Guildhall questions: Rory Beaton answers

Rory Beaton graduated from Guildhall School in 2016 and has since gone on to work on productions with Danish National Opera, English touring opera and the Almeida, as well as the School's recent production of Così Fan Tutte.

As a recipient of financial support whilst at the School, we caught up with him ahead of Giving Tuesday to ask why he feels funding for the arts is so important.

Tell us about your journey since graduating from Guildhall?

Since Graduating from Guildhall, I have gone on to design the lighting for productions with companies such as Danish National Opera, Octagon Theatre, Wexford Festival Opera, Battersea Arts Centre, English Touring Opera, The Almeida, Opera Holland Park and Pitlochry Festival Theatre, as well as many touring productions.

What impact did financial support from the School have on your training?

The financial support I received in my first two years of training was hugely helpful. The maintenance grant I was given helped with things like rent, food, bills and all the other usual items. Living in London – even modestly – is very expensive and the financial support from the School took some of the pressure off and allowed me to concentrate on my studies more than I might have been able to do otherwise.

Which performance did you enjoy working on the most?

I really enjoyed lots of different productions for lots of different reasons: I was the first student to design both the repertory dramas (Pinter Triple Bill and Dealer’s Choice) which I’m still really proud of!

How would you describe the importance of funding for the arts? 

I think funding for the arts is crucial – it is a total social investment. We live in a really scary time where the world seems to be hurtling towards a terrifying unknown and what we do is try and make people happy through entertainment. Sitting through a performance of any kind is the perfect escapism; this was demonstrated during the last recession when ticket sales in theatre actually rose! People wanted to spend their money escaping from the real world!

In terms of the training, I think what the arts teaches you is invaluable and so much more than many sectors. You are taught an inordinate amount of transferable skills which are, in turn, benefiting society as a whole. You’re taught to deliver on budget, on time, a high-quality product and in conjunction with many departments of varying importance and vastly different briefs on a project. However, you are all working towards that same end goal and that is a phenomenal feeling when as a team, you pull that off.

What attracted you to Guildhall to pursue your training?

When I was applying to Guildhall it without doubt had the best reputation of the drama schools. Students and graduates excelled and nowhere could compete with the facilities or the level of industry experience that teaching staff carried. It was also really important to me that the course was broad enough to give you a grounding in all elements of technical theatre but allowed you to specialise quite significantly if/once you knew what you loved most – in my case, lighting design.

What are the biggest challenges faced by students in the arts?

It begins way back at primary and secondary school level: nobody introduces you to or explains the available jobs and roles within the arts. “You can be an actor.” Well, I’m keen to point out, there’s hundreds of people who you need on productions long before you cast a show/film/TV programme.

The next step is how to find the appropriate course for what you want to do and how to make that accessible to everyone. It’s incredibly hard to research a course when you don’t maybe know exactly what it is you want to do?! For me, when I applied to Guildhall, I didn’t know there was such a thing as a Lighting DESIGNER, I just applied so I could be “the dude that does the lights” as I was affectionately called at my secondary school.

It’s also hard to find the worthwhile courses – you don’t want to end up somewhere that you are only there for your financial contribution.

The hurdle then, is funding your studies. Currently, no matter what anyone will tell you – courses are not accessible to all backgrounds and that’s not good enough. There ARE schemes and venues who are championing this sort of development which is fantastic, but sadly not enough of them.

Then there’s families, friends and everyone else in-between: to some people, there is a belief that what we do isn’t real and/or valuable to society as a whole. I think it’s sometimes seen to not be a real degree… why is that?! As I touched on earlier – what you are learning is far greater than so many other courses - they are life skills.

I also think “the arts” can be slightly misleading – it’s not just theatre and classical music. The arts is everything: it’s that film you saw last week and loved, it’s the concert you were at and it’s everything you see on your TV as well.

An ever-increasing amount of groups are applying desperately for funding which is coming out of a shared, ever dwindling, pot of money.

What was the best advice you received when you were at the School?

I actually can’t tell you the GENUINELY best bit – the language was too fruity!

However, I’d say one of the best things I learned was: “The best idea in the room, is the best idea in the room – no matter who said it!”

We’re all working towards the same product and we all want it to be the best it possibly can be, so don’t be precious about who’s idea was whose!

Can you tell us about your upcoming projects?

I’m currently lighting a production of Le Nozze di Figaro for the Royal College of Music before ploughing head first into the land of three Christmas shows back-to-back!

I start 2019 with a production of Rise and Fall of Little Voice at the Octagon Theatre in Bolton. I then have upcoming productions of Macbeth, Elizabeth I and Idomeneo for English Touring Opera, a new production of Summer Holiday the musical for Pitlochry Festival Theatre and two productions at Opera Holland Park with a few other exciting projects in discussion!

What advice would you have for Guildhall students?  

My best advice would be make contacts! You have a fantastic brand attached to you by being a student at Guildhall so email people – ask them to go for coffee and find out how they got to where they are! Even the people at the very top of the chain are very happy to introduce you to what they do and help you along in any way they can!

Also, use your spare time to put on shows in the venues you can get hold of and most of all – try things that you want to! You aren’t going to get fired from a production whilst you’re training so try things in safety: it doesn’t matter if it doesn’t work!

Find out more about how you can support Guildhall School this Giving Tuesday.