An article by Work Experience Placement Oscar Rose.
Two full days of White Rock work experience completed and reflecting on my time so far; I’d like to think I’m better equipped to succeed in my future job. After being involved with Youth Theatre and Summer Youth Project for over 3 years, I decided to apply for the week. Before receiving my schedule, I went in feeling a bit blind (yet still excited) with the only idea of what I’d get up to was a comment from my drama teacher that I’d wash cups and that’s about it. I have in fact washed cups which turned out to be rather enjoyable thanks to some good company from Wayne. But unsurprisingly, I’ve been given other tasks throughout my three days which have all been very interesting. Some describe feeling nervous about work experience but in my case working with familiar faces in a very familiar setting: I was really looking forward to my week.
On day 1, I worked in the very quiet café during the U3A coffee morning before being taken on a tour around the theatre with Laura. Since I’d already seen most of the theatre; I was taken to every other section that even some of the staff hadn’t seen before. After walking above the auditorium wearing an ever so slightly big helmet I was taken into the already dark and spooky cellar which was made even darker and even spookier by Laura’s gruesome accounts of how it used to be a morgue. Thankfully, not only was it incredibly fascinating but it also didn’t put me off my dinner too much. I learned a lot from the tour including the theatre’s history from its beginning as a hospital before being opened as the White Rock Pavilion by the prince of Wales. I didn’t even know William was alive back then.
On day 2, I was given the gift of arriving at the theatre at 5:30pm. I used this opportunity to my advantage and stayed in bed until 5:00pm. My evening consisted of scanning tickets and selling ice creams at the Hastings Philharmonic Orchestra. The performance itself was very impressive but I learned a great deal about customer service including how to greet customers politely and in a friendly manner. I also learned how to use a ticket scanner which I was less successful with. At the start of day 3, I worked in the box office and received even more valuable information about customer service which was greatly engaging and will surely prove helpful in the future.
A clear highlight of my week thus far was ushering at the Hastings Philharmonic Orchestra as I got to put my newly gained information about customer service into practice by scanning tickets, selling ice cream, being positive, polite and friendly, and not getting angry when the ticket scanners didn’t work. The latter being the most challenging task. Other than the scanning, I found some of the box office working difficult as I was stepping out of my comfort zone by talking to people in person and on the phone; as well as selling tickets on the website and learning about which tickets are more favourable than others. Despite it being challenging, I really enjoyed it and found it incredibly interesting and useful.
In terms of what I’ve learned overall; I now know about all the different jobs, stages of production and all the different groups of people who help to bring a show to life. Before this, as someone who’s only ever been an actor in shows before, I only really knew the tip of the iceberg: the auditions, rehearsals and the performance. But after Work Experience, I know that it so much deeper, with jobs involving marketing, casting, set design, funding, ticket selling, lights and sounds designers/operators, costume designers/technicians and many, many, many more. In addition to learning about the theatre itself and skills regarding theatre work, I now have more skills and evidence to take into my future career. For example, speaking to people, working in a team and of course: writing this very newsletter. Evidence is the most important thing when looking for a job and all my experiences this week is ideal for my CV.
In conclusion, my overall final thoughts on my first two and a half days have been very positive, and I would definitely recommend work experience at a theatre (especially the White Rock) to anyone looking for work in the industry or in customer service or journalism. When performing in future shows; I will see the theatre differently now I know what goes on behind the scenes. In general, I have thoroughly enjoyed it and think anyone doing work experience should consider working at the White Rock.
