International Women’s Day Interview
Wed 8 Mar, 2023
In celebration of International Women’s Day, we sit down with 5 incredible women involved in different areas of Shakespeare North Playhouse to talk about their roles, from advice on getting into the industry, to women they admire (real and Shakespearean)...
Melanie Lewis- Chief Executive of Shakespeare North Playhouse
What do you love most about your job?
Being part of a team is really important to me and knowing that you are achieving together. It’s not always easy, but then all the best outcomes are only realised through hard work.
In my job I get the honour of telling everyone how great the team are, how brilliant our community is, and all the exciting things happening at Shakespeare North Playhouse. I get to invite people to be part of the Shakespeare North Playhouse gang, be that as a partner, artist, or audience, and experience the amazing work on stage and off.
Which women do you admire the most?
I admire women who are authentically themselves – people who are curious, don’t conform, challenge us all to be better, and make us question why the world is the way it is.
I come from a family of brilliant women so my mum is the woman I admire the most. She has a unwavering determination, boundless compassion, and instilled in me a fierce independence. This past year has been tough because she has been poorly but her response to working towards getting back to fitness is astounding.
What did you dream of becoming when you were younger?
There were two jobs I wanted when I was a teenager; to be an interior designer and the first team manager at Everton Football Club. What I do now is better! I never dreamt this job was a possibility.
What piece of advice would you share with other women who are interested in your role?
For anyone looking to take up a senior Leadership role, it’s critical you build a supportive network around you; full of people who understand you and your work. It’s good to have people from within your industry and outside of it. People who will tell you when you’re wrong and remind you when you’re right. Your network of people you trust are everything.
And, build a team around you who are better than you. It’s your job to create an environment where people thrive and are empowered to achieve the mission and vision. I’m there when the team need me and for the rest of the time I need to get out of their way.
Favourite woman/women from Shakespeare’s work?
I can’t pick one definitively but for IWD I’m choosing Katherine from Taming of the Shrew. Much has been debated about her character – who’s to say what’s correct? For me, Katherine is a person frustrated by the restrictions and expectations of women in society. She’s blunt, argumentative, and sarcastic – I think they’re qualities not flaws. As she doesn’t conform she has to deal with some coarse and unfair assumptions about who she is.
Katherine is relatable. Personally I never wanted to marry, never thought it necessary or beneficial, and never wanted to conform. However, when you marry your best friend who doesn’t put any expectations on you to be what society views as normal and is an active ally in bringing about equity and shaping the way others see the world – you realise this ‘wife’ label isn’t so bad. You make the label what’s important to you and the opinions of the outside world don’t matter. It’s just you and your best mate.
Valerie Antwi- Actress
What do you love most about your job?
I love the variety. Every project will be different, with a new team, in a new place and with completely different challenges. I love watching other actors work and develop too. I think it’s important and valuable to keep learning, challenging yourself and grabbing new – sometimes scary, but often exciting – opportunities.
What piece of advice would you share with other women who are interested in your role?
Try not to compare yourself to others – you are not failing just because someone else is succeeding.
Also, a thick skin and persistence is mandatory but it’s important to find a balance between career goals and other social and intellectual pursuits. Develop a life full of experiences, people and interests – which will hopefully inform your creativity too.
Which women do you admire the most?
There are so many talented, innovative women I admire but I think I’m always most impressed with ‘The Jugglers’. Modern life is so full of pressures, responsibilities and expectations. I most admire those intelligent, resilient women who manage to ‘make things happen’ whilst being kin-keepers, leaders and innovators. I feel that I could describe most women I know like this, in one way or another!
Favourite woman/women from Shakespeare’s work?
I’ve always been drawn to the complexities of Emilia from Othello. There are a few different ways she could be read and played – but what stays consistent is her strength and loyalty. Similarly, I love Paulina from A Winter’s Tale because she does not hold back from speaking the truth to power. Then there’s Much Ado’s Beatrice – so dogmatic and self-aware and yet somewhat in denial – which I have always found endearing. Her wit, devotion and feistiness is always a joy to see.
Cath Cullinane- Technical Stage Manager
What do you love most about your job?
I like the liveness/realness of it, and in the context of work here at SNP, realizing the written word into the spoke word witnessing how all the design and production elements come together, in a performance.
Which women do you admire the most?
I think I admire my Mum, as she was the first women in our family history to have formal qualifications ( 3 in Nursing) and she managed to have a family and deal with the stresses and strains of life.
What did you dream of becoming when you were younger?
When I was around 16, I found out that there was a Technical side of Theatre which really made sense as I always like Art and Science but could work out how I could combine the two. Hence my career!
What piece of advice would you share with other women who are interested in your role?
Try and get involved as much as you can, go see stuff Technical Theatre involves lots of long hours etc. see if you can shadow different departments. Find a good college course that suits you. Finally remember to enjoy the work.
Favourite woman/women from Shakespeare’s work?
I have various but considering all the women were played by men back in the day it can be a little strange. However I find Miranda, Prospero ‘s daughter intriguing, together with Gertrude, Hamlet’s mother.
Elizabeth Godber- Playwright
What do you love most about your job?
I love that I get to spend time creating something that makes people happy! I love seeing audiences watch my shows, there’s nothing quite like knowing you’ve brightened up someone’s day!
Which women do you admire the most?
All of the awesome women in my family and friendship group – they keep me focused and are my biggest champions, oh, and also the Bronte sisters, they’re my favourite writers, particularly Emily. I’ve lost track of how many times I’ve read ‘Wuthering Heights”. Brontes, my friends and my family – all incredible Yorkshire women!
What did you dream of becoming when you were younger?
Someone who could write and read stories all day (I wasn’t sure how I was going to turn that into a job haha!), – now I’m a theatemaker and PhD student, so I basically do just that!
What piece of advice would you share with other women who are interested in your role?
Writing is hard, it’s great fun, but sometimes it’s hard, lonely, and you really have to be brave and put yourself out there! That can be terrifying! But take all the opportunities you can and jump in the deep end, as you learn from every mistake!
Favourite woman/women from Shakespeare’s work?
I should probably say someone from ‘Comedy of Errors’! But I love ‘Phoebe’ from As You Like It – she’s a brilliant, hilarious character who knows her own mind and what she wants, she’s not royalty, she’s just a shepherdess, but she steals every scene!
Elsbeth Graham- Founding director of Shakespeare North Trust and Emeritus Professor of Early Modern Literature at Liverpool John Moores University.
What do you love most about your job?
My job has given me the huge privelege of thousands people sharing their minds, ideas and souls with me. There are somewhere between 8 and 10 thousand wonderful students who’ve let me into their thoughts, feelings and lives over the years: that’s a huge privelege. Then there are my amazing colleagues in English Literature and Cultural History at my own university and other universities in the UK and around the world. Their creative and intellectual imaginations, and their truly collaborative and collegial ways of working, have been a constant inspiration and support. My work has also given me access to the knowledge and wisdom of experts in almost every field of understanding and many people have shared their expertise with such generosity. And it’s been yet another joy and privelege to meet and work with people in different communities outsuide the university, most particulalry, over the past twenty years while I was working on the Shakespeare North project, the lovely and amazing people of Prescot and Knowsley, many of whom have become good friends. So, my love for my job is all to do with people, knowledge, thought and all of our joint endeavours to try and make the world just a little bit of a better place.
Which women do you admire the most?
I admire all of the extraordinary, brave seventeenth-century women whose lives and writings I have studies for decades now. If I had to chosse just a couple, I totally admire an obscure couple of women, Katherine Evans and Sarah Cheevers, who were mid-seventtenth-century Quakers. In a time when women were mainly supposed to stay within the household and to be silent, they set out to the Holy Land to spread the Word but were imprisoned by the Maltese Inquisition, en route. They not only resisted the Inquisitors, and survived, but were undaunted by their sufferings!
But, just as much, I admire all the everyday women in our world today who are equally determined to look after their friends and families and to work hard to make the lives and worlds they believe in. All those women who work so hard but who stay funny, kind and compassionate.
What did you dream of becoming when you were younger?
Apart from the usual dreams of becoming a dancer, a horse rider, and a brilliant author, I never had any idea of what I wanted to be! But I was quite a serious and worried child. I grew up in the shadow of the Second World War and was concerned whether I would have a been a Collaborator or a Resistance figher in occupied France. (I wouldn’t actually have had the choice to be either – given my ethnicity…But I inly realised that later!)
In the end, my life and work came to me. (A bit like you don’t choose cats to come and live with you, I’ve found. Cats choose you.)
What piece of advice would you share with other women who are interested in your role?
Academics are often perfectionist and very demanding of themselves. Remember that good enough is good enough. And don’t succumb to the plague of women academics: Imposter Syndrome.
Favourite woman/women from Shakespeare’s work?
In those quizzes about which Shakespeare character you are, I always come out as Beatrice in Much Ado. But, like everyone, I’d rather be Rosalind from As You Like It. Or, a less popular choice: Hermione from The Winter’s Tale.
