Stage

My Day

Stephen Faloon in conversation with SANDRA O’CONNELL

Sat May 1 2010 - 01:00

Stephen Faloon in conversation with SANDRA O'CONNELL

I BECAME general manager of the Grand Canal Theatre, in Dublin, last October. We opened on March 18th with no soft landing, no previews, just a show –

Swan Lake

– and 2,111 members of the audience.

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I think there is a huge hunger for what we offer here. During the Celtic Tiger people maybe thought nothing of heading over to London to see a West End show. Now they have a place they can see it in Dublin.

At the moment I'm getting ready for a Disney show, and after that is Whistle Down the Wind, the one with the Boyzone song No Matter What.It's Andrew Lloyd Webber's best in ages. It's a big-scale show with a massive set that we are just about to start building.

I get to work by 9.30am every day. The first thing I do – it’s becoming an addiction – is check the box office. I have 55 events lined up this year, and I have to keep an eye on them all.

If they’re not selling the way I think they should, I’ve to figure out why and what we need to do. If they are selling really well I need to find out what it is that’s working so well.

As general manager I have to keep a finger in a every pot, from marketing to technical, box office and programming.

I meet my heads of department every morning, and after that I’m into meetings with producers. They come here to see the building and work out how to best stage the show.

Those meetings will take me up to lunchtime, which is really only a concept. I have managed to get out for lunch once since I have been here, and that was to a lunch meeting, which doesn’t count.

In the afternoon it’s all about getting ready for the show. No matter how exhausted you are, when the doors open, the adrenalin kicks in again. It’s all about making sure people enjoy the experience from the minute they walk through the doors till they leave at the end.

I don’t get to see the shows, but I like to go in for the last 10 minutes, to see people’s reactions. That’s the highlight. Then it’s back out front, to talk to guests afterwards.

By the time I get home it’s 12.30am and I’m exhausted from running up and down five flights of stairs every day.

I used to be an actor, but I was blessed with the self-awareness to appreciate my incompetence. The moment I realised I was meant to be in theatre administration, and not on the stage, was wonderful. It’s a labour of love for me.