Blog: Zephyr

My First Day

The day kicked off at 2:30pm, and I was introduced to the staff. Lydia then gave me a tour of the building; starting first with the ground floor, with the office, theatre, toilets, and the sort of lounge area; the second floor, with a few studios, a red room for meeting and a green room for breaks; finally, the basement, with a storage space, a prop room, and the dimmer room with lights and sound. I first noticed that everything actually worked (for example all of the light switches), which you may think is a bare minimum, but impressive, nonetheless.

After my tour, I watched a performance called Daytime Deewane, which was set in the 90’s and followed two South Asian cousins going to a daytime rave, one of which uncomfortable and unfamiliar with the environment. It was a compelling story, and I wrote notes throughout on its strengths and weaknesses, the latter of which in a minority. I then went to break, where I went out into the garden, accidentally locking myself out and having to use an emergency exit to go to the local church and eat some popcorn next to a tree.

When I came back, I watched a few interviews of people involved in Daytime Deewane giving their insight to how the show was made and their general careers while waiting for people to file in for the Solar youth session. I then introduced myself to some of the staff and members, finding them all very nice and welcoming. As for the actual session, it consisted of a few games, and showcasing some work. I joined in with all of these, even finding a temporary role in one of the scenes. Since I had never worked with neurodivergent people before, this was probably one of the things I was most excited to take part in during my time here. After the session I said goodbye to everyone and made my way home.

My Second Day

My second day started with me being rather early, due to my train being there right as I came. Once I was there, Lydia got me started on blog-writing, showing me some past blogs written by people doing work experience and I wrote the blog for the first day, and started on the second.

Once I finished all of the blog up to that point, I printed off some flyers and cut off the edges with a guillotine. I have to say I was far from an expert at this and a few of the attempts were butchered but once I got into the rhythm it was okay. I then wrote a transcript for an interview they had done with Queen Mary University; it was quite hard and slow work because I had to keep pausing it and sometimes what they were saying was not too clear but it was overall fairly okay. I then got back to the guillotine for a bit longer but I had gotten the hang of it at that point and there was no problem. I made sure to save it then went to break.

After break, I got back to my blog and updated it up to here. I was then given some nomination slips to count by Martha and then when there weren’t enough, I cut up some more. She then gave me already filled out slips to count and put in a spreadsheet, but I was interrupted by the start of the Eclipse Youth Theatre for 8-11s. I was introduced to the staff and then the session got underway. My first impression was a very lively group, and I recalled my times at their age and the similarities. We played a few games, some curated by the children (and adapted by the session leader), then moved into smaller groups as they began work on some arts and crafts for the set of their show. The group I was in worked on the door of their time travelling machine. I wrote down some rudimentary notes of how the session went for me to expand on Day 3.

My Third Day

My third day started with me being 6 minutes late, due to me missing my stop on the train and having to run from Whitechapel. Once I got there, I was straight to work on expanding my notes from the previous day, although I was stumped on one of the questions as I hadn’t really noticed any members doing any of the listed things. Following that, I finished my blog up to this point.

I then started on my review of Daytime Deewane, a very positive start to it at that. After 2 paragraphs, I decided I had had enough of writing and started putting the votes of the Eclipse and Lunar group on an excel spreadsheet, which took a while as I had to write the reasons for the votes for all of them. I had my break in the middle of this in which I went to the river Thames, then got back to work with the votes and did this paragraph of the blog.

Then it was time for the Equinox group session to start. Equinox were also 8-11 but were much less lively, – I was told it was an off day – which had its advantages and disadvantages. They were working on their own showcase based around pandora’s box and the session was working on persuasive language and actions.

My Fourth Day

Upon arrival, I updated my blog up to this point, then put more of the votes on the spreadsheet. Once I had done that, I got to work with a third paragraph of my Daytime Deewane review, then had my lunch break. I had a fabulous break, plucking up the courage to spontaneously start running with a stranger for about a kilometer and had a great chat with him about our running journeys, then walked back feeling rather proud of myself. When I was back, I had a good conversation with Androulla about what the Half Moon does, all of their various projects and what The BRIT School does.

I then wrote that paragraph of my blog and got back to my review, doing the final three paragraphs before it was time for the Next Steps session, for year 6s going into secondary school. The session consisted of games designed to help with socialising, some sitting down and discussing anxieties of secondary school such as homework, and finally an activity that involved roleplaying of situations in school like a headmaster and being late.

My Fifth (and final) Day

To start my final day, I helped Martha with some front of house work, as it was a show day. We welcomed over 50 year 4 students and a few extra families to come watch Pinocchio, and I acted as an usher during the show, however there were no complications, so I was able to just watch it. It was a fun show, with an emphasis on audience engagement which was very helpful for me as my next term will be focused on creating a children’s performance.

After the show, Emily showed and explained the lighting and sound tech to me, and I found it very helpful and she was very clear in her explanations, allowing me to operate it and gain a feel for how it worked. I had done lighting work before but on a smaller and older setup so a lot of it was a mystery to me. She gave me a couple of books and guides about lighting and sound to read, a few leaflets on careers in Theatre and the volunteering work that Half Moon does. I then had a lunch break that was shorter than usual and wrote up to here in my blog.

I then sorted the vote slips into their groups and read the guides Emily had given me. There was one book on Theatre Jargon, and I picked 3 phrases I particularly liked. False proscenium (a temporary proscenium designed to form an appropriate frame for a particular production), impresario (a producer with individuality and flamboyance) and Agitprop (Agitation propaganda. Drama written and performed to make a political protest. Particularly associated with the development in the 1930s of socialist theatres propagating Marxist philosophies).

I then cleaned up the foyer, all the chalk, popcorn and bits left behind by the children and had a final look at my blog and review to see if it was okay. After that, it was time for my time at Half Moon to come to an end. I would like to thank all the staff for their guidance and being so welcoming, and I have had a very fun work experience.