Alex Turner: I wish I’d known…

I wish I’d known… Our series of interviews with theatre makers sharing their experiences of working in the industry

MGCfutures speaks to Producer and 2017 Bursary recipient, Alex Turner

When did you decide on your current career path?

I wanted to produce theatre before I knew that the role of producer existed. Forming an interactive theatre company, non zero one, with five friends during my Drama and Theatre Studies degree started me on the trajectory of producing theatre professionally when our graduate show was programmed by the Southwark Playhouse and then the Barbican Centre. We went on to devise and produce the final show for the Bush Theatre’s previous home above the pub on Uxbridge Road in 2011, a commission for the roof of the National Theatre as part of the London 2012 Olympics Cultural Olympiad, two festivals for the Science Museum, another show for the Barbican and were devising a show for the Roundhouse when I left the company to pursue producing plays and musicals.  

What prompted your decision?

Seeing Cameron Mackintosh’s production of Oliver! directed by Sam Mendes at the Palladium in 1999, aged 11. I knew immediately that I wanted to be a part of creating the whole experience and I insisted my parents took my sister and me back the following Christmas. Unlike friends of mine, I didn’t want to be one of the boys performing ‘Food, Glorious Food’, I wanted to create the entire thing. I produced my first play aged 13, at school, and have produced one or two every year since.  

What was the biggest challenge you faced in the beginning?

Focusing on one role in the industry. I have worked in PR, marketing, devising, performing, lecturing at Royal Holloway, University of London, administration, general management, dramaturgy and as a producer – whilst watching industry peers grow and develop their careers in a specific area. I’m certainly a “Jack of all trades, master of none.” Perhaps my career and experience would have panned out differently if I had placed my attention on one area of theatre.   

What has been one of the greatest rewards?

Sharing with an audience in the emotion of a theatrical experience I have worked hard to produce.  

What advice would you give the younger you just starting out?

Don’t worry about your career. It really doesn’t matter. Careers are something we look back on rather than plan and build. I’ve never had a ‘five-year plan’, nor known how to make one, and things have worked out just fine. Generally, people who have careers are stressed and miserable and no one wants that. Focus only on the job you are doing now, do it to the best of your ability and ask help when in doubt – people in the arts are kind and the right ones will help you when you ask. That way, you’re much more likely to be calm, inspired and enjoy what you’re doing now; life is too brief not to. I believe that’s how we make the most compelling art.