Matthew Byam Shaw: Role of theatre producers is ‘totally misunderstood’

Theatre producers “get a rough deal” because their role is “totally misunderstood” by the public and the sector, the head of a leading production house has claimed.

Matthew Byam Shaw, director of Playful Productions, which has produced shows including Hangmen and Shrek, was speaking at an event to celebrate 40 years of Stage One, a charity dedicated to nurturing new theatre producers.

Byam Shaw said he was “grateful to Stage One for honouring the position of producer” and added: “I think producers get a rough deal. It is a totally misunderstood role. We are referred to, very insultingly in my view, as the money men, which is deeply unfair.”

He added: “We all know what a stretch the whole job is, from hopefully creator to nurturer to being there when it all goes bang…Most of the theatre profession has no idea what a producer does, and certainly the press don’t.”

At the event, held at the Hospital Club in London, Stage One chief executive Joseph Smith said the organisation had “hit its stride” in the past 15 years.

He highlighted how, over the past five years alone, it had placed 36 apprenticeships in London, with nearly every single one now working full-time in the sector.

Stage One has also placed nine regional apprenticeships since 2013 and over the past five years has awarded 276 bursaries, totalling £617,000.

Tracey Childs, producer at the Mercury Theatre in Colchester, also used Stage One when she was moving from acting into producing.

Speaking at the event, she said the Mercury had recently taken advantage of the apprenticeship scheme run by Stage One to place aspiring producer Nathan Brine. She revealed that, following his initial placement, the venue had created the role of associate producer for him.