Nica Burns, Theatre Producer & Nimax Theatre Group co-owner
You’ve had such a prolific career and how did you get started and what was it that gave you a passion for theatre?
It was actually reading Hamlet when I was 13, before that I was going to be a dancer. I didn’t expect to be a theatre owner.
What gives you the most joy in your work?
It’s working with a great company of actors and standing at the back of the auditorium and seeing how happy that evening’s show makes them. What I think we really do… What we do is make people happy. How good is that. I love the collaboration, I love the community. I love making a show and then watching an audience leave, skipping away because they enjoyed it so much. Oh, and putting the ‘house full’ sign up, because it means people really want to see my show. We’ve been doing Everybody’s Talking About Jamie, and making everyone so happy after lockdown, it’s touring throughout the UK now, and it’s packed and people are having so much fun. Don’t we need that at this time?
Tell us about your experience over the pandemic?
I employ a lot of people and the moment we went into lockdown, I started working on how we could reopen. And I worked very hard looking at all the regulations. The most important thing is about jobs and I kept all my full-time permanent members of staff and kept the staff team together. And keeping the team together, keeping the work going, was an important part for everyone to look to the future. Because we knew we had to beat it. We were going to reopen. And we needed all the staff team, hundreds of people, to be able to do that, and to work within the new regulations.
I will always be proud of the fact that I kept my full-time members of staff in work. Because the theatre industry is a above all about people. It’s about people who make the set, who make the wigs and do the sound and sell the tickets, the actors and the audience all of us come together and we have this wonderful evening and enjoy it.
How does it feel to be Back On Stage?
Yay! It just so brilliant! Everybody is thrilled to be back working; our theatres are packed. Audiences can’t wait to get in. All together we make people happy. Right now, we’re spreading a lot of joy – which is something that’s been missing. All I can say is let the joy begin, let the joy continue as we go back to our lives after being very unhappy during Covid.
What’s the most unique thing about live theatre performance?
Sharing the moment, all being in the same room. Knowing it’s being done in front of you, by someone very talented – whose doing it for real! No tricks (except in Harry Potter)!