After building a fascinating career in the world of theatre as a stage manager, Candice Wilson (Class of 1996) has embarked on a very different adventure. Together with her sister, she founded Build Up To Christmas advent calendars to bring 24 days of festive fun to children and grownups alike. Candice shares below about her studies after JAGS, her experience in the theatre industry, and her entrepreneurial journey.

“By the time I left JAGS I was single minded in my ambition to work behind the scenes in theatre. The drama department had given me the opportunity to try out different areas, and Ms Horton had introduced me to the National Youth Music Theatre (NYMT) where I worked backstage on several shows, so combined with my love of art I went to Bretton Hall to study Theatre Design and Technology. I’m glad I got in - it was the only place I applied to! See what I mean about being single minded...

There I studied the four main design areas - set, lighting, sound and costume and had an incredible time. Again - I was very lucky, as the college closed shortly after - an absolute travesty.

Before I graduated, I’d already landed my first job but as a Stage Manager. It was a favour for a friend who I’d met on an NYMT show. He had recommended me to his friend who was putting on a show for the Edinburgh Festival. This happened to be Kate Prince who is now considered to be one of the UK’s leading directors and choreographers. I loved it. All the skills I’d learned about designing married perfectly with my organisational and practical mind. Turns out I make a much better Stage Manager than designer!

So now I was doggedly looking for stage management work and desperately wanted a job in the West End. Again, I used my NYMT contacts and started hanging out with performers and crew in Soho bars until I persuaded someone to give me a chance to crew on the Phantom of the Opera. It was a steep learning curve, but after a while I managed to get a job on the stage management team. I am so grateful to all the people there. I began in 1999 and still go in occasionally to cover 27 years later. I even got an invite to the 40th birthday celebrations which was a very special night.

From Phantom, I moved to Les Misérables and then onto Spamalot where I got the opportunity to open the show in Australia (thanks mum & dad for the dual nationality). A few more shows in between and then I got a job as Assistant Stage Manager on Wicked Australia. This led on to the Australia tour, and getting promoted for the Asia leg, all culminating in reaching Production Stage Manager and setting Wicked up in New Zealand and the Korean language production in Seoul.

By now, though, I was beginning to get burn out and missed home. So, after a wonderful Australian tour of Driving Miss Daisy with Angela Lansbury and James Earl Jones, I came back to the UK. I returned to my old haunts of Phantom and Les Mis, but part time, and in less responsible positions. I just felt the need to take it easier on myself and find some sort of life balance.

I was beginning to feel like myself and took work developing Monsoon Wedding the Musical in India which led on to projects with Frantic Assembly (who I’d studied while at JAGS and Bretton Hall!) when Covid happened and theatre closed indefinitely. I found myself selling Christmas trees in a park! (Although turns out I love it, and I’m about to start my 6th season!).

My sister, Kirsten, used to make custom advent calendars for her sons where she took a whole LEGO set, divided it into 24 daily builds, and packaged them in gorgeous boxes to hang on the tree—complete with adapted instructions so what they were building was a surprise for as long as possible. She had said to me several times she wanted to turn it into a business, and finally in 2024 I conceded and agreed to join her. Maybe partly because I had already thought of the name Build Up to Christmas.

So now my background in design and management really came into use. We sourced the sets, redesigned the instructions, hand-packed every single calendar and I started learning about making websites and marketing. We’ve purposefully grown slowly and are still learning - for example this year it’s all about AI and how to get chat bots to recommend you - which is something that didn’t exist last year, whilst also trying to convince customers you’re genuine and not AI! E-commerce is constantly evolving and we’re just trying to keep up.

This year things are looking promising. We sold our first calendar in February! And we’re hoping to bring in a line of Christmas cards for next year as well as adding more sets to the 21 we already offer. It’s a full-time job that isn’t making any profit yet, but we’re hoping this year we will break even.”

We are always delighted to hear from our alumnae and learn about the incredible variety of career journeys they follow, achievements and life updates. If you have news you would like to share, we'd love to hear from you. Please share your stories and updates with the JAGS Alumnae Relations Team via alumnae@jags.org.uk.