Southbank Centre Technical Academy - Credit: Pete Woodhead
ABTT launch Pilot Copper Award
23/01/2025
ABTT launch Pilot Copper Award bringing visibility to offstage roles and incentivising people to work backstage
The Association of British Theatre Technicians is proud to announce the launch of its Copper Award, currently running as a pilot, the course is designed and created to bring visibility to offstage roles and recognise the achievements of initial entrants in the industry who are interested in better developing their understanding of backstage theatre and live events.
The Copper Award celebrates and encourages the participants interest in potentially studying and working in our sector by engaging them in introductory training into backstage jobs, giving them a chance to prove their passion and commitment by developing their understanding and competence of backstage theatre roles. The training gives the candidate something to show future employers or training providers, demonstrating that they have invested time and know the rudimentary basics required to working backstage.
The award was designed and created by ABTT Co-Chair and Senior Lecturer at the Guildford School of Acting (GSA), Mig Walsh, alongside Paul Colewell, Lecturer at The Royal Central School of Speech and Drama (RCSSD), to offer a quality control to the many “boot camp” style training courses that have popped up around the country as the industry looks to tackle the recruitment and retention issue that we are currently facing.
The ABTT would like to extend a huge thank you to both educational institutions for their investment and commitment to get this award up and running and give special thanks Gareth Evans, Lecturer at GSA, David Evans, ABTT Co-Chair and everyone that took part in the peer review for their support and input in bringing this award to fruition.
The first pilot of the Copper Award, which launched at the start of January, is running at the Southbank Centre as part of their Technical Academy which is delivered in partnership with the ABTT, The Albany, Ambassadors Theatre Group (ATG), Factory International, Live Wire Productions National Theatre, Omnii Collective, The Production House, Roundhouse, Royal Albert Hall and RNSS.
Figure 1: Southbank Centre Technical Academy - Credit: Pete Woodhead
The Technical Academy is a three-week programme which introduces 24 people from London aged 18+, especially those from under-represented communities, to 'hidden' careers in backstage technical theatre and events, which in turn will help to improve the diversity of our workforce.
Southbank Centre have chosen to include the ABTT Copper Award pilot as part of their larger training as they believe it will show potential employers that their students are safe to work on stage and ready to take on entry-level opportunities in technical roles backstage.
'Southbank Centre are pleased to partner with the ABTT on their new Copper Award. Giving Technical Academy graduates an industry standard accreditation is really significant for their onward employment opportunities. We're proud to work with the ABTT to support new and diverse talent into our workforce.' Alexandra Brierley, Director of Creative Engagement, Southbank Centre.
The ABTT Copper Award will also be piloted at Lighthouse Poole, an organisation vital in supporting education in backstage theatre in the South West by providing opportunities for learning and participation across all ages.
The Copper Award will run throughout February as part of Lighthouse Poole’s Young Technicians course, a structured 12-week course guided by industry specialists and attended by young people aged 13-19 eager to get to grips with lighting, sound and stage management in a variety of indoor and outdoor settings.
Elspeth McBain, Lighthouse Chief Executive said of the collaboration, “Lighthouse is proud to partner with ABTT and the South Bank Centre to pioneer the new Copper Award and to help nurture the UK's next generation of theatre technicians. We want to provide the young people of Poole and the wider South West region with new opportunities that enable them to develop their own careers within the creative industries. Since its launch in 2018, the Young Technicians course has proven to be a valuable, real-world route into a career in technical theatre. By partnering with the ABTT in the development of their new Copper Award, we are able to continue to develop these students’ understanding of the roles available in backstage theatre while providing them with a recognised qualification to open even more doors!”
The Copper Award will become the new entry-level training course that the ABTT offers, sitting as the first qualification for people to achieve ahead of the well-known, industry recognised Bronze, Silver and Gold awards for Theatre, Stage and Sound Technicians, Theatre Electricians and Health, Safety and Risk Managers.
It is aimed at those with no previous experience or qualifications in backstage theatre and live events and offers participants the chance to learn the basics by understanding how technicians work and discover the “need-to-knows” on how to find work in the industry.
The purpose of the training is to demonstrate that the candidate is literate in backstage technical knowledge to a basic level and would be safe to be on stage during a fit up or get out while still requiring further training and investment to build knowledge and skills before moving on to the ABTT Bronze Award for Theatre Technicians .
The ABTT Copper Award is designed to be run by schools, amateur dramatics groups and training academies that offer backstage skills training, giving them full autonomy on how the award is delivered within their curriculum. How, when and where is all up to the company or school, but the Copper Award programme provides access to the content of what the award will be testing your candidates on giving guidelines on what needs to be covered to provide them with a better understanding of industry roles and how to pursue them.
After the pilot courses have completed, it is the ABTT’s aim to produce learning materials to support this award, which will provide additional help with teaching and revision for the candidates.
This Award is the latest initiative in a series of projects focussing on building our industry back better. For example, over the past 3 years the annual ABTT Theatre Show has developed a series of free entry-level hands-on workshops covering a variety of technical roles. Available at its 2-day event on the 4-5th of June 2025, these practical sessions are designed to give those looking at moving into the industry a taster on what opportunities are available and the skills they require.
These workshops run alongside the ABTT Careers and Professional Development Hub which was devised to assist new entrants in developing their career in the Theatre industry, providing opportunities for them to have their CV reviewed by Industry Specialists and speak with professionals about pathways into and through the Industry.
ABTT CEO, Liz Sillett said of the new pilot Copper Award, “The creative industries in the UK contribute over £120 billion to the economy each year, employing over 2.4 million people and the ABTT are eager to ensure that we continue to bring new entrants in to the industry from broad, diverse backgrounds. By developing the Copper Award course, which can be delivered through a multitude of different set ups, we are ensuring that there is a base line for quality control to the increasing number of ‘in house’ training courses that venues across the country are offering in a bid to help drive recruitment & retention to jobs backstage.”
While the Copper Award is still in its pilot stage, the ABTT are eager to gage levels of interest for this training and understand where it may be applied and used within the industry, so if you, your company, theatre or school would be interested in learning more about the award once it is fully available please send your expressions of interest through to admin@abtt.org.uk and we will be in touch with more information when it is ready to be launched.
Additional information
About the Association of British Theatre Technicians:
The Association of British Theatre Technicians (ABTT) is a charity and membership organisation, created by passionate technicians, to raise technical standards in theatre and live performance. We specialise in providing technical advice, consultations, training, publications and vital resources to the industry, while providing members with networking opportunities through events, seminars & exhibitions; incl. the ABTT Theatre Show.
The ABTT seeks to continuously advance technical expertise in theatre and live performance and believes that those who are interested or working in our industry should be as diverse in all respects and attributes as the members of the society in which we all live. This value mandates the ABTT to find ways of actively promoting equality, diversity, respect, dignity and inclusion and removing barriers for those who are underrepresented in our current membership, association leadership and sector.
One of our aims is to provide recognised Technical Theatre Training across all levels to aid the development of relevant technical skills for all and so the new ABTT Copper Award has been developed to fill a gap in our existing training portfolio.
About Guildford School of Acting:
Guildford School of Acting at the University of Surrey is one of the most highly regarded theatre schools in the UK with a vibrant community of performers, performance makers, applied theatre practitioners, creative practitioners and technicians graduating from our wide variety of programmes each year.
Building on a heritage of over 85 years and our reputation as arguably the leading musical theatre school in the world, we are passionate about helping our students to develop the practical, interpersonal and intellectual skills needed to make them employable in today’s highly competitive and ever-evolving creative industry.
About Lighthouse Poole:
Lighthouse plays a vital role in Poole and the South West as a nationally important, locally loved cultural organisation housed in an iconic building where creative work is made, rehearsed, discussed, shared and presented. A source of inspiration and pride to our community and the wider region, Lighthouse is different every day, a place where memories that last a lifetime are made.
Opened in April 1978 as Poole Arts Centre, Lighthouse was conceived as a receiving venue to provide entertainment and cultural experiences for Dorset and a new home for Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra. Today, Lighthouse is the centre of excellence for live performance, film and visual arts in the South West, playing an essential part in the delivery of national and regional arts strategy, and providing a dynamic, world-class cultural facility for Bournemouth, Christchurch, Poole and beyond.
Lighthouse is unique as the only multi-space venue with four auditoria in the South West, and one of the largest outside London, housing a symphonic concert hall, mid-scale theatre, small-scale studio theatre, independent cinema, art galleries, cafe, and function room spaces where our audiences can discover and enjoy an extraordinary mix of art forms not possible elsewhere across the region, all under one roof.
Lighthouse supports and enables the creation of work and artist development and is passionate about providing opportunities for learning and participation across all ages.
Lighthouse is a charity (Poole Arts Trust Ltd - registered charity number 275961) and is indebted to the generosity of its supporters, as well as the on going support of its public funders BCP Council and Arts Council England.
https://www.lighthousepoole.co.uk/
About Royal Central School of Speech and Drama:
The Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, is a drama school founded by Elsie Fogerty in 1906, as the Central School of Speech Training and Dramatic Art, to offer a new form of training in speech and drama for young actors and other students. It became a constituent college of the University of London in 2005 and is a member of Conservatoires UK and the Federation of Drama Schools.
The school offers undergraduate, postgraduate, research degrees and short courses in acting, actor training, applied theatre, theatre crafts and making, design, drama therapy, movement, musical theatre, performance, producing, research, scenography, stage management, teacher training, technical arts, voice and writing.
About Southbank Centre:
The Southbank Centre is the UK’s largest multi-arts centre and engages the most diverse audiences of any performing arts organisation in the UK. Our biggest venue, the Royal Festival Hall (2,700 seats) is the lasting legacy of the 1951 Festival of Britain and the ambition and values of that project – that arts, ideas, innovation and culture can heal communities and should be available and accessible to everyone – are still our guiding principles today. The Southbank Centre is uniquely able to offer a wide-ranging, inclusive and world-class artistic programme spanning contemporary visual arts, music, dance, performance, literature, comedy and spoken word across the Royal Festival Hall, Queen Elizabeth Hall, Purcell Room, the Hayward Gallery and our free spaces. We are also home to the National Poetry Library, the National Academy for Social Prescribing (NASP) and six resident orchestras (Aurora Orchestra, Chineke! Orchestra, London Philharmonic Orchestra, London Sinfonietta, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and Philharmonia Orchestra).
