Post written by: Morgan Waters
I have found this week at Doorstep Arts to be very beneficial to my understanding of what goes into the running of a theatre company and there are a few things that have surprised me this week.
The first thing that surprised me was how collaboratively creative business etc. work. At the Torbay Culture forum I met a great amount of people who worked for different parts of the community and they were all largely there in order to meet new people. With whom they could collaborate synogetically in order to achieve their goals or further whatever it was they were working on. I found this to be very interesting, as it showed how communities can work together in order achieve things, without necessarily having to search for help from outside the community.
From the different people I talked to at the event, it was clear how hard they all worked in order to get where they are and how much harder they were willing to work in order to achieve more and to have a greater positive impact on their community.
Another the thing that has surprised me this week is the talent of young children. On Wednesday at the youngest DAS group, consisting of three children, I was hugely impressed with their dancing ability and how confident they were in introducing the games. It was really inspiring to meet such confident, happy young performers and showed me that there is nothing to be ashamed of when performing and that we should put energy into everything do. I was also very impressed with how kind they were and how quick they were to accept us into the group.
The second DAS group on Wednesday were also very energetic and kind to us, as well as each other and Polly. I loved watching Polly with the younger groups, as they all seem to adore her and take her direction on as much as possible.
The final thing that has surprised me is how much work goes into getting a leaflet made. We were asked to create a rough design for the Doorstep leaflet for autumn. This was difficult in itself, as it was hard to fit everything in and to decide which events or shows should be highlighted more than others, as I didn’t know much about the shows and so it was hard to gage which were likely to be the most popular.
We were then asked to begin working on the leaflet brief, which was to be sent off to the graphic designer. This was surprisingly difficult, as we had to find the information for each show or event, include the dates, ticket prices etc. and make sure we filled in the table, stating what was to go on each page of the program. The hardest part of this task was making sure that everything was included and that we hadn’t forgotten any important information.
Overall, my Work Experience this week has been very informative and I have had a great time learning what goes on behind the scenes at Doorstep Arts.