A Drama Secretary

Picture from Bruiser Theatre’s new website. (Wu, 2022) Own work.

I began searching for placement in the direction of entering a show production, becoming an Understudy of a character, or shadowing a sound or stage manager. However, things took a turn when I decided to volunteer as a student assistant for a drama workshop organised by Queen’s University Belfast and Bruiser Theatre Company- Friel Re-Imagined. (QUB, 2021)

Link: https://www.qub.ac.uk/sites/friel-reimagined/events/summerschool/

“Everybody Wants Something. Tries to State it. Can’t”  

During this workshop, I developed an interest in Archiving and Education as we worked on 5 of Brian Friel’s famous plays- Philadelphia, Here I Come! The Freedom of the City, Faith Healer, Translations and Dancing at Lughnasa. (QUB, 2022) It is also this workshop that bridged a connection between Bruiser and me.

When the workshop ended, I immediately wrote to Bruiser Theatre Company enquiring about their availability to take me in as one of their interns and offer me a placement opportunity around October and November time. This was a very slow and anxious process as I wrote about 20 emails back and forth with them talking about my interest and career pathways and deciding on what I could be working as. In this process, I drafted a Drama CV and talked about my interest in opening my career choices in the future such as being a dramaturg, a drama workshop trainer or going into backstage and production team and working as a playwright or publicist.

Pictures of my cv. Own work. (Wu, 2022)

After several discussions, Bruiser Theatre Company decided to offer me a placement allowing me to work on Archiving and Education. I will now use John’s model of reflection to fully discuss and share my experience during my placement. (Janse, 2020)

Description of experience

On my first day at Bruiser, I arrived at the office and got on a phone call with my boss Peter, and he sent me a few past archiving works for me to see and try.  He also introduced me to Bruiser and its history, the shows they’ve done recently and all the team members and board members. I recalled him saying ‘sorry but your first day will be a little boring.’ However, I found it really interesting and somewhat relaxing as I don’t have to jump straight into office mode and stare at my laptop from 10-5. We then proceeded to do the paperwork and read a bunch of health and safety policies and it took about an hour or so before I jump into my first proper task- creating an educational play booklet for students. [The Government Inspector]

I began looking at past Bruiser works on Archiving and started my research on the play. In the two hours, I had to read the entire play, read about its authors, and watch a few small clips of Bruiser’s version of The Government Inspector while writing down notes and key storylines for the booklet. To be frank, it was quite stressful and a lot to digest in a short period. Then I went on to google drive and started drafting the educational pack, from story introduction to the playwright’s history. My boss Peter would also check on me every hour or so to see my progress and make sure I was on the right track, and I found that extremely comforting and helpful. It felt like I was being taught and guided by an experienced figure in the industry and hand by hand, he was teaching me what steps to take and helped me a lot to break into working in the company. It was also that day when I realised the difference between a leader and a boss.

Examples of my work:

(Wu, 2022) Own work.

Reflection:

After spending about 3 hours crafting my first booklet, I presented it to my boss hoping to receive tons of criticism and feedback, but he paused for a second and said, “That looks fantastic, thank you, Hermes!” That thank you was so rewarding and motivational, I felt like I was being appreciated and it just clicked to me that Bruiser has such a wonderful working environment. Not only this, but I also found the similarity between doing research for my university and doing research for a drama company, the skills are very exchangeable and adaptable, and the kind of essays and research students do in university are all applicable to real-life work offices and that was something very rewarding. (Higginbotham)

Influencing Factors:

Apart from having a skilled and patient leader to work for, I also found a great advantage in doing some archiving and educational work. It benefits me at the same time as it trains my knowledge on the number of plays, enhances my capability to understand characters quicker and takes down key moments in a play as an actor to be able to get into characters easier in the future. Like the famous quote, “The more that you read, the more things you’ll know. The more that you learn, the more places you’ll go” (Seuss)

Evaluation:

Although working as an archiving and education assistant for Bruiser was enjoyable and rewarding, I also felt like a drama secretary as I had to do other work almost across all fields. In my first few days, I did not only the archiving and educational stuff, but also telemarketing, website design and writing emails to other schools promoting a workshop Bruiser will be putting up next year. I also had to investigate Bruiser’s finances and annual income and funds. It was very stressful, rewarding but stressful! I felt like I was being stretched to my maximum capabilities but at the same time, I was starting to feel overwhelmed doing all sorts of work. Then one afternoon I felt like I was no longer an assistant but more like a personal drama secretary for the company, I’m doing almost everything, and I am just a drama student who hasn’t graduated.

After thinking and reflecting for a few days, I felt that this has more advantages than disadvantages for me. Indeed, the amount of work I engage myself in can be a bit too stressful and tedious, but the overall skills and knowledge I can gain at the end of the day are beyond compromise. Realistically speaking, if I were to be an actor in the future, I might not have a full-time acting job and having these skills I could jump into other fields in the theatre industry or even the BBC, working as a publicist or joining a marketing team for a production or on contract. These skills are so diverse and useful, and I find myself becoming a better actor and more importantly, a better artist.

Learning:

Finally, reaching our final destination, my learning outcome. Two things stood up to me the most. Firstly, it was understanding what it is like to be working in a theatre company in a real-life context. Going to work at 10 am and getting off work at 5 pm, is a typical white-collar lifestyle, and I do not dislike it. On the contrary, I have begun looking into similar jobs like a publicist for BBC and joining the marketing team for a magazine company like Vogue.

For example, becoming a publicist is also one of my career interests now, such as producing blogs and writing for celebrities, movies, or businesses (Talley)

Secondly, I learned the importance of reading, I never got into reading but doing it as part of my job taught me so much about acting, characterisation and understanding the social and political context of many plays. For example, one of the plays I researched– Othello, talks about the tremendous emotions of love and hatred, envy and vengeance with enormous psychological complexity and depth. The play pays equal attention to the two main characters, Othello, and Iago, making it difficult for students and reviewers to establish who is ultimately responsible for this great tragedy. (Daileader, 2005) This showed the power of plays and drama and how it can be put into a social and political context like the left and right parties in most parliament. No one can say one side is right or wrong because nothing is 100% black and white in our society. Bringing back to my learning, reading about these plays broadened my knowledge of arts and humanities and my perspective on drama and how it can be used to shape our future.

Bibliography:

1. Daileader, C.R. (2005) “White Devils, Black Lust: Inter-racialism in early modern drama,” in Racism, misogyny, and the othello myth: Inter-racial couples from Shakespeare to spike lee. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, pp. 1–75.
2. Friel reimagined (2021) QUB. Queen’s University Belfast. Available at: https://www.qub.ac.uk/sites/friel-reimagined/ (Accessed: November 20, 2022).

• Higginbotham, D. (no date) 7 skills you need to succeed in performing arts, Prospects.ac.UK. Available at: https://www.prospects.ac.uk/jobs-and-work-experience/job-sectors/creative-arts-and-design/7-skills-you-need-to-succeed-in-performing-arts (Accessed: November 19, 2022). 
• Janse, B. (2022) Johns model of Reflection (MSR): Definition, example and steps, Toolshero. Available at: https://www.toolshero.com/personal-development/johns-model-of-reflection/ (Accessed: November 18, 2022).
• Seuss (no date) A quote from I can read with my eyes shut!, Goodreads. Goodreads. Available at: https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/6806-the-more-that-you-read-the-more-things-you-will (Accessed: November 17, 2022).
• Summer School 2022 (2021) QUB. Available at: https://www.qub.ac.uk/sites/friel-reimagined/events/summerschool/ (Accessed: November 20, 2022).
• Talley, J. (no date) What does a publicist do?, Creative Jobs – Careers for Graphic Designers, Copywriters, Social Media Managers, Proof Readers and More. Available at: https://www.mediabistro.com/be-inspired/advice-from-the-pros/what-does-a-publicist-do/ (Accessed: November 22, 2022).