Max Rodriguez-Thorp wins Hazel Sharples Memorial Prize

The Hazel Sharples Memorial Prize was awarded to Max Rodriguez-Thorp, who has just completed the BA (Hons) Technical Theatre Arts (Design Realisation) programme.

The prize was set up in 1999 in memory of Hazel Sharples, a stage manager and arts officer who passed away suddenly in 1995. During her career, Hazel worked for the Royal Opera House and the National Theatre, and chaired the board of the Warehouse Theatre, Croydon.

Each year her friends and former colleagues contribute towards an endowed prize fund which provides for an annual award to an outstanding Guildhall School third-year Production Arts student, voted for by their peers.

On his win, Max said: “Studying or working at any institution during the last eighteen months has been a daunting challenge, and juggling working from home during lockdowns and the exciting rush of being back at Guildhall in person has been a strange mix. I feel incredibly lucky to have been able to do as much work in person as has been possible, and I’m really proud of my peers for just getting on with it and carrying on, despite it all. 

If you had asked me when I arrived at Guildhall what I thought I would be doing in the next three years, I most certainly wouldn’t have said learning how to use a lighting desk in my pyjamas or carving a Norse-inspired chair in my garden as snow settled around me, and I definitely wouldn’t have thought I’d be attending my last day at Guildhall remotely on my phone. 

Now that the turbulent time is nearly over and I’m thrust into the world of work, I plan on travelling around as a freelance scenic carpenter, learning new skills and working on exciting new shows. Hopefully, when my wanderlust has settled down, and I’ve had a full and exciting career, I’d like to do as my tutors have done and share my accumulated knowledge teaching the next generation of theatre makers, but that’s still a while away.”