October - Georgie Rankcom
- therevueuk
- Oct 15, 2024
- 8 min read
Updated: Oct 31, 2024
Georgie Rankcom is a trailblazing and already established OFFIE Nominated theatre director that we've had the privilege of sitting down with this month to place her ‘in the spotlight’. You may have been fortunate enough to catch some of Georgie’s work at the Menier Chocolate Factory (The Sex Party), Southwark Playhouse (Anyone Can Whistle, How To Succeed in Business (H2S), Before After) or at various regional and London-based drama schools (Flora The Red Menace, Pippin). Throughout our chat we’ve discussed her career, how she got to where she is currently and the exciting path that she is unfolding for herself, and the influential steps that she is taking to make a positive change within the theatre community.
Raised in the North East of England, it all began for Georgie when she saw her first live show at the age of 3. “It’s such a cliche,” she said with a smirk on her face, “but as a kid The Wizard of Oz, Annie, and Grease were on constant rotation.” She even laughs at the memory of making her mum call her Annie for the following six months, “we should’ve seen the warning signs here,” and reminisces on the time she screamed down a theatre at the end of a performance because she instantly wanted to rewatch it. “What I would do at home… would be to rewind the tape and watch it immediately again. Of course, I didn’t understand that I couldn’t just make the actors do Annie again for me.”
“That hasn’t really changed, I used to put shows on in the playground or garage and charge my neighbours 50p to watch me, or I’d direct my friends in something.” There’s a fondness with how Georgie reminisces on her childhood and how theatre has been an integral part of her life from such an early age. It also reminds us of West End Star Rob Madge’s ‘My Son’s A Queer (But What Can You Do?)’ and it makes you wonder how universal the young, queer, theatre kid experience really is with families that are loving and supportive. Or in Georgie’s case “bemused”. “No one else in my family works in the arts,” she says. “It’s not something that’s passed down so they’ve always been ‘yeah if that’s what you want to do, you do it’.”
At 14, Georgie got into making small indie horror films with her friends who “were adults in their thirties ‘cause that’s the weird way the arts works, isn’t it.” Her humour and good nature radiates, “I’ve always wanted to be someone who makes things happen and creates.” Following college in Newcastle, where she met tutors that she’s still friends with as testament to her kind-spiritedness, Georgie secured a place at Guildford School of Acting (GSA). She acknowledges that every school has its problems, “I’m not absolving them of anything… but I’m really glad that’s the school I went to.”
“It was a strange experience as someone who didn’t yet understand their own gender identity… I very early on knew I wasn’t going to work as a performer, because I want to direct - which is true and remains true - but I do sometimes think, if it hadn’t been so entrenched in gender and if I had understood my own identity a bit more whether I’d have tried acting for a while.” It’s an interesting point, she says “you’re 18 and you think you know exactly what you want but that’s very young… But GSA grounded such a wonderful sense of agency… and I had a lot of support.”
She began writing and continued directing at GSA, where she was able to direct and develop two versions of her own show, and work as Assistant Director with an external creative. “It meant that I had the opportunity to network with creatives… I’m actually about to work with Christian Durham as his assistant on Fly More Than You Fall and Chris directing my third year show at GSA.” It’s a full circle moment for her and you can tell from her warmth and openness that Georgie is proud of the journey that’s got her here, but she can see the bumps in the road that have made this experience unique to her. “You can ask anyone who’s been through professional training, it’s deliberately not easy.” It’s a knowing statement, she says while grinning, “but I really, quite early on there, was like the creative team is where I’m gonna end up.”
“I don’t know when that clicked, cause it's kind of always been obvious. I think for a while I was very much ‘ooh, well I’ll do everything’.” She pauses, laughing, “but I’m too lazy to be an actor.” “We did H2S last year with the luminous Allie Daniel as our Rosemary who was just a force of nature. Sadly, that force of nature pulled a muscle in her back the day after press night and we didn’t have covers on that show, so I ended up playing Rosemary for three performances!” A director willing to step into a role that she doesn’t cover doesn’t seem lazy to us but Georgie is able to laugh about how “disgusting” two show days can be, “oh my god do [the fellow cast] work hard. I’m not saying I don’t work hard, but I can work hard while I’m sitting down.”
Circling back, she says “I enjoyed my training as a performer, I think it’s definitely made me into the type of director I am now.” We asked her for a few words of advice for her younger self about to start drama school again, “the big thing would be ‘you’re a girl babes’,” she laughs but follows “but I think it genuinely is that… knowing your casting, knowing where do I sit, I felt thoroughly unconvincing any time I had to play a man.” There wasn’t room to explore her gender or identity, within drama school, Georgie seemed to think, “and that’s partly because I wasn’t ready for it… But going on as Rosemary was a bit healing because I got to play the romantic lead as myself.” Georgie is warm and smiles, “It did a lot for me (not for making me want to go back into acting) but in going ‘actually you could do this… but the productions have to make space for that.’”
Is the industry making space for that? “The trans representation now is so much stronger; Jo Foster is incredible in Why Am I So Single, Allie Daniel is in Hadestown, Robin Simoes Da Silva is in Book of Mormon. I do think we have a long way to go before it’s not tokenistic… My big issue at the moment is going out of your way to cast trans people (or any minority group specifically) in roles or shows and not properly understanding what additional support that might require… The most basic thing for me is music teams who don’t want to look at changing keys of songs or melody lines. I’ve seen close friends, who are trans, in productions that they should’ve slayed in not be served well by the team and so come out looking like they were cast as a token which is not the case because they’re amazing. My biggest issue is largely cis-gender teams really wanting to do better,” and she does stress that she knows teams have good intentions “80% of the time”, but that they’re “not really understanding how much is required. It’s that equity vs equality thing - to have proper equity there, there has to be an extra step up for trans people. It’s new for us too, these roles haven’t existed before for us and this hasn’t been possible for us until now so ‘hey, we’re learning as well.’” There are other basic steps too, that Georgie knows the industry can do better on, like ensuring teams are aware of the pronouns of non-binary performers. “If you’re going out of your way to work with trans and non-binary performers, you have to make sure you’re cultivating a space where they are properly welcomed and nurtured.”
“It’s a painful change, and it will take a long time, but the important distinction here is intent is key for me... Some people are so dismissive and I don’t think there’s space for that in an industry that claims to be so inclusive… There’s amazing progress being made though. I’m doing what I’m doing which feels like it may not have been possible 5-10 years ago. But it’s more from higher up - producer’s teams need to make sure that they’re fostering a really educated environment.”
Georgie is educated and witty, she’s eloquent and knows what she stands for. It’s inspiring to sit down with someone with such strong beliefs and who wants to create the world that she wants to see.
We moved to talk about Georgie as a director. What makes a good director?, we asked. “A genuine interest in what other people have to say. I think you need to have a reason for what you’re doing and an overall vision. I can only speak from my own experience but directors that I’ve enjoyed working with… are people who seem to really take other people’s ideas and craft a world where the whole team knows the story that we’re telling and the parameters of that world. Then I think there’s so much room for creative expression… and my main thing is that you need to make people feel comfy. I just want to have a good time.” Georgie is playful, continuously, in a truly sincere and endearing way that it’s hard not to feel comfortable in her presence. “Listen, we all get it wrong, but if people in the room are feeling frustrated or not listened to, you’re not going to get a good end product… It has to be someone who wants to embrace a whole group of people and go on that journey with them.”
And how does she prep? “I like a long lead in, because I’m a big procrastinator,” she smiles from ear to ear, “my in is always “what is this material saying” and how do I see that for me and for an audience now. But that doesn’t mean I’m going in and changing it… I’m a big believer in trusting the material.” She touches on her frustration of people taking a cast that includes trans people and seeing it as ‘revolutionary’ or ‘expansive casting’. “That’s not the point, we just want to cast people that we like… They do it in Shakespeare all the time, why can’t I do it in a musical?”
Georgie’s style is entertaining, she takes scripts that are “subtle and dark”, like Anyone Can Whistle that is about marginalised groups and H2S which is about gender roles, and she makes them “super camp”. It feels as though her message is that theatre can have meaning and purpose, and can also be a fun and enjoyable comedy. “I think it’s important that these old shows from the canon can still be done and can be looked at through a modern lens. There has to be a reason for it, I’m not interested in random silliness, but that said everyone wants to have a giggle.”
As someone that is still fresh in her career, Georgie Rankcom is creating the industry that she wants to work in and making progressive waves in London’s theatre scene. “I just make things I want to see, I want to cast people I want to see in things, it’s quite simple.” Georgie, much like her work, is fun and witty, but she has such a big heart and a willingness to share this. “I’d like to make [the industry] a more inclusive space and just make sure that it is truly for anybody… I want to leave a space where people feel valued… it’s an exciting time but there’s just lots of knotty things to work out.”
Georgie’s work can next be seen at Southwark Playhouse from October 18 where she is working as Associate Director on Fly More Than You Fall. Tickets can be purchased directly from the theatre’s website.