My Week at Eastern Angles
18 September 2019Hi, it's Mya here, this is my blog about my week here at Eastern Angles Theatre Company!
Before we start, I should take you on a little insight about me, my name is Mya Evelyn and I’m a year 11 student from Chantry Academy. I’m 15 years old and LOVE performing. Early this year my year group (at the time Year 10) got told we would be doing work experience at the start of Year 11, straight away I knew I wanted to work in a theatre of some kind. So, I let my school know I wanted to work in a theatre and well the rest is history!
DAY 1
I arrived at Eastern Angles at 10am and was welcomed by Aly (Engagement Manger) and Helena (Marketing Officer) and Jess (General Manager). Aly gave me a tour around the theatre and greeted me to some of the staff around the building.
We sat down in the bar area and Aly asked me my interests in and outside of school, and I told her about the show I had done this year Legally Blonde at my school!
We also talked about the show they had coming up Food Wars (go buy your tickets!). After our chat, we returned to the office and I was given my first task. In preparation for tomorrow’s Guest Night for Food Wars, I made little ration bags of war time sweets (#FoodWars). I finished off the day by putting programmes together for tomorrow, a successful first day.
DAY 2
Today I got to the theatre at 4pm and started the afternoon by watching the rehearsal for Act 2 of Food Wars. The second Act of Food Wars was written and directed by the fantastic Jon who, like myself, is a big lover of musicals!
After watching the second Act of Food Wars I met properly Jon who then introduced me to the actors of Food Wars. It was very interesting to me the actors out of character as they put on Suffolk accents all the time! I also had the chance to stay for the director’s notes.
By no time, it had gotten close to Guest Night! I helped clean up the theatre alongside Aly and made sure everything was in place for guests. I stood by the Box Office helping Aly and Jon welcome guests - handing them programmes and the little bags of sweet rations I had made! I then stood by the house doors ripping people’s tickets and guiding them to seats.
I sat with Helena on row J and watched the whole show, having not seen Act 1 Oh, What A Lovely Food War. During the 20 minute interval, I helped Jon with some ice creams.
DAY 3
Today I started the day with the fantastic Helena who enlightened me in the world of marketing in theatre life. I had no idea how they did this or how they marketed shows. Helena showed me how to schedule tweets, I didn’t even know scheduling tweets was even a thing!
I scheduled some tweets for upcoming shows at the theatre so be sure to look out for them on Twitter @SJMTheatre! She also showed me how Eastern Angles market shows and I made a What’s on at Sir Johns Mills Theatre - be sure to look out for those too!
We had a matinee today for Food Wars, I was head of Front of House with Jon and got given an Eastern Angles top to work in - it looked cool! I again helped prepare the theatre for customers and welcomed customers into the theatre, passing out programmes and ripping tickets at the house door. However, today I didn’t watch the show and helped behind the scenes with other volunteers.
DAY 4
Today I was in the Box Office with the sweet Hazel! She showed me how you book tickets when people call the Box Office. She gave me a list of names who had booked for an upcoming performanceKure Kure/Faraway, (plugging again, but seriously book your tickets! 😊) she gave me the option to call them and asked if they were interested in a special offer of a cultural supper pre-show for an extra £6. It took me a moment, but I decided to call the customers which was beneficial to me in my confidence talking to people! Thank you, Hazel.
After my morning with Hazel I had lunch and spent my afternoon with the fabulous Penny (Stage Manager)! We spent the matinee in the box, though before the show she explained to me how lighting worked during a show, how to program software and how to light a show with sound cues. We did a check of props before the show and moved some of them around. As the show was running, I observed how Penny lit and did sound cues as well as watching the show to see from a different point of view. By near the end of this week I have “oh oh, isn’t it lovely food war!” stuck in my head!
DAY 5
Today is sadly my last day here at Eastern Angles ☹ I’ve enjoyed and learnt so much in this theatre and theatre life. I've appreciated every moment! Today I started the afternoon off with Helena in the Box Office writing this blog! I’ve been doing so for most of the day and have switched to the office to keep writing. Jess and I are getting ready to head off to HighTide Festival in Aldeburgh where we're going to meet Aly! See you soon HighTide, and goodbye Eastern Angles… at least for now 😊
What’s been the best part of work experience?
All my time here at Eastern Angles has been amazing! But the part of work experience for me was Guest Night. It was my first experience being Front of House and taking lead in something important and professional, especially as there were important people attending that night and a big occasion for the theatre. I gave out my sweet ration bags I had made and very proud of 😊. I did something new I had never really done before. I feel like that was beneficial to me as I can sometimes get high anxiety in new situations or pressured situations and felt this was a step stone into not feeling that way.
Again, I wanted to say thank you to everyone at Eastern Angles for making me feel so welcomed and thank you for an amazing work experience.