Our Week at Eastern Angles

This week has taught me that there is so much that goes on in the world of theatre, not just being on stage. For example, digital archiving, school and community engagement in which we drove to Peterborough with the wonderful Alyson Tipping who is Engagement Manager, which means she goes around engaging with the community and letting them know about upcoming projects. On Thursday we got to work with the wonderful Penny who is Stage Manager. Penny talked to us about lighting and we got to have a go at using the lights and creating sequences, we then put on a short show of the story we made using the lighting and 3 props; all the staff loved it. 

There isn’t one particular thing that has been better than another. Everything that we have done has been equally enjoyable and it has been a pleasure to learn about new things to do with the theatre industry. Working here has definitely opened my eyes to all the different areas of theatre and made me realise that those behind the stage are what makes the performances happen and they are all equally as important as each other.  

The part I found challenging was the activities to do with the computers on the digital archive. There is a lot to do and it takes ages as you have to scan through all the programmes, leaflets etc… and then you have to save them into different folders.  

I would like to thank the whole of Eastern Angles team for being so welcoming and made this an experience to remember. 

Jessica Haydon 

Hello, I’m Edward Dance a Year 10 student from Kesgrave High School and I have a strong passion for all things theatre. When I knew we were doing work experience I knew straight way I wanted to do something involving my interests, so I knew Eastern Angles was the place for me. I could have chosen any theatre to do my work experience at but I’ve chosen the best in town, Eastern Angles Theatre Company!

I’ve really enjoyed working at Eastern Angles not only are the staff are very welcoming and pleasant to work around but it has been nice to learn about the sides of theatre I never knew existed, such as digital archiving and community and school engagement. My time at Eastern Angles has been very much enjoyable, thankfully another student from Hartismere was on work experience at the same time as me this has been good as not only have I got to share this experience with her, it has helped my skills of working and engaging with new people. 

This week has mostly been with the amazing Alyson Tipping, the Engagement Manager, this means she is in charge of the school and community engagement-type activities. 

The week started out doing the basic office activities such as digital archiving and volunteer forms, this may seem not very interesting but in my opinion it was a lot of fun to complete jobs I don’t normally do in my day to day life. But as my Nan always says “it gets worse before it can get better”. 

The second day was a lot of fun as during the day we did all the office jobs but then after work we went to an after school club for the children of Hamford Hall Primary School. In the club we played lots of theatre games and it was great to work with younger children. The group was run by the Wolsey Theatre and Eastern Angles so you know the group was a fun one!

On the third day, we took a trip up to Peterborough to help with some community engagement for The Undercroft Weekender, this involved going into Southfields Primary School and working with local artist named Kim Moore, this involved helping the kids paint flags for the festival, this will help get more people to visit as the children were very proud of what they painted.

On Thursday we worked with the wonderful Stage Manager Penny who thought us all about the world of lighting, this included a full workshop of the lighting, involving three props, a chair, Idun and some flower pots. We then proceeded to make a show using these three still props and the lights, the staff found this very amusing, especially with my improvised dialogue and voice over. Penny was a lot of fun to work with and I would love to do a lighting workshop again with her in the future.  

Lastly we have done a marketing lesson with the lovely Helena who taught us all about marketing and advertising, as you can tell we are writing a blog (hopefully you have read this far).  

I would like to thank the whole Eastern Angles team who has been very helpful and have made this experience one to remember. 

xoxo 

Edward Dance 

(byeeeeeeeeeeeeeee) Signing out.

Thank you Jess and Ed for two entertaining blog posts on your work experience here at Eastern Angles!