These recent times have been some of the hardest challenges we've faced and as a community, it hit us pretty hard. However during these difficult times, here at Pocket Size Theatre, we wanted to spread a little positivity and share some peoples experiences because we are all in this together. Each day we'll be speaking to our friends in the industry to share their experiences with you all so take a read and see how people are getting through these hard times.
Let's stick together, share the love and get through this as a community!
*Some information mentioned in this article may be out of date due to the progress of the current situation. Please keep that in mind when reading*
Tom Hier is the Co-Director of Musical Theatre Virtual. His credits include Prince Charming/Policeman in CinderELLA: The Musical (Nuffield Southampton); Jack in The Dreamers (Abbey Road Studios); Matt in Bare: A Pop Opera (The Vaults, London); Miss Saigon (UK Tour); Chuck Cranston in Footloose (UK Tour) and 1st cover Joseph in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat (UK tour).
On Monday 16th March 2020, The Society of London Theatre announced the closure of all Theatres in London. This followed suit with regional venues. Where were you when you found out and what was your initial reaction?
I was in my flat in London and at that point, my reaction was, "Wow, really? I can't believe that". It felt like early days in the whole pandemic then, and I guess in a selfish way, until then it seemed like an issue that I was (thankfully) disconnected from. Not that I wasn't already taking precautions, because as a household we were, but I guess it was the first moment where I realised "Hm, this is going to be worse than we thought".
Can you tell us anything productive you’ve been doing?
I've actually been very productive. Aside from my acting career, I've always loved teaching. For the last three years in between and during jobs, I've been coaching prospective drama school students and aspiring actors; facilitating them on their path of becoming an actor. Thankfully, I was already doing a lot of this coaching online, so the shift to online format was a relatively smooth one.
A couple of weeks into lockdown, things were getting busy, and I decided to merge companies with a great friend of mine, Ryan O'Gorman, to form 'Musical Theatre Virtual' (insta, facebook, twitter, website, check us out!). Since then it's been all-consuming, in a good way. I've learnt so much & it's given me a schedule to work around - something I'm really thankful. We've got a long way to go, but we want to become the ultimate facilitator for aspiring actors on their journeys, and I think we'll get there!
