Gemma Tonge (Technical Theatre)

Biography

Gemma graduated from Guildhall School in 2002 with a BA hons in Stage Management and Technical Theatre. Since leaving, Gemma has curated a successful portfolio career that spans multiple art forms and scales.

Gemma began her career in opera and dance working for the major opera companies - Opera North, English National Opera and Scottish Opera. Gemma was Company Stage Manager for the Linbury Studio, Royal Opera House for seven years before moving to be Touring Company Stage Manager at Sadler’s Wells for 8 years, where she worked both in the UK and internationally, touring to over 67 international venues. During this time, for her work on Matthew Bourne’s Swan Lake, she was first nominated for the Stage Management Association Stage Manager of the Year award.

Alongside her work in opera and dance, Gemma worked regularly in events. Gemma acted as Stage Manager for Edinburgh Hogmanay, as well as Latitude Festival, TedX, IDEX Abu Dhabi, Piccadilly Circus for the Olympic Celebrations 2012 and BBC Young Dancer of the Year.

Gemma’s path moved towards theatre with the Royal Shakespeare Company’s co-production of As You Like It at Sheffield Theatres. She moved to the National Theatre for Emil and the Detectives in 2013, managing a cast of 12 adults, 180 children, a band and even live animals. For this production, Gemma won the Stage Management Association’s Individual Stage Manager of the Year award 2014.

She worked for Manchester International Festival as Company Manager for the European tour of Life and Death of Marina Abramovic in 2012; Kenneth Branagh’s site-specific Macbeth in 2013, which was internationally broadcast and also ran at the Park Avenue Armory, New York City in 2014 and acted as the Project Manager for the international tour of Tree of Codes in 2016/17.

Gemma continued her relationship with the Kenneth Branagh Theatre Company as Company Manager for the year long Plays at the Garrick West End season 2015-2106 (Garrick Theatre). For her work on this season, Gemma won the Technical Theatre Award for Outstanding Achievement in Company Management 2016.

Gemma returned to the National Theatre in 2017, where she is now, to the newly created role of Head of Company Stage Management, the first person to hold this post. Most recently she has been responsible for successfully bringing productions back into the rehearsal rooms and NT stages during the pandemic under challenging COVID restrictions.