Steven Kavuma, the Associate Director of Royal & Derngate's production of Holes, tells us what his role is, how he got into theatre and his advice for anyone looking to pursue a career in the theatre industry.

Transcript:

Interviewers: Hiya, I'm Martin, and I'm Kayla, and today we're here with Steven Kavum and Steven is the Associate Director in the Royal & Derngate's production of Holes. So, Steven could you tell us about your role in the production as a whole?

Steven: Yes, so my role is a lot of things. There are a lot of responsibilities. So the Associate Director is the person who supports the Director and all the other teams around and making sure the production goes as smoothly as possible. Because it's a touring production and it has a certain time limit, that means that I, as the Associate Director, take care of the show when the Director is off. So I'm responsible for how the show goes on, to make sure that it's still a continuous production as it was on the opening night. It's quite different to being an Assistant Director. An Assistant Director is you're still supporting the logistics and the running of the show, but you don't have the responsibility of taking care of a show.

Interviewer: So how did you get into the role of being an Associate Director?

Steven: So I started off as being an Actor, and soon I realised that wasn't my passion and I wanted to do more sort of directing stuff, and when I was younger I would get my mates to be in my own little plays and I'd direct them and it would be after school directing our own little shows, and that gave me a little insight of how I can work as a Director and I was constantly pulling those muscles and seeing how they could be improved. Then I went to drama school which is like university but not university. So there's more specialised, more rounded training.

Interviewer: Is there any sort of advice that you'd want to give other people who may want to get into the acting industry or be an Associate Director as well? Anything of that sort as well?

Steven: I think the only advice is that anyone can do it. Anyone can be a Director and we're sort of Directors already organically.

Find opportunities to help you get into directing here.

Published: 27 March 2020

Photo: Alex Brenner