Fueled by a constant stream of caffeine, fourth-year Theatre Production and Design Laura McLean says she’s done it all backwards.

“I started a theatre company after my second year before I had taken the class on how to start a theatre company. I started directing years before I ever took the intro to directing class, based on instinct and things I had picked up being an actor for so long.”

At UBC she started off as a dresser in second year, then worked her way through assistant stage manager up to stage managing a mainstage production, but her real passion is directing. She’s directed with the UBC Player’s Club, and is currently directing a play for the Brave New Play Rites Festival—a collaboration between Theatre at UBC and the Creative Writing department. But as the Player’s Club is run by students and thus financially unsupported, and because Brave New shows are all one-acts, getting serious directing experience at UBC is quite a challenge.

For Laura, this meant that she would have to move her theatre-making off campus.

“In the summer between my second and third year, some of my friends from UBC and I created our own theatre company called Delinquent Theatre, and so I co-produced and directed our first show, Dog Sees God, and then the next summer did the same with our next show Spring Awakening. I have also directed a show as part of the IGNITE! Youth Week at the Cultch. And I remounted Dog sees God with Fighting Chance Productions for the Vancouver Fringe Festival last fall, at which we won Pick of the Fringe.”

In addition, Laura just finished directing a hilarious run of Matt and Ben at the Havana Theatre with Fighting Chance Productions.

“A lot of the work that I have done outside of UBC has been directing and producing theatre, and that is something that UBC doesn’t really offer experience with for their undergraduate students…I made a ton of mistakes along the way, figuring things out as I went, but I learned from them and that’s the important part.

“Besides the fact that Matt and Ben is a hilarious and beautiful story that I just fell in love with the first time I read it…[it was] the first thing I’ve directed since taking that Intro to Directing class I mentioned and so I think this show represents my best directing to date, but I guess I kind of want to be able to say that about every show I do from here on out.”

Although the acting program at UBC is often restrictive in allowing their students to do outside shows during the school year, Laura says that “in the production department it’s encouraged. My profs are always sending me job postings and going out of their way to make an introduction to someone in the theatre community. They have been very supportive of Matt and Ben.”

Any secrets to balancing school, outside work and personal life? Apparently not. “I have no free time,” Laura succinctly responds.

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