Icon’s Incubator supports young people from Medway and Swale to become the artists, stage managers, lighting designers, sound engineers, set builders and costume makers of tomorrow. Part of this programme is supporting first paid work experience or Assistant opportunities alongside our creative teams. Noah Lock was Assistant Musical Director on the R&D phase The House That Floated Away. Here, he shares his experience with us.
I was delighted to be offered the role of Assistant Musical Director for the research and development of The House That Floated Away. During my time studying music, I spent two years as the Assistant Musical Director for the student string orchestra, where I learned the fundamental skills required to conduct and rehearse ensembles of passionate amateur musicians.
When I was presented with the opportunity to take on the role of Assistant Musical Director at Icon Theatre, I saw it as a perfect chance to develop my skills as a Musical Director further. I was eager to gain experience in performing arts – I might not have otherwise explored it as an orchestral musician. Hearing about Icon’s exciting and ambitious plans for the show, it was simply too good an opportunity to miss!
Part of my role was to assist the Musical Director. I began by sitting in on community choir rehearsals, following along with the score and observing how the Musical Director approached each session. I occasionally chimed in, but mostly watched carefully so I could apply everything I had learnt to my own work later on. I also took part in meetings to discuss the music and helped to plan the organisation of the recording and sharing days.
A key part of my role involved leading several choir rehearsals for the project. On one occasion, when the Musical Director was unable to attend a community choir session, the responsibility fell to me. I was a little nervous, but I drew on my experience with the string orchestra and everything I’d learned from observing earlier rehearsals. To my relief, the session went extremely well. It was something I never expected to be able to do, and it gave me a huge boost in confidence.
There was also a children’s choir made up of pupils from two local schools. I visited the schools during lunchtimes to work with the children, and later we brought both choirs together for a joint rehearsal. It was such a special moment hearing all the parts together for the first time.
The following week, we spent a day in the studio recording the singers and creating a track for the performance. I arrived with the children’s choir and was thrilled to be in such a high-tech environment. Listening from the control room, I felt incredibly proud of everyone’s work. The recording sounded amazing.
The sharing day was great fun, and it was wonderful to see all the different elements of the show starting to come together. The music we’d been working on was just the finale of a much larger production, and it was exciting to imagine how everything would look and sound in the finished show.
I feel incredibly lucky to have had the chance to see what happens behind the scenes of a show. I was involved in rehearsing, recording, and performing, and I even got to sit in on a rehearsal with the actors as they practised their lines with the audio cues. I also gained insight into some of the exciting technology being used in the production.
This incredible experience has opened up new pathways for me to explore in my career as a musician. It’s given me a new appreciation for the collaborative nature of theatre-making and shown me how powerfully theatre can communicate important messages and spark conversations that need to be had.
If you are interested in taking part in Icon’s Incubator programme, opportunities are advertised on our website and across social media.
Thank you to Creative Estuary for supporting this placement and the development of the production. You can find out more about The House That Floated Away here.