After graduating from RWCMD, Anthony Field worked with Theatr lolo, Theatr Powys and Sherman Cymru in Wales, before running cabaret shows for P&O Cruises, then working with Kevin Spacey at London’s Old Vic. After being involved in the opening and closing ceremonies of the London Olympics, he is currently working as the Company Manager for the UK & Ireland Tour of the global musical phenomenon Wicked – the untold story of the unlikely friendship between the Wicked Witch of the West and the Good Witch of the South.
As Company Manager, Anthony is in charge of overseeing the touring production, which opened in Manchester in 2013 after being produced in London’s West End since 2006. We caught up with Anthony when he returned to Cardiff for Wicked’s run at the Wales Millenium Centre.
As Company Manager of such a major tour as Wicked, what does your job involve?
Company manager is the next step up from stage managing. I oversee the whole of the touring production. This show has 80 people – 31 actors and 50 other production and orchestra staff. I’m in charge of all the ongoing HR for this show – contracts, box office figures, pay roll, sick leave, scheduling etc – while still being very hands-on.
I’m here every day, I start in the afternoon and stay with show until the end of the evening. It keeps me connected with the show. Sometimes on massive shows you’re just in the office and you won’t see an audience member. This job keeps me around the show, I have to make sure the show looks great, as well. I worked on the show for four years in London, so I bring with me the connections with the producers there.
You worked on the 2012 Olympics and Paralympics. Tell us a bit more about that.
I worked on the opening and closing ceremonies of the Olympics and the Paralympics. It was unique because the Production Stage Manager wanted the same ceremonies team to deliver all four events. It was so exciting: I was allowed to take a sabbatical from Wicked to do it.
They wanted it to be theatre – a spectacle and not just an event. My main focus was the opening ceremony and the athlete’s parade, but I also worked on the closing ceremony at same time, which was more focused on celebrities, and I’d got experience of dealing with those kind of personalities.
We were working 7 days a week on this and didn’t get a day off for 6 months, but somehow we all just got used to that work load. The team had a great outlook: “This is a brilliant thing we’re involved in, let’s make the most of it!”.
How did studying at RWCMD has have in your career?
I felt the College’s stage management course was the best in the industry in terms of producing all-round students who could step into, or more importantly have the choice of, a world of different work places: tv, theatre, radio or events. It felt important to be able to discover what I wanted to do while I was there, and I was offered the best facilities and links in industry to do that.
Also, the basic foundation for me was my love of theatre, and the course offered a huge scope of theatre experience: different technical aspects, experiment with lighting, meet lighting designers, production managers, electronics, staging, sound. Very vast but you could still focus on anything you liked.
It really set me up for my future career. I knew I wanted to be a stage manager in theatre, but it also gave me an interest in other events, so when I go for interviews and a concert producer asks what experience I have, I’ve covered all bases. I couldn’t have got that without going to Royal Welsh College.
Is there any advice you would like to give our current students?
Go in small to think big. It really makes a difference. Don’t go straight out of college into massive shows and experiences. Go smaller. There’s an amazing world of theatre here and abroad, and working on lots of smaller shows all add up to make you a much more rounded, appealing person to employ. If you see a little tour, doing a local thing – go and do it.
I always say to students, do as many things as you can. For me, it’s about life experience – if you go for all these opportunities, it’ll stand you in such good stead, not just in knowing what you want to do – but also help with your experience, and relating to colleagues.
You don’t have to come to London straight away and it means you can get stuck in a niche. Work on smaller projects, then you might want to step outside that world at some point and do bigger things. It gives you the groundwork to deal with the stress – and the artists you have to deal with. For example, when I was working for Kevin Spacey at The Old Vic, I’d be dealing with film and TV personalities, as well as young actors just starting out – a really wide-ranging cast of talent. But no matter who they are, everyone looks to the stage manager to have the answer. You want to be as prepped as you can for that, so get out there and try and do different things.
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