Transcript
Speaker: You're joking. No, I jumped. Was it bad? Was it like you were out? Yeah, it's like I spent the rest of this entire workshop just with my leg elevated on a chair at the end of what would have been the tube. Oh. Literally just like this with my leg like elevated and just lying there watching everyone. Oh my god. To be fair, it works well for a tube environment because there will be that weirdo on the tube and I felt like that weirdo on the tube. There's always an oddball on the tube.
Speaker: I am Amy. I am co -producer of the Lincoln Company and I am 22 years old although I feel a lot older. A third year drama student. I'm Annie. I'm 20, a technical theatre student at the University of Lincoln as well and also part of the Lincoln Company with Amy. What made you want to join the Lincoln Company?
Speaker: I just remember when the advert came out and I always thought when I go to uni I want to throw myself into everything. So I mean I really like take every opportunity. I think the projects and stuff that Edinburgh Fringe was like obviously like a big pool to it as well. I just get involved and meet other people so it wasn't just like the technical theatre aspect but what about you?
Speaker: So I was a little first year, so innocent and so naive. And I remember getting told by Laoga actually, who was the first co -producer of the company. And they came into one of my lessons and talked about it and I was like, I have no idea what this is, but I'm intrigued.
Speaker: And I first thought you had to pay for it, so I kind of just walked away. And then I found out you didn't, and I was like, yes, I want to get involved. Yes, please. So then I spent an entire day writing my application. Did you? Yeah. And it was like literally on the day of submission as well. So really last minute kind of decision. Yeah, because I can't for this longest time, I thought you had to pay for it. It's like 50 quid a month, come on, play out. Yeah, subscription.
Speaker: And yeah, so then I did my application form, which yeah, was really, I pulled my all into it. I was like, I'm applying for this job right now. This is where I'm gonna be. So yeah, I applied for it and I got in and I went to a few workshops. I actually sprained my ankle in the first workshop I went to. What was the workshop?
Speaker: so it was a great start so it's a project essentially it's called Mind the Gap and they are currently back and they are working on some stuff as well after the pandemic and basically this was before the pandemic obviously and they had their first workshop and they were wanting people to come along and it essentially takes place on a tube
Speaker: and it's like trains and everything to do with that and they were just improvising some stuff and I was getting really energetic into this and I literally jumped up and down and sprained my ankle. You were joking? No, I jumped. Was it bad? Was it like you were out? Yeah, it's like I literally, I spent the rest of this entire workshop just
Speaker: With my leg elevated on a chair at the end of what would have been the tube Oh, literally just like this with my leg like elevated and just lying there watching
Speaker: To be fair, it works well for a tube environment, because there will be that weirdo on the tube, and I felt like that weirdo on the tube. There's always an oddball on the chain. What the hell? Were they looking for that actor? Was it like an audition? It was kind of... It had not gone very well for you. Luckily, I managed to show enough commitment in it that they were like, yeah, we'll get you back. That's fine. I mean, they literally came over and they were like, it's OK. You're going to be fine. And my ankle's just swelling up.
Speaker: And I remember at the end of it, I had to be like, like kind of carried to the lift and then carried home by my housemates because I was like, Oh my gosh. Yeah, but it was really swollen for a long amount of time. But yeah, that was my first kind of workshop with a Lincoln company.
Speaker: in mind the gap of come back coming they have a comeback and they're working on stuff but everyone's rotors just seem to keep clashing yeah but yeah they're back and they're bringing some stuff and it's it's so it's nice to be in that environment again just kind of
Speaker: bouncing off each other because they're really relaxed with what they want, what content they want. So like you could literally bring an idea that you wanted for a tube and we had one of like a clown on the tube, like all these different sound effects and things and it was just like bouncing off each other and it just felt really natural and considering a lot of us take public transport quite often, it's just such a creative idea.
Speaker: But yeah, that's what I love about the Lincoln Company. I think it's it's like someone comes up with a main concept of an idea and then everyone else chips things in and it's just like a fun way of creating a piece of drama that's so like unique and like has got everyone's stamp on it.
Speaker: Yeah, you get to explore more than when you do in your course. Yeah, it's not so rigid. Yeah, like you feel like nothing's going towards an assessment. Like you can go at your own pace. Yeah. What is your role in the linking company?
Speaker: Is it Vice? I'm co -producer alongside Rachel. What does that involve? A lot of it is basically on the spot stuff. So usually people come with me either with connections that they want to get involved in. A lot of it is studio booking I've noticed. Is it? Yeah. A lot of them come with me to studio book and say, can you book this for a family?
Speaker: or it's just keeping an eye out on things that are going on within kind of linking or nearby that people can get involved in. Just helping people with their projects and seeing if they have enough confidence to kind of bring that up on their own and then also working with different
Speaker: groups within the company such as the skilling up committee. What is the skilling up committee? Glad you asked. It's basically a group within the company where people meet and if we want to put on workshops or if there's anything that the company wants to see we help facilitate that and we help put on those workshops and based on what the company wants and what the company would like and so yeah we meet and we just say oh we could put on a workshop for this time
Speaker: about this. Is there anyone else we can bring in to help with that workshop? Is there any guest speakers we could do? Things like that. So hopefully we might be able to do some of them on the podcast. So who's in the Lincoln Company? How do you get involved for anyone that doesn't know? Is it just like students at Lincoln or is it like staff as well?
Speaker: So it's a mixture of staff and students. Currently we only have two members of staff within the company. We have Rachel, the mighty Rachel Bainton. I love Rachel. She's just amazing and she's co -producer and she sorts all the stuff out for Edinburgh.
Speaker: end up going there and kind of looks at all kind of the overview of the company. I'm pretty sure she'd love to go into so much more detail about what her role is. Yeah, we need to get her on the podcast. Definitely. And then we have our other staff member, which is Daddy, who is our staff member. He's doing the tech for us. Yeah, currently doing the tech. For the podcast. Of course.
Speaker: I'm not here. And he is our staff representative. Our general manager this year is Henry Bryan. Our co -producer who's working with Rachel is Will Denison. Our marketing team this year consists of Kat Anderson, Scarlett Hall and Bryony McNaught. We have a musical director brand new this year in Marcus Bagley -Hodkin.
Speaker: Our Technical Manager is Lauren Davis and our Sustainability Officer is JJ Sander. You're a member of the Lincoln company and I'm curious to know what you think your responsibilities are within this company.
Speaker: I feel like it's just a responsibility to get involved in the projects. Obviously the linking company is made up of loads of different students and alumni that are working on all these amazing projects and I feel like to be a part of it, the linking company, get involved in the projects, help people out, like all the different workshops and stuff.
Speaker: because obviously I do the technical degree so I am always on the tech side of it. I think sometimes it's nice just to jump over and do some drama and just get involved in some other stuff.
Speaker: Yeah that's great to hear. I think there are so many misconceptions of what the linking company is. I think it gets people caught a little bit in a little bit of a net almost in the fact that they think that when they go into the linking company it's its own separate like company where we put on our own kind of projects and we have done in the past and we are doing in the future.
Speaker: but it's also that chance to branch out on your own if you want to create something as a separate company in association with linking company and we always invite our alumni as well like after graduating you've got two years to be to continue being a part of. Oh is it two years? Linking company is two years. That's really nice.
Speaker: So yeah, we're always just happy just to kind of keep that connection going. And we've got alumni who've been in today working on something as well. The Cattlehead Collective, they're working on something. They were a third year drama degree group that did their final performance last year and it was phenomenal. It was called Hello Yellow, it was phenomenal.
Speaker: I saw them outside the ELF hack. It must have been last year now. Yeah. And I was always intrigued. What was it? What was the project? So their piece was like kind of dah dah, kind of crazy things. And they had like a whole kind of in the arboretum, they had a section where they were just playing instruments on the little bandstand. And they just played instruments like randomly. And then they just slowly like
Speaker: stopped and it's just it's like the weirdest things that just intrigue you so much when you're watching it and yeah it was the craziest performance I've ever watched in my life but it was also just amazing like it was just so good and Ryan the director of it he was just phenomenal phenomenal with like kind of directing what he wanted to see so I cannot wait to see what they create this time yeah
Speaker: I am so excited. So are they coming back? So they are back this week. So they are currently back and are starting some workshops. I don't know what they're going to create, but I bet it's going to be amazing. Do you know what they went on to do after uni? Some of them are still here doing their masters. Some of them are teaching. Some of them are at different universities.
Speaker: So, Amy, in three sentences, what would you say the linking company is? What they do? What it's about? Basically, summarise the linking company in three sentences, if you can. Wow, that is a big ask. It's a big ask. That is a very, very, very big ask. Let me think, let me think. This is what the linking company wants, we want collaboration. In the words of very pretty Mercury, we want it all.
Speaker: Yeah, so in collaboration, cross curriculum, collaboration, that's what we want. We want community. We want ideas and projects. We want commitment. Yeah. A lot of commitment.
Speaker: There's such a divide between kind of music, dance, art, drama, tech, there's such a divide and I think we just want to kind of just break them and just be like hey you're a music student I want to go work with you or you're an art student I want to go work with you and see what we create.
Speaker: So we've mentioned some alumni companies, such as Cattlehead Collective and Miss Hap Theatre, but our alumni goes further than that. And I know we were both at an event called The Mashup. Yes. So Aunty, tell us a bit more about that. It's funny to be both at the event, but I only actually saw Amy when I was leaving the event. But yeah, so Mashup, it's an event held in Lincoln. Every couple of weeks they try and do kind of get together, meet up kind of things.
Speaker: And it's open to any creatives in Lincoln, Lincolnshire area. And basically you will get together, have a chat about what you're doing, projects people are working on. And it's really just to kind of have a catch up. Obviously, I think it's great for this as a perfect example, like the podcast, like promoting it to people.
Speaker: getting people involved in it. So yeah, it was a really good event. I'm going to talk about who I was with, if that's okay. Yeah, I want to know. So this was a sit -down event, which was good. It was a really lovely event. It was in Wildwood. There was like pizza, drinks, like a chitchat. So I was sat, obviously Maddie came, who's on the podcast with us,
Speaker: And then the lady next to her worked in one of the museums in Lincoln, front house. She was talking about how she was going to some museums down in London to do some bits and pieces. So that was really interesting to speak to her. Obviously, I actually went to this without realising. I went to this event without realising not everyone was in theatre. I think I just thought in my head everyone was. So it was quite refreshing.
Speaker: to speak to other people the guy next to me was a designer like graphic designer um had his own company in Lincoln was doing some really cool like design projects and stuff um and then yeah there were some actors I don't know if you'd know I think it's Joseph he was in
Speaker: He might be in your year. I think he's the year below. I think I know who you mean. He did the Much Ado show. Yeah. Is it the year below you? Yeah, the year below. Him and his brother, they were both actors and talking about like Covid and how that had affected all of that. So it was a really good event. But who were you with? Who were you surrounded with?
Speaker: Rachel was there as well. Rachel was there. The Rachel Bainton. The mighty Rachel Bainton. Yeah so I arrived and I had a few friends going as well from the company and also not from the company which was amazing to see and I bumped into old faces and old friends like Tom Cansdale and the Jake Lomax who is also our only PhD member of the Lincoln Company. Really? He was there.
Speaker: And then I bumped into kind of new faces that I hadn't met but I'd heard names of. So the people who run the mashup, Medora, and then I bumped into Kieran and he was telling me about this solo project that he's working on at the moment and how that was going. And I was like,
Speaker: hang on a minute i'm doing solo performance is one of my modules and so i just completely opened the floodgates of questions and was like so when you think about this how do you do this and i was just grilling him for about five minutes literally asking him these all these existential existential questions about solo performance and he was just there having to think on the spot and i felt so sorry for him but yeah i got i think it's just a great event that you can just go to and talk about kind of
Speaker: like events that you're going to further on as well and kind of what projects you're working on it's a great way to network as well and I think especially since Covid that's something we all have to learn a little bit again because we've not been in rooms with people for so long and having to promote stuff so hard especially when all the promotion you've been doing is over social media. So I think it was just great to be back and networking again because I absolutely love networking.
Speaker: Thanks for tuning in to TLCpod with me and Annie. Our social medias are at linkincompany for our Twitter and for Facebook and Instagram. Please search the linkincompany. Tune in for more next time.
