The production team behind Shakespeare in the Park: Twelfth Night, the annual charity production of the Sheffield University Theatre Company (SUTCo), have unveiled their technical team.
The show, which marks the group’s final regular production of the 2024/25 academic year, is set to be staged next month in Crookes Valley Park, with the 13-strong cast having been announced last month.
Despite having one of the largest casts of the year, Shakespeare in the Park: Twelfth Night has SUTCo’s smallest technical team of the year, and one of the smallest for several years, consisting of only five members.
Revealing the final members of the show’s company yesterday, the production team introduced “[their] incredible Tech Team”, saying that they “can’t wait to see what plans they’ve got for CVP”.
With no lighting department due to the location of the production, the show’s largest cohort comes from their two-person stage management team, with Rachel Hubbard (Accidental Death of an Anarchist) as Stage Manager.
Joining her is SUTCo’s Archivist Emily Hackett, making her production debut as Twelfth Night’s Assistant Stage Manager.
The two will each be tasked with overseeing the playing space, and the dozen cast members performing in it, despite the challenges that Crookes Valley Park poses.
Joe Edgar (The Effect, The Importance of Being Earnest) reprises his role as Sound Designer, having previously fulfilled the role during this semester’s production of The Effect.
This will be Edgar’s third time as a show’s Sound Designer, having also designed audio previously for The Importance of Being Earnest and 2023’s Medea.
Lucy Davies (It Came From the Ice, The Effect) joins her third SUTCo production of the semester as Set Designer.
She previously was Co-Set Designer for It Came From the Ice and Assistant Stage Manager for The Effect, making this her third technical role in as many SUTCo productions.
Completing the technical team is Barbara McLaughlin (It Came From the Ice, Accidental Death of an Anarchist), making her SUTCo backstage debut.
She previously starred as Angela in this month’s It Came From the Ice and Feletti in Accidental Death of an Anarchist.
The five-person tech team will be under the leadership of Adam Rajczakowski (It Came From the Ice, Accidental Death of an Anarchist), the show’s Production Manager.
Directed by SUTCo’s Technical Officers and Co-Directors Leila Arbabi (Margaret Beaufort: Kingmaker, Why We Stay) and James Platt (Margaret Beaufort: Kingmaker, Why We Stay), the production will play for two performances in May, and will mark the final standard production of SUTCo’s year.
It will also be the final show overseen by the incumbent SUTCo committee, with the committee-elect preparing to take over their roles in the coming weeks.
With the 23-person company now in place, the final production of 2024/25 is less than one month away, with all teams now preparing to begin their work transforming Crookes Valley Park into a Shakespearean paradise.
As SUTCo prepares to take their final bows of the year, all eyes are now set on the charity production to serenade audiences into the summer sun.
SUTCo’s Shakespeare in the Park: Twelfth Night will be playing at Crookes Valley Park from May 10th to 11th
