Mark Dakin
Mark’s 40 year professional career as a theatre technician and manager has incorporated many roles for opera, theatre, dance and musical theatre companies across the world including the Royal Opera House, English National Opera, National Theatre, Theatre Royal Stratford East, The Young Vic, Bristol Old Vic, Sydney Theatre Company, Cameron Macintosh and The Really Useful Group.
After nine years of Production Management at the National Theatre, he was appointed Head of Production in 2001, where he was integral to implementing the producing systems to deliver the revolutionary Travelex £10 season and was responsible for introducing the operational systems and structures to deliver the groundbreaking productions of that NT era, including Waves, War Horse and Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time. In 2011 he became National Theatre’s Technical Director and led his department through a restructure and the completion of the £70m NT Future Capital project.
Mark returned to the Royal Opera House in the role of Technical Director in October 2015 to restructure the technical department, and at a point where their £40m Open Up project was commencing its works, including the refurbishment of the Linbury Theatre which subsequently reopened in 2018.
As well as restructuring the technical departments of both organisations, Mark also undertook and successfully completed major stage infrastructure and stage engineering projects whilst maintaining the busy repertoire performance schedules of both the National Theatre and Royal Opera House.
Mark was a Trustee and Building Committee member for both Bristol Old Vic and The Bush Theatre during their major capital projects.
He is currently a Trustee and a Building Committee member for The Yard theatre. He is also an Associate of Tangle, a mentor on Tangle’s AMPLIFY programme, a visiting lecturer at Yale University, a Committee Member of Stage Sight, and a Fellow of the Association of British Theatre Technicians.
He remains a vocal activist for the social justice agenda in the backstage workforce and for the performing arts sector more widely.
We caught up with Mark about joining us as an Associate and his role in our AMPLIFY scheme
Why did you want to join us and what would you like to achieve with us?
Finding genuine, authentic partnerships with colleagues who have demonstrable experience and a proven track record in supporting the progression of the Global Majority workforce in our sector is challenging. Post 2020 this space has become heavily populated with newcomers. Many are excellent and all are well intended, but in the rush to address the questions of underrepresentation and institutional bias, establishing a sustainable base and reframing the prevailing culture has often been overlooked.
Tangle and the AMPLIFY mentoring scheme, although currently small in scale, has well established deep roots in building a community of ongoing support and I believe has the resilience to grow and thrive in the long term. I hope to be part of nurturing that growth and building a community which will deliver a lasting change for the sector.
What does AMPLIFY mean to you?
Drawing others up as we rise.
Where did you first encounter Tangle?
At a Stage Sight meeting in 2018. Stage Sight is an organisation working to create an off-stage workforce that is more reflective of our society today. Tangle is a founder member and I have been part of the committee since its inception.
Why did you become a Tangle Associate?
Because of the AMPLIFY mentoring scheme. Anna Coombs and Associate Artist John Pfumojena invited me to get involved in 2019.
I mentored two alumni, Shivaike and Trevor, in 2020.
What does it mean to be an Associate at Tangle?
To signpost my commitment to AMPLIFY and indicate to the sector that effective partnerships are found in scale of ambition not organisational size. The Royal Opera House and Tangle might seem an unlikely combination but being an Associate at Tangle and the Technical Director of the ROH feels a perfectly natural application of the creativity of thought that will generate the right questions to secure a new future for our sector.