Creative Careers Week Q&A: Claire Thompson, Head of Paintshop at Nottingham Playhouse

Claire Thompson is the Head of Paintshop at Nottingham Playhouse. In this role for just over 3 years, she previously worked as the deputy head for about 15 years. She's responsible for painting all the scenery for Nottingham Playhouse's produced shows, like The Madness of King George III, and the famous Playhouse panto. Each individual show has a designer that comes up with a vision of how to stage each show and they make a scaled down model of how they'd like the final set to look. Claire and her team then use this model and other references the designer might provide to create the scaled up finished set. Each set creates a different "world" and can be anything from the inside of a coalmine, to a crumbling mansion of human sized birds nest!

What made you want to do the job you currently do?

I sort of fell into the job that I ended up doing and moved up the ladder as I gained more experience. I started at the Playhouse as a dresser and backstage crew on the pantomime before getting my foot in the Paintshop door when they were busy and I happened to be in the right place at the right time! Before I did the job I'm now doing, I didn't really consider it as a career choice as I didn't really know it existed as a full time job.

How did you get started?
I did a Fine Art degree in Sculpture, which these days especially isn't the traditional route into scenic painting. Coming from a fine art background though I feel has been useful as I have quite a strong grounding in drawing and observation which helps give you a "good eye" for how things are presented visually. Many people that get into this profession now do specific courses on scenic art and theatre design, where as I picked up all my technical skills on the job. I think if you are fortunate to know what you want to do from an early age, a specific course is a great idea but I didn't ever want to pin myself down to one thing.

What did your early years in the role involve?

I started out in the Paintshop many moons ago as an assistant painter, but this meant it was a temporary contract and I was only employed for the second half of the year as work would slacken off once pantomime was painted. I managed to pick up other bits of work in various places over the remaining part of the year and found I was getting more work as a costume assistant. I worked at Carlton Studios for a number of years and then freelanced as a costume assistant in between the Playhouse work. But when the full time Deputy painter position became available, I went for that and got it.

What’s an average week look like for you now?
In normal times, an average week can involve meetings with the production team and the designer, managing budgets in the form of costing up the show, doing samples to see how best to recreate the designer's vision, buying materials, and then actually starting work on the set itself

Tell us about the best thing that’s happened in your job?
The best thing about the job is that it's so varied. Designers all have such different ideas and i feel lucky to have a job where I can use my creativity to make decisions on how to re create a set for the stage. It was a very proud moment to have worked on The Madness of King George III and to be able to watch it with the rest of my team at Broadway Cinema knowing our work was being broadcast live around the world! Pantomime is also one of those things we always look forward too. The whole light-heartedness of the show and the fun style of the design makes it fun to paint and work on. Seeing it all on stage on press night makes all the hard work seem worthwhile.

What’s the one thing you wish someone had told you as you embarked on your Creative Career?
I know along the way, people did warn me that it would be long hours and not pay that well but I did it all the same as I really enjoyed it. Maybe it would be to say "yes" to things. Opportunities would often come up, apparently out of nowhere, and they would then lead on to other things so just getting as much experience of different working environments is good advice, so that you actually end up in a job you love!

To see Claire's work in action, make sure you book a ticket for one of Nottingham Playhouse's productions when they re-open later this year. nottinghamplayhouse.co.uk