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Grace’s Work Experience Blog
Yesterday was my first day working at Half Moon Theatre. I arrived on time, maybe a few minutes earlier or so. I was feeling quite nervous as I have never had any work experience before, but I was also feeling somewhat optimistic as I realized it would be a good learning experience for me. I pressed the buzzer and was greeted by Lydia, she gave me a tour of the theatre which was lovely and interesting as even though I’ve been there a few times, there were rooms I had never seen before. I remember liking the red room as it had a sort of hidden apartment which had a mirror with bright lights for actors to do their hair or makeup. Also, I liked the green room as it had a chill and welcoming atmosphere. After the tour, we looked and talked about my schedule for the week, which was very helpful as I got to understand in more detail what I would be doing, that bounced off some stress. I sat down at the desk and read the work experience pack which gave me some more details, including the names of the staff and their jobs. Then, since I was told I would be writing a blog of my time here doing work experience, I read a few blogs from other people to get an idea of the style of writing for the blog. Lydia then asked me if I would like to design a flyer for the movie night on Friday, which I obviously said yes too, considering I love to design and create. I created the flyer digitally on the computer, it was for Hamilton, an amazing musical which I’ve watched a couple of times. When Lydia told me I would be watching it on Friday with everyone else, I was quite excited about that.
Shortly after I met Saja, she asked me if I could help bring some props up from the resources and costume rooms into the theatre. We took the lift and found the props needed for Solar’s performance, I remember seeing loads of miscellaneous items in the rooms such a bubble gun, a pirate hat, old rap records and for some reason a bunch of cassette tapes (which, don’t get me wrong I did find cool). We took the props in buckets and placed them into the room, after that I went back into the office and Lydia showed me the printed out design of my poster, which I was quite proud of. By then it was 5pm, my break. I decided to go outside into the garden area for fresh air, whilst I was eating my lunch I noticed that on the wall there was pictures of the Eastend from 1990 and the exact same places but in 2020, it was cool to see as there was a picture of Roman Road Market in the 90s, which looked very different compared to it now, I mean none of the shops ever stayed there. I also noticed that the pictures from 2020 looked less lively and quieter as we were probably in quarantine.
At 6pm, after my break I was greeted by Rachael and Ron who told me we would be having a debrief so I could be introduced to everyone, after that I would be observing the rehearsal for Solar’s performance. Around 5 minutes later we all went into the room and waited for the kids to arrive as the chairs and tech were being sorted. When they arrived, we got into a circle and introduced ourselves with a name and an action, which was helpful so I could easily learn everyone’s names and so that they would also know me and why I was there. I watched the rehearsal, which was lovely as there were all very creative and fun actors, it was cool to see the different lighting and design elements. Time went very quickly, and before I knew it, it was the end of my day at the theatre. I was no longer nervous, and I was looking forward to my next day at work.
I arrived (on time again) and was greeted by Lydia and went into the office, I met Androulla and had a chat with her since she wasn’t in on Monday, she told me more about the Half Moon Theatre and the opportunities they have for young people, as well as her role here. Then I started writing for Mondays blog which took me about an hour, I thought it would’ve been a difficult task as I’m not entirely confident with my writing, but once I finished writing it, I was proud with the result.
After that, Lydia said I could watch the group Orbit’s sharing performance from last term on the computer, which explored the idea of being an ‘outsider’ through drama. Whilst watching the performance I really liked the different uses of physical theatre such as mime and synchronization, also the intro was very captivating and very funny.
I was quite surprised when I heard the music that was being played, it was an orchestral, instrumental song I remember really liking it as it was popular on TikTok. Also, I loved how instead of the play having one ongoing storyline, instead it featured individual stories and scenarios which explored different aspects of the theme of being an ‘outsider’. Overall, it was an amazing performance, and I most definitely took a few notes from it for my future performances. After that I talked with Androulla about my thoughts on the performance and we also spoke about musical theatre (which is what I want to do), she asked me what’s my fav, and without thinking I said Grease (which I do love, but what a basic answer…).
Then around 2pm it was my break, so I went into the green room and had my lunch and caught up with my show (big bang theory if anyone’s interested). Whilst I was chilling, I heard a group of people very loudly rehearsing, perhaps reading lines from a script, but it was this sort of loud chanting thing, it sounded like a ritual which I thought was pretty funny. I called my mum to see how she was doing and to also tell her about my day and then my break was over.
Around 3:30pm Saja and I went downstairs to get the props for Eclipse’s performance, this time it was a lot of black bags and boxes filled with mostly clothes on this very annoying trolley which kept bumping into everything whilst we were trying to bring it up stairs. Successfully, we managed to bring everything up in time for their rehearsal. When the group arrived, we started with a calming down activity which was led by Ron and I followed along with the children, then we sat down in a circle and introduced ourselves with our names and an action. As I was kind of the elephant in the room, one of the kids pointed at me and went “who’s that?” so I had to introduce myself and explain why I was there. I don’t blame the kid for being curious though. Then we did the name game, and it was very funny as all the kids were doing some sort of crazy actions with their names, even one started doing the worm on the floor which I most definitely wasn’t going to be copying (I did it with my hands instead). Then all the kids got ready for their rehearsal and did a run through of the performance, it was these 6 different plays that Lunar had made for them, all very funny and entertaining. After the performance I gave one kid some top – notch acting advice, even though he was great I just suggested that he should face the audience, even when talking to the other characters (just because it’s not that entertaining to be looking at someone’s back as an audience member). Then around an hour later it was their performance time, so I sat with the audience to watch. Luckily the child (sorry I’m bad with names), took my advice and faced the audience a lot more when performing, which was great. Also, there was this murder mystery performance at the end, which was so funny, there was this girl completely owning the stage with a grey curly wig and a massive fluffy jacket pretending to be a grandma (in the end she also turned out to be a killer).
Around 6pm the performance finished, so I helped recycle all the scripts that were no longer needed and organised the props, so the space was tidy. It was time to leave so I said goodbye to everyone and left the building (sadly, it was raining terribly so I tried my best to speed-walk to the bus stop).
I came in and said hi to Lydia, then we went to the theatre to help put away the props from the night’s performances. I didn’t realise they were props on the stage though, I thought there was a cleaner because of the massive brooms. Anyway, we brought the shaky trolley and all the other props back into the rooms downstairs, whilst I mostly yapped about school. Afterwards I started writing my blog for Tuesday, which took me about an hour or so, (that was a very eventful day). Once I was finished, I watched Orbit’s spring sharing performance called Things That Might Go Bump in the Night it had a suspenseful, thriller theme and I enjoyed watching it very much since I’m a fan of horror, even at some moments I was just a little bit scared.
It was around 1:35pm so Androulla said I could have my break and come back for around 2:05pm. So, I went outside as shockingly it wasn’t raining or grey, I went to the shop for some snacks, then came back to the garden to eat and watch my show. When coming back up I got a bit confused on how to get back in (all I needed to do was open the door that literally looked me in the face, twice.) Anyways I came back and they were having a group meeting that I joined, they were talking about various things which I pretended to understand with my lovely acting skills, they did ask me how I was finding work experience, I said that they’ve all been very kind and welcoming and that I’ve enjoyed it so far. Androulla also asked me if I would be interested in joining the Orbit youth group, which I definitely am. After I went back into the office and read over my blogs for Monday and Tuesday just double checking for spelling mistakes and to make sure everything made sense. Then I went to Lydia to ask if there was anything she wanted me to do, so she gave me a task to copy down the responses to questions that were asked from the parents and carers who attend the Creative Play sessions for their children\babies. That must’ve taken me about a half hour or so. Unfortunately, I had to leave early because I had to attend an achievement assembly at my school (which I guess really isn’t unfortunate at all) but I was just a bit sad since, because of that, I had to miss the youth theatre session for that day. But luckily, I won an award for Drama and Media Studies (I got two certificates and a £20 voucher, not bad if you ask me.)
I came in at 12pm and spoke with Lydia, then I got on with writing my blog for Wednesday which took me about 50 minutes. Afterwards I went to help Malachi with his drawing of a tree for the Next Steps session that is for year 6s who are about to go into secondary school, the tree had three different questions on it “what do you want to leave behind?”, “what do you want to take with you?” and “what do you want to take with you?”. So, I helped colour the words and the rest of the tree whilst we spoke about what we would be doing in the session and just talked about secondary school in general. Afterwards I finished off typing the comments from the Creative Play forms onto the computer, shortly after I watched some of Daytime Deewane, only around 10 minutes because Emily asked me if I could take the white tac off the boards from the art displays, which of course I didn’t mind doing (it only took me 5 minutes or so). Then at 2pm it was my break so I went into the garden and caught up with my friends and my mum on my phone, and then ate my lunch whilst trying to watch my show but someone was blasting “we found love in a hopeless place” by Rihanna, even though it’s a great song I was trying to figure out who would want to be having a party at 2pm. Anyways I just put my air pods on and chilled, around 3pm I went back up and watched some more of Daytime Deewane which was very funny and entertaining so far (I still haven’t finished it lol). Then I helped bring some props downstairs with the Emily’s, I was about to organise some, but I had to go back up for the Next Steps session. So I went into the theatre with Saja, Malachi and Hazel, and I introduced myself to them and the kids. We played a bunch of fun games together. We played a cup game where you basically try to pick up the cup as quick as you can when you hear the word “cup” but say if you hear the word wall you need to run to the wall etc. I played it with Saja, it was very funny and I’m pretty sure it was a tie. We also played party quirks where you have to roleplay as a character in this party and everyone has to guess what character you are, I got to be a kind mum, for some reason I made her a vegan and apparently she was very picky and difficult according to the host. Anyway the game was very funny and I remember also being a host and having to serve apple juice to a ghost and try to interact with a person who avoids all physical contact that kept running upstairs just to get attacked by the cat. We also played this buzzy bee game where you need to transform into an object or a thing with the letter that Malachi says whilst singing the buzzy bee song. I remember being a pea because he said the letter p (very original and creative of me). Then the kids got on with writing on post it notes for the tree, answering the questions. They all seemed confident with transitioning into secondary, I remember being very nervous when I was their age. Time went quick and it was around 6:05pm so I said goodbye to everyone and left.
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