A Mill That Spills With Talent
If you visit ThickSkin’s website, you’ll spot three phrases pop up on the screen.
Extraordinary stories told in unexpected ways.
Reinventing theatre for the next generation.
Developing 360° artists of the future.
I think this perfectly encapsulates ThickSkin as a company, my time working with them, and their most recent project, Generator.
I first had the opportunity to work for ThickSkin back in 2022 on their production Blood Harmony as their Assistant Director. It was an incredible experience and my first bite at what it’s like to be part of a big creative team. I always remember being really appreciative of ThickSkin’s core members and their ethos surrounding theatre. They opened my eyes to how daring and ambitious we can be when telling stories. Not only that, but they also offered me one of the most fundamental and important things someone who’s just dipping their feet into making theatre can ask for: time. Time to talk about your own ideas, ask questions and be curious. I left knowing I desperately wanted to work with them again.
Luckily, I did. Last year I worked as an Associate Director on This Is Where We Begin, part of their immersive audio play series called Walk This Play®. This was launched at Wigan’s Streets Apart Festival, where we spent the day on King Street drumming up interest. That day, I remember chatting with Laura Mallows, ThickSkin’s Executive Director, about the potential of a company of Young Creatives from the local area getting to spend time with ThickSkin to create something exciting. I loved the idea. It sounded great, and something people would really benefit from. I grew up in the Wigan area, and I know how few and far between these opportunities come. They can be gold dust.
Generator was born, and a year later we were holding auditions, on the search for 10 talented performers to make up this year’s company. It was such a joy to see the crazy amount of talent flood through the doors. This area is constantly bursting with fresh and exciting creatives full of potential. While it made our jobs incredibly difficult, trying to decide on who was going to take part, it was also the first glimpse of the promise of this project.
This is probably the perfect time to talk about the amazing people I got to work with. My fellow Co-Directors were Neil Bettles and Heather Carroll; two people who are an actual joy to be around and watch them work. Then there’s Tom Robbins, our Production Manager who seems to have a solution for anything and everything. Finally massive shout out to Abi Beaven, ThickSkin’s Associate Producer, who steered the ship and made it look easy.
So… cast found. Time to start. 6 weekly sessions, 1 intensive weekend. 3 performances.
First, the weekly sessions. Very quickly, Thursday evenings became a highlight of my week. Hours spent chucking everything at the wall, seeing what sticks and discovering as a collective what the end result was going to be. It’s a real testament to the cast that we would constantly throw prompts and ideas at them to play about with, and they would always strive to find the most interesting way to present it back to the room. Talking about throwing, I think it’s only right I mention the game we used to play at the start of each session – if keeping a tennis ball up in the air was an Olympic sport, then I don’t know if we’d end up on the podium, but we’d have a great time trying anyway!
Weeks of devising, creating, and experimenting flew by, full of brilliant movement sequences and uniquely personal written work. Going into the intensive weekend, we knew that not everything we had created was going to stay, but that was okay. That was the beauty of those 6 weeks. Most importantly, we discovered the question that would inspire what the show was going to become.
“What do you want to be?”
This question became the seed in the soil that was ready to launch from the ground and birth the foundations of the show. Everyone had different answers to the question, which we knew would be an interesting idea to explore further.
The show was formed around this, and the cast, as always, dived headfirst into the intensive weekend. We were lucky enough to be rehearsing in the same space the show was taking place: Trencherfield Mill, ThickSkin’s new home. During that weekend, it was hard not to notice the show coming together as the theatre around us did to. The house lights disappeared, the stage lights shone, fresh paint was brushed, and the bar was open. Everything was coming together.
For me, this summarizes the spirit of Generator. Everything was a collaboration. Working together as one big unit to create something innovative and exciting. Ensemble in every sense.
And then, in one big blur, it was Friday, and our first show was upon us. It was great to see audiences full of support, laughter and joy across the three shows. The first audience included students from a local high school. I’ve always thought that when you’re making theatre, you should constantly be trying to make work that interests young people. Our aim should be to inspire more and more young people to engage with theatre and break any preconceptions they once had. Whether that means they join their local acting class, get involved backstage in their next school production, or even just go and watch more theatre, it’s all positive and important.
The show began and I happened to be sat at the top of the seating bank, just behind a group of students. I noticed them lean forward, eyes on the stage, and watch. And I mean properly watch, not just sit and daydream until the teacher says it’s time to go. They were truly engaged.
Young Creatives making work that even younger audiences relate to and take inspiration from. Or as ThickSkin say on their website, reinventing theatre for the next generation.
Here is to many more years of the Generator project. An important, exciting and beneficial opportunity for the Wigan borough and beyond.
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