Meet the new artistic director of The Octagon

And the good news for Bolton is that she is bursting with exciting ideas to take the theatre forwards into its next half century.

Even before the job was advertised, Lotte, who comes from Kent and lives in Scarborough, was already familiar with the Octagon.

“I knew it had a brilliant reputation and I’d seen shows here. Over the summer I came to see Summer Holiday and Gulliver’s Travels.

“I’d heard a lot about the theatre such as the new plays that come out of it, and how Jim Cartwright had done a lot of work with it, so I’d known about it for a number of years.”

She added: “I’m absolutely thrilled to be joining the Octagon as artistic director. It’s an inspiring theatre.

Roddy Gauld, chief executive of The Octagon said due to the number of very high calibre candidates for the role, making a decision was a difficult choice.

But he added: “Lotte stood out as the right person. She is a hugely versatile director, who creates shows of quality, flair, fun and warmth. I know Bolton’s audiences will enjoy her work.”

“During the recruitment, Lotte proved herself to be a thoughtful leader and collaborator, with new vision and inspiration to build on our previous success. I’m thrilled to welcome Lotte to The Octagon, to be working with her on re-opening the theatre in 2020 and planning an exciting future.”

Lotte officially takes up the position in February and is fizzing with ideas.

“It’s early days but I’m very excited about The Octagon’s possibilities as a theatre. It already has a very loyal audience but we’re really interested in reaching new audiences as well and telling dynamic stories and making theatre that’s popular but also bold and adventurous.

“The space really excites me because its predominantly in the round but also flexible, and there’s a studio space.”

She added: “It’s a hugely exciting time for the building, as it undergoes its capital redevelopment plans ahead of reopening in Spring 2020. I’m very much looking forward to working with Roddy and the brilliant team in Bolton. I’m honoured to have been chosen to take over from Elizabeth Newman.”

Lotte is not from a theatrical background but considers herself lucky to have been taken to the theatre by her parents during her childhood.

“I really fell in love with it from an early age. A memory that really sticks out is seeing Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat in London.

“I started performing in school plays and am-dram and then found out that directing was something you could do and decided that’s what I would like to do.”

During her time as a student at Keble College, Oxford, where she read English Literature, Lotte got involved in student productions.

“I did a bit of acting at university but I decided that I didn’t want to act professionally but I definitely wanted to direct.”

After graduating, she started doing assistant directing and also directing small plays in rooms above pubs.

“I loved being able to choose the play and being able to build a team around that,” she explained.

“As a director, you not only get to cast the show, you also get to choose the designer and the lighting designer and the sound designer. And I love building up a team around me who can help deliver the vision of the show – and getting to work with great actors.”

During her time as an assistant director, she worked on the Aklan Aykbourn play, The Norman Conquests, at the prestigious Old Vic. This led to her being asked by its director to be his assistant director on Matilda – The Musical.

“I did that and then became his associate director, and then worked on Matilda for eight years, taking it from Stratford-upon-Avon to the West End and then to New York, which was great.”

Lotte also had the opportunity to assist such high-profile directors as Sir Richard Eyre on Private Lives, and Jeremy Samms on his production of The King and I at The Royal Albert Hall.

“It was really good fun and I learned a lot from them,” she said.

In the summer of 2016 she was a freelance director at the famous Stephen Joseph Theatre in Scarborough. The next year, the artistic director asked her to go back to direct the regional premiere of Di and Viv and Rose.

Lotte said: “By that point I’d been a freelance director for just over ten years, working all over the country and abroad. I really wanted to experience what it would like to be in one venue for a longer period of time, to see if that suited me, and so I applied for Arts Council funding to do a year-long programme at Stephen Joseph as an associate artistic director.

“Th idea was that I would learn all of the skills needed to be an artistic director outside of the rehearsal room. I knew how to put on plays and musicals but at that point I didn’t know how all the other aspects, like programming, budgeting, marketing and education, worked. I wanted to spend a year getting to grips with all of that and being mentored.

“I hoped it would enable me to become an artistic director of a theatre in the future - and here I am!”

Explaining what her role as The Octagon’s artistic director involves, she said: “It’s about leading an organisation artistically and part of that is deciding which shows to programme, developing audiences and thinking about how to serve the audiences of Bolton and put on really exciting work.”

Lotte also hopes to develop up and coming artists and writers, and engage the young, the elderly and people in the community who might not think theatre is for them.

“I think theatre is important for bringing people together and telling stories and, in some ways, giving people light relief and escapism,” she said. “It can also introduce people to stories that they might not have thought about and encourage them to imagine things from another point of view.”

As a passionate theatre-goer herself, Lotte says the theatre experience cannot be underestimated.

“I love the live aspect of theatre and the fact that it’s different to watching a film or TV. I love being in a room with a bunch of other people because you all feel you are talking part in witnessing this story and engaging in it.”

Lotte will be preparing to join The Octagon over the coming months and is expected to announce her first full season later in the year. In the meantime, she says she needs to start house-hunting in Bolton!