Michael Donoghue Interview: Being a Custodian of the Theatre Royal
Title
Michael Donoghue Interview: Being a Custodian of the Theatre Royal
Date
3 August 2018
Description
Oral history interview with Michael Donoghue, Head of Sound & Lighting at the Theatre Royal
What's the story?
Born in London and involved in amateur theatre as a performer in his early years, Michael Donoghue ‘ditched’ his A levels to work professionally in the theatre. At the tender age of nineteen, in 1991 he moved to Nottingham to work as a lighting technician at the Theatre Royal.
Having clearly learnt ‘on the job’ Michael is now Head of Sound & Lighting at the venue, managing an extremely busy department.
In this interview Michael reflects on working at the Theatre Royal and whilst the venue is still a business and not a museum it is important to look after the building.
That’s a nice name because most people, not just with the casuals, but with the visiting companies, a lot of them love coming back here. A lot of the time most people walk out onto the stage and look out into the auditorium and just see how beautiful it as an old Victorian building. And it’s nice for someone like me to hear that as well, because, you forget, because I’m here all the time, it’s just work. You’re coming in, you’re seeing it, but then you hear people say “Wow, what a gorgeous theatre!” And it helps you to stop sometimes and just think how lucky you are to be, as a lot of us that have been here a long time, to be one of, as we call ourselves, the custodians of the building. It’s been here a lot longer than we’ve been alive and it will hopefully, touch wood, be here a long time after we’re gone, so we are the custodians of the building at this time. So we try and look after it. The building has to change. We’re not a museum, so although it is an old building, as we all know built in 1865 and had all its refurbs, things have to move on because we are a business. We’re a working building, we have to keep up-to-date with the shows that come in. But you’ve got to keep the history of the building going, but whilst trying to move with the times, like, as I mentioned earlier, with the LED lighting in the auditorium. It is now LED lights, but it still looks like old lights. It’s important to keep that original proper look, but by still moving on as well.
Having clearly learnt ‘on the job’ Michael is now Head of Sound & Lighting at the venue, managing an extremely busy department.
In this interview Michael reflects on working at the Theatre Royal and whilst the venue is still a business and not a museum it is important to look after the building.
That’s a nice name because most people, not just with the casuals, but with the visiting companies, a lot of them love coming back here. A lot of the time most people walk out onto the stage and look out into the auditorium and just see how beautiful it as an old Victorian building. And it’s nice for someone like me to hear that as well, because, you forget, because I’m here all the time, it’s just work. You’re coming in, you’re seeing it, but then you hear people say “Wow, what a gorgeous theatre!” And it helps you to stop sometimes and just think how lucky you are to be, as a lot of us that have been here a long time, to be one of, as we call ourselves, the custodians of the building. It’s been here a lot longer than we’ve been alive and it will hopefully, touch wood, be here a long time after we’re gone, so we are the custodians of the building at this time. So we try and look after it. The building has to change. We’re not a museum, so although it is an old building, as we all know built in 1865 and had all its refurbs, things have to move on because we are a business. We’re a working building, we have to keep up-to-date with the shows that come in. But you’ve got to keep the history of the building going, but whilst trying to move with the times, like, as I mentioned earlier, with the LED lighting in the auditorium. It is now LED lights, but it still looks like old lights. It’s important to keep that original proper look, but by still moving on as well.
Type
Oral interview
Location of item
Theatre Royal & Royal Concert Hall Nottingham
Rights
Theatre Royal & Royal Concert Hall Nottingham
Contributor
Interviewers: Jennifer Sherwood & Diane Jones
Transcriber: David Chilton
Transcriber: David Chilton
