| Compiled by Mhari Hetherington, June 2006
My name is Xana Maclean. I’m not a member of Equity so I never changed my name. I was born in 1977 in Bath in Somerset although neither of my parents are from there. My parents were from Edinburgh and we came back to live in Edinburgh when I was about 4, so I tend to think of myself as Edinburgh born and bred.
Where are you now, are you still in Edinburgh? Do you like it?
Yes, I like it. I was in Glasgow for a couple of years, which I liked and Glasgow has a very vibrant culture – not that Edinburgh’s not, but in a different sort of way.
What’s your occupation?
I’m a Youth Theatre Leader so I run the Lyceum Youth Theatre. I administrate it, manage it, lead workshops. I look at the strategy of the overall running of it in collaboration with the Department of Education but generally I manage it myself and there are about seven or eight freelancers who work in the Youth Theatre and I work with them, co-ordinating and I also direct shows as well so we kind of work in the academic year and in this academic year we’ve had about six additional festivals and productions as well as the nine classes that we do every week and I produce all of those as well and work artistically on production and directing this year
It’s definitely a full-time position?
It’s a very full-time position because at the moment we’ve got three different projects coming up so I’ve got my head in lots of different places at once.
What do you aspire to be, what would be your dream job?
Like in ten years time? I don’t really know. At the moment I’m thinking this is where I want to be now. It’s been three years since I graduated and I feel like I’m where I want to be. I love working with young people, and I love working with non-professionals and I guess I have dreams some day to have worked with non-professional actors, not that there’s anything wrong with working with professionals but I love working with adults and young people who are really passionate about acting.
Do you have an agent?
No.
How much money do you make?
I don’t really know what an average amount of money I make is. Let’s be honest, I’m not really doing this for the money.
Can you tell me a abit about the Education department at the Lyceum? There’s a team of three of us. There’s Lucy Bond who is head of education. Anne Marie who is an education officer so she does anything to do with young people of school age so she’ll go out to schools or schools will come in here and she’ll plan workshops. What she does is very much related with school workshops and she also writes education packs and also drama classes for adults. What she does is very much related to lifelong learning, not just for young people but those who are 16+ and theatre classes where people can go and have lectures about shows that are on and also drama classes for adults but again all connected to work on the main stage at the Lyceum. What if I don’t want to act but I want to be involved in theatre, have you got something for me?
If you don’t want to act? Yes, we’ve got a couple of different projects at the moment. For the second year running we have a project called “summer on stage” in which the 14-21 year olds will work for three weeks and 11-13 year olds work for two weeks and we have two productions presented in the main theatre.
Running concurrently to that for 16-21 year olds we have our technical theatre course which is working with very specialised really top quality technicians who are working with the team and we’ve got Janine Davies who is a quite well known freelance lighting designer.
So that’s for people who are not so interested in acting but interested in backstage work
Also, we have work placements on the admin side and they also get to see what’s going on in the rest of the theatre, plus we are happy to take on volunteers if we can. If people are interested they can put their CVs into us.
If you went freelance today or tomorrow, what would you call yourself, what’s your job title or do you have one job title?
Theatre practitioner.
And what does that mean?
That means that I work in theatre in whatever capacity because you can and that I work in admin because you can.
What’s your proudest moment?
I’ve had a lot of proud moments. Working with children and young people you feel proud quite often. Probably the best moment was doing Chatroom, which is a show that I directed when I was freelance at LYT last year and so far I think it’s the thing I’ve felt proudest of. Does that count?
What has been your lowest moment?
I’ve had some shocking reviews in the past but I think the thing is to try not to take it personally but I try to look at it objectively to see what they’re saying. I’ll take it into account and wonder whether or not they’re right.
What was your first job ever?
My first job ever was working in my Auntie’s café. My first ever paid theatre job? I can’t actually remember. I think my first ever paid work was drama working, reading new scripts and that was before I graduated.
Any advice you would like to impart to those jealous of your fabulous career and lifestyle?
Lifestyle?! You have to work hard and you have to keep a smile on your face. You have to try not to be too a-political, that’s quite good advice, and still to take on board what other people say. You have to be able at the same time to keep up your strength in your own ideas, but artistically you have to have strength in your own beliefs, just work really hard, put the hours in. Work hard, listen to other people, take advice when you can get it and keep a smile on your face!
What’s the best production you’ve ever seen?
It was Wreck at the Airline Barrier by the Riot Group who I think are based in San Francisco and I think one of them might be working at the Scottish Playwright’s studio at the moment
I can safely say it was the best theatre work I’ve ever seen and that was about nine years ago.
What’s your favourite play?
Oh I don’t know… I’ve never worked on any Beckett. I would love to do some Beckett but I don’t know what in particular
What was the last play you saw? … and was it any good?
The last play that I really enjoyed was a play called K. It was at the Traverse Theatre. It was really sharp Arches Awards for Stage Directors. It was really interesting
Is this a good time to be working in Scottish Theatre?
Yes, there are so many new developments happening in Youth Theatre in Scotland at the moment with Promote YT and the National Theatre of Scotland. In a way it’s quite unsettling because you’re not sure what’s going on. But it’s an exciting time, not only will the standards of work get higher but people will be prepared to take more chances in theatre. I hesitate to use the word “experimental” because I think that’s often associated with rubbish but there’s more chance for more interesting work to start becoming mainstream
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