Future Formed October Theatre Tech Placement

This month we were thrilled to welcome David Adeyemi, learning the ropes in our Technical department.

David came to us as part of Waltham Forest Council’s Future Formed, which provided Waltham Forest residents with technical training and paid placements in theatres across London, including at ours in Dean Street. We took the opportunity to ask David about working at Soho Theatre.

To enhance my technical understanding of the theatre space and see the behind-the-scenes of how technical designer relate to performance.

I live in Leyton! Moved in with my partner who’s lived there their whole life. I like it!

I love questions like this! My relationship to it has been shifting recently. For a long time it was my main mode for personal expression, then it shifted to be a vessel for big ideas and now I’m getting back to personal expression of art making. I’m trying to use it as less of a soap box and use it to relate to myself. Having a technical skillset will only be a benefit to me in bringing my artistic ideas to life.

Watching My English Persian Kitchen – watching that performance was definite highlight. That was so cool. It’s a tragic story but beautiful in many ways. I haven’t seen such a simple set and tech design used so impactfully before. I really connected with it. Especially contextually. Hearing that story in context is interesting. It’s a political work that tells a personal tale as well. It’s interesting to see how the larger-world context trickles into the art.

Do it! The training was great. One of the biggest highlights is the people I’ve gotten to interact with. Super diaspora, and different combos – everyone’s awesome!