Lighthouse duty manager Charlie Speck is looking forward to a reunion with the cast and crew of new touring show Beyond Ourselves when it plays the Sherling Studio in March.
For Charlie worked as lighting designer on the play’s well received run at the Union Theatre in Southwark – earning critical acclaim in a notice on Curtain Call Reviews website: “The lighting was also well done, with Charlie Speck using the rather basic rig in a very visceral way, which was key to keeping the audience engaged.”
Beyond Ourselves is the latest work from Ardent Theatre’s Ardent8 project in which eight recent arts graduates work with writer Andrew Muir – an old friend of Lighthouse – on a piece in which they play versions of themselves.
“It’s a really important project because it offers a very rare chance for people from backgrounds that may not be widely represented in the arts the chance to work on the professional stage,” says Charlie.
“I’ve got to know Andrew quite well and the stage manager Chloe Brown is a close friend, so it was a great opportunity to do some different work.”
Charlie studied Production Arts at Bournemouth and Poole College and enrolled at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama but was unable to complete his course. He started at Lighthouse in 2014 and left to follow other opportunities, ending up at the Royal Albert Hall for the six months up until the lockdown in March 2020.
Having moved back to Dorset during the pandemic, he did a variety of jobs before coming back to Lighthouse at the beginning of this year, initially as a technician and lately as duty manager.
“I’ve always enjoyed the technical side of theatre and often do bits of extra work when I can, but I was particularly pleased to work with Ardent on Beyond Ourselves because it opens the professional world to people whose backgrounds mean they might not otherwise get the opportunity.
“It will be great to see the show at Lighthouse, I think our audience will love it.”
(NC)