Breaking out into the industry: Clementine Rice on the transition from student to professional theatre 

Nestled in the window corner away from the midday rush of Pret, director Clementine Rice took a break from her swamped schedule to chat to me amidst the busy preparations for her Cambridge debut in ADC show Private Lives. With the production opening this week, I thought this would be the ideal time to catch Clementine as she reflects on her transition from student to professional theatre so far and why directing has been a lifelong passion.

As an English masters’ student at Corpus Christi College, Clementine is well versed in the scheduling struggles that come with an active involvement in Student theatre at Cambridge – yet she wouldn’t trade it for anything! “I always wanted to direct stuff, I always found directing really interesting”, she told me as we spoke over the blasting music and bustling chatter of the café. Having recently graduated from an Undergraduate degree at Yale University, Clementine has well and truly crossed the pond and is now taking on the Cambridge academic and theatre scene. She recalls her fondness for British theatre from a young age, “I’ve always loved British Drama and so part of my reason for coming to Cambridge was to be marked in the British drama scene”. Directing her first play on the eve of her 17^th birthday, Clementine’s school production of Shakespeare’s Othello ignited her love for female-led theatre. Featuring a woman–only cast, her adaptation featured just seven actors and was “set inside a 2020 political campaign of a potential presidential candidate”. “It was a really interesting way to talk about immigration policy”, Clementine reminisces, calling on the play’s original context “about an outsider coming into contact with an institution who is not willing to accommodate the individual”.

Clementine’s directorial approach is marked by a love of theatre created by women. “The first director I had was a woman”, she recalls looking back to her childhood and remembering how she would eagerly sit behind and enjoy “listening to her talk to other kid actors about what they were doing on stage and blocking”. “I found it really fascinating figuring out stage pictures and the connections between character psychology and design”. This attention to the parts of a character not so visible on stage has clearly stuck with her as Clementine shows me her script folder. It is richly annotated with an array of thoughts and analysis for each line, breaking up the script into each character’s psychological underpinnings. She owes this approach to her “amazing advisor in my undergrad, his name is David Chambers, he works at Yale and he is incredible”. “He taught me about Analysis through Action which is the technique I use”. Interpreted by Maria Knebel and based on Konstantin Stanislavski’s methods, it involves reverse textual analysis that is actor focused. “I technically worked as [Chambers’] TA whilst I was at Yale in my final years, that was lit and super fun!”.

When asking her about the pathway from student to professional theatre, Clementine spoke with such passion and affection for her impressive and sustained involvement in University theatre. Directing Caryl Churchill’s Top Girls for her thesis production and becoming an assistant director for many other student-penned plays at Yale. Her first break into the professional industry came from the reading of The Release, a play which Clementine directed at The Atlantic Theater Company.

Impressed by these achievements, I was keen to know what Clementine’s proudest production is so far. Contended hotly by her direction of Top Girls, Clementine’s reading of a new off-Broadway play Senate Twink, at The Public Theater in New York, seems to top her portfolio of theatre ventures. The up-and-coming production follows a Senator and “approaches politics interestingly”, she expresses, “especially considering the political situation right now in the US, many of us feel pretty powerless about what’s going on. It’s certainly not impartial but asks a lot of questions about today’s climate, depicting the peaks and troughs of ambition and its cost.” As she recalls the “almost instant laughter that was trickling forward and was up roaring at times”, the wide smile on Clementine’s face lit up the small room in Pret.

Bridging this discussion of student theatre leading onto professional industry involvement, I wondered what had surprised Clementine the most in this jump. “There are way less roles” she claimed, yet with optimism exclaimed “but you can create your own reality which is really exciting- there’s a world of possibilities waiting for you!”. I was curious to ask her advice for any budding young theatricals who wanted to break into the industry. Her number one tip was to “sit down and write your goals out” she says, drawing on a Tik Tok of actress Rachel Sennott doing a talk. “Write out your big goals and break them down into tiny increments of how you get there”. Networking was also a key part of Clementine’s experience: “it starts with reaching out to people in the industry and asking about their experiences”, as she suggests speaking to Cambridge alumni. She also encourages cold emailing professionals and companies, “you will probably email hundreds and get only two responses. But those two people who are willing to meet you for coffee may be the avenue to your first job in the industry. The industry is a lot about networking and so you have to use the network”. Drawing on her own nerves, Clementine was candid about the very common fears of failure within the theatre industry. “I think it’s easy to get scared about the big overarching goals and ambitions you have because it feels so out of reach, but break it down into little steps and inch by inch you will get there”.

With so much already achieved, Clementine doesn’t plan on slowing down any time soon. She hopes to pitch another production for Easter term focussing on new, female writing to also take to Fringe. “I’m still trying to figure out what that is. If anyone is reading this and if they are a young writer, I love reading new scripts and I want to work on many more new plays.” Clementine directs her response to any readers who are interested in script–writing and have a piece to share: “I think the way to break into the Theatre scene as a director is to direct a really cool, new play and there are so many amazing young writers doing that’.

Edited by Abby Williams