits Company Manager James

Derbyshire, whose own performance career, like many of his colleagues, began right here at Shanklin Theatre.

Arriving for their penultimate performance and lugging equipment up onto the stage, Producer Jayne

Derbyshire explains, “We all muck in and break down the set afterwards – it’s harder on the boys, but they get beer for their efforts!”

Jayne and James are the husbandand-wife team who run Spotlight IOW: in between this annual professional pendulum of sparkling summer spectaculars and packed-out festive pantomimes they also manage a wider team in coordinating weekly stage schools – and a termly performance – for hundreds of Island children aged 4 to 18, as well as (pre-Covid) workshops for visiting schools and EFL organisations. Though fresh faces and new names join each season, the core Spotlight team remains the same – not just partners in performance, but pals for life. This is the first time they have lifted the curtain on not only the way they work, but the way they are together. What strikes me most during our interview is the laughter. The quips come thick and fast, the comebacks gleeful, and the ensuing hilarity every bit as raucous as you might expect from a group of people whose very identity is built around entertainment. But it’s not all banter: the team changes chords from serious to silly and back again with as much ease as their on-stage harmonies. Assistant Choreographer Joe says, “It doesn’t feel like work – it feels like hanging about with your mates.”

Above left: The boys discuss post-show snacks | Right: Rowan Lathey’s backstage power walk

There is an old theatre expression about warming the walls before a show. No need for that tonight: the Spotlight crew are welcoming and warm, open and honest. Bearing witness to their relationship feels a bit like being an extra in Friends; they finish each other’s sentences, jumping from animal-mishap anecdote to affectionate teasing and talk of postshow snacks in quick succession. In case a reminder is needed that we are in musical theatre land and not Rock ‘n’ Roll territory, Choreographer Charlie declares on the latter, “I always have a Nesquik strawberry milkshake when I get home!” “For a lot of us it all started here,” says James, gesturing around the Green Room. In the 1990s, many of the group attended the Stagecoach theatre school, then run by their nowMusical Director David Redston, who still writes, arranges, and plays music for all their shows. “There is so much history; these walls literally are our second home. Back in the day we’d have sleepovers in here, and rehearse and party in what is now the bar!” All have gone away and done their own thing – on international cruise ships, in the West End, from Bollywood to Benidorm – before returning to their home stage and the shared histories that bind them. Right now, on the cusp of seasons, there is a dual sense of closure and excitement at the run to come. “It’s a BIG show,” says James. “We’ve got to deliver on all sorts of things.” Checking through the long list of ‘to-dos’ (planning a Pantomime is a complex arrangement of scenery and song, pyrotechnics and props) I learn that the costumes have been ordered in and the script is (almost) ready. I ask who is playing who. “Erm, Rowan, you’re Beauty,” says Dominic, who writes and directs the pantomimes, as well as performing in them. “Oh, thank you very much, I accept!” replies soon-to-be Panto Princess Rowan Lathey. This is no Disney adaptation: pantomimes are based on the original fairy tales, and each year is a brandnew script which offers something for everyone in the family. I ask about the

writing process: is it a roundtable cocreational collaborative affair? “What happens is…” Jayne jokes, “we go on and on and on at Dom and eventually…” writer, director and performer Dominic Pope fights back: “Every single word is all mine. But these guys are nice, they come along.” There is a real appreciation in the room, it seems, for being here at all. “Achieving a socially distanced pantomime last year seemed completely impossible,” recalls Jayne. “I don’t know if we ever really thought that those curtains would actually open. When we knew it was going to go ahead it was so overwhelming.” “And then when we went back up to full capacity this season,” she continues, “that was really emotional because everyone clapped as soon as the curtains opened. It was a reminder that we do offer an ‘out’ for people for two hours – over the years we’d become complacent about that because it’s just what we do. And actually it’s been humbling to remember that what we do is kind of cool.”

Recalling the government-backed national advertising campaign which encouraged ballet dancers to retrain in cybersecurity, Dom cringes. “It’s so insulting to dismiss an entire industry as something disposable. But you know, especially during lockdown when we were all stuck indoors – what

“…actually it’s been humbling to remember that what we do is kind of cool.”

was everyone doing? We were being entertained by entertainers. So it’s a product that everyone wants. Actors and performers are as valuable as ever.” James continues: “I think everyone does naturally come to a point – probably in any job but particularly as a performer – where they ask themselves, ‘Can I do this forever?’ And although before I’ve considered retraining as a youth support worker or a fireman, actually for me personally the pandemic made me go ‘Nope. This is all I know. And it’s all I’ve ever wanted to do. And it’s needed.’” “We’re so incredibly lucky to do what we love,” says Joe. “As performers, there’s a deep drive to just carry on.” Even when the theatres closed and lockdown was at its strictest, the team never stopped performing; what started as a one-off ‘Spotlight Get Moving’ video, designed to provide some light Joe Wicks-esque Saturday morning entertainment for their stage school students, evolved into a year-long project of remote (and then

Pre-show rituals in action Writer Dominic and Choreographer Charles Johnson share a dressing room joke

distanced) weekly musical productions, launched live on the group’s Facebook page. Together, they represent a social history of an impossibly tough year measured in cake and costume, laughter and tears. Looking back is bittersweet. “The magnitude of everything that happened that year...” says Jayne, referring not only to the global pandemic but the loss of friend and colleague Rachael Stratton in a tragic accident right in the middle of it, “...it’s huge. And we’ve got a record of it now, forever.” The group falls silent. James says, “We’ve never given up and I don’t think we will now. I honestly believe that. As a core team and as a business I don’t think we could face any more than we already have.” This year, the stage feels mercifully steadier. Talk turns to pre-show routines. Dom, I learn, is a notorious corridor pacer (“it’s hugely irritating for everyone else, but I have to do it”); Rowan and Charlie have their immovably favourite car parking spaces. Over the years the group have accrued a medley of quirks and habits which signal ‘a good show’ – from motivational circles to silly games like ‘Pass the Smartie’. Jayne recalls how “one season Rowan and I would always touch index fingers right before curtain-up.” These seemingly small touches speak to a bond greater than the sum of their steps. Charlie explains, “We’re so in sync on stage; we know what each other is thinking or when a part needs covering.” Watching closely, I spot several of these magic moments from the auditorium; flashes of solidarity and showmanship in the flicker of a sequin. The show is, of course, professional, polished and practically perfect in every way: we could indeed be in the West End. That’s not to say that mishaps don’t happen. Over the years the group have dealt with all the usual comedy of errors: technical hiccups, malfunctioning microphones, and over-sensitive fire alarms – as well as some more unexpected disasters; from slipping Shetland ponies to whole-town power outages. “Don’t forget the bat that once flew at me during a Madness medley!” says Dom. Maybe it’s the magic, maybe it’s the moment, but there are times during the show when a lyric feels particularly weighted with emotion. Jayne says, “We have highs and lows; we’re performers, not robots. If someone is feeling it we know because we’re such a close team. If someone’s feeling poorly, if someone’s feeling sad, it’s our job to carry them through the show and that favour is always returned. We’ve had shows where people have spent the entire run in a really not very good place, so it’s nice to go ‘We’ll get through this, together.’”

See the Spotlight IOW team perform their 2021 Pantomime Beauty & the Beast at Shanklin Theatre from 22nd December until 3rd January. For tickets, visit shanklintheatre.com