Oliver Tourle returns to the stage with his latest show, Live and Backstage, in a building that has a very special place in his heart, the Assembly Hall Theatre in Tunbridge Wells. His first work experience placement was at the Assembly Hall, when he was just 15 years old and this gave him the opportunity to discover important life skills, develop a passion for theatre and a chance to forge for himself a career in the arts.
Oliver is a singer and performer from Kent who has experienced all angles of the industry. A former student of Performing Arts college Hillview School, Tonbridge, he was daunted by the cost of further education and decided to carve his own pathway through work experience and gaining a ground roots level knowledge of the industry.
During rehearsals for his up-coming concert performance I spoke to Oliver about his time at the Assembly Hall Theatre and what we can expect from his, seriously quirky, new one-man show, Live and Backstage. He told me…
“Well, I’ve worked at the Assembly Hall Theatre, as a casual staff member, for ten years now. I did my first work experience there when I was 15. Being casual staff is quite nice, because it means that I can fit my work around the planning for my one-man show that’s coming to the Assembly Hall on Saturday November 26th.
Working backstage means that I get to see all the different shows that come to Tunbridge Wells and I’ve worked with some amazing people and now, thanks to the new Theatre Director, John-Jackson Almond, here I am doing my own show on the very same stage. It’s very exciting.”
Is working there the thing that inspired you to have your own show?
Oh yes, it is. When I was younger it was such a big thing to me. I remember that I started my work experience in the half term school holiday and it was such a huge thrill to me to be able to see such talented people performing. The Assembly Hall is such an inspiring place and, working there, it’s given me a great insight into the kind of performances that there are, the sort of thing that audiences like and, also, how you can change things up a little bit and give people a different experience to what they might be used to in a theatre.
Does that mean that you can spot those who are out there to “do a show” and those who are out there to “entertain an audience”?
Well, yes, but I don’t like to do that. There are some people out there who do just do a show, but I think there are a lot more who realise just how important it is to entertain people. When I started to put together my new show I concentrated so much on making sure that the audience will have a very different, and hopefully very entertaining evening.
So what can we expect to hear in your “Live and Backstage” show?
Last year I did my first one-man show at the Ship Theatre and it was more of an experiment, mainly to see if people enjoyed listening to me. A lot of people I know kept telling me that I should do something and so, rather than go to an “open mic” night, I decided to put my own show on.
It was a bit ambitious, and a great challenge, but it was a really good experience for me and showed me that I really could do the kind of thing that I had wanted to do for a very long time. The show was filled with lots of numbers that really meant something to me, at that time.
This time I’m going to perform some of my favourite songs from the past and some musical theatre songs but a lot more present day pop songs. I’ve got numbers from Elvis to Adele and Barbra Streisand to Tim McGraw but the one thing they all have in common is that they all mean something to me and they are songs that I can talk about on stage.
Connecting with a song is so important.
Oh yes, completely. It’s really nice to tell a story to an audience and then watch as they connect with the song in the same way. When they really relate to you and you can look into their eyes while you’re singing and know that they “get you”, that’s just magic.
You have a band appearing with you?
I do, I have a five-piece band and a couple of backing singers as well and, what’s great is, they are all local people too, just like me. Emma, who’s my musical director, helped me with my last show and she’s great for just giving me that little extra push and saying “Yeah, we can do it. Let’s go for it”. It’s really exciting to be working with her again. My backing singers are both friends of mine as well, so it’s been a really good opportunity for me to let them show off their talent as well.
and, just to be really different, you’re turning your show backwards.
Yes I am! The audience will actually experience the performance from what would normally be the performer’s point of view. They will be looking out over the huge, but empty, auditorium from seats which will be placed all around the back of the stage. They will enter through the Stage Door and get a really good experience of the workings of a live theatre performance.
It will be so great for them to experience a building that I am so passionate about, and to see a performance that I am passionate about. Not many members of the public get to see a venue in it’s raw state like this. They will use the backstage toilets – very glamourous! – and see the fly tower and lighting and how all that works. It’s really going to be a very unusual experience for all of us.
When I first started working at the Assembly Hall Theatre, and I got to walk around backstage, it really amazed me because you never really realise just exactly how much goes on to make a show so, hopefully, it will give a really different element to the show and help to make it a really special and spectacular evening.
Oliver Tourle: Live and Backstage appears at the Assembly Hall Theatre, Tunbridge Wells on Saturday 26th November at 8.00pm. Tickets, which are limited and priced at £18, are only available from www.olivertourle.com