Interning at the Royal Court Theatre
By Alayna Noquet
Monday 28th September 2009
It is the end of semester two, exams are over, and I find myself standing at Edinburgh airport feeling rather disorientated. There was once a time in my life when the word summer meant ice creams, paddling pools and best of all no homework, but this year, thanks to the rather frightening lady from the Careers’ Centre, I am filled with worry. The words ‘curriculum vitae’, ‘work-experience’ and scariest of all ‘internship’ are buzzing around my head. Should I be doing something more productive? In a desperate attempt to transform my summer into something that I could put on my CV, I turned to Google, and after a couple of hours of investigation, I stumbled upon my dream internship. If I was going to spend the break photocopying, stuffing envelopes and making coffee, it was going to have to be somewhere exciting, and the Royal Court Theatre was exactly the sort of place I was looking for. Two weeks and an interview later, I arrived at the stage door of London’s famous ‘Writers’ Theatre’ not really knowing what to expect. My nerves quickly disappeared when the lovely Head of Trusts and Foundations, Lucy James, came to greet me and induct me into working life at the Royal Court. Walking through the backstage area of the building for the first time was a surreal experience, piles of unsolicited scripts lay in the Literary department awaiting their first perusal, the stage was set in the Jerwood Theatre Upstairs for the evening performance of ‘Grasses of a Thousand Colours’ and open-plan offices full of people buzzed with voices discussing press-nights, international development and casting calls, yet despite all this bustle, everyone seemed so relaxed! By the time Lucy showed me the office in which I would be working, I was beginning to think that there had to be a catch. The words ‘photocopying’ and ‘coffee’ had not even been mentioned. I was therefore both shocked and delighted when my first assignment was placed on the desk before of me; two newly printed and unpublished, scripts by playwrights Mike Bartlett and Michael Wynne. For an English Student this was a dream come true! As I became more and more settled in my placement, I discovered that whilst working at a theatre is not always glamorous; databases have to be maintained, season brochures have to be sent out and events have to be organised, as far as work goes, the arts world is not a bad place to be. From bumping into a rather luscious Skins actor on the stairs, to searching for the latest reviews of Jerusalem the morning after press-night, my time at the Royal Court was fast-paced and exciting. And so to conclude, whilst internships can seem a frightening prospect for the second-year student, I would whole-heartedly recommend some Google research next summer. When it comes to work-experience, the Careers’ Centre lady really does know what she is talking about, an internship can give you the practical skills and contacts that will put you in a very good position come graduation, not to mention an interesting way to spend your holiday. I even got my name in a playtext!
Monday 28th September 2009
It is the end of semester two, exams are over, and I find myself standing at Edinburgh airport feeling rather disorientated. There was once a time in my life when the word summer meant ice creams, paddling pools and best of all no homework, but this year, thanks to the rather frightening lady from the Careers’ Centre, I am filled with worry. The words ‘curriculum vitae’, ‘work-experience’ and scariest of all ‘internship’ are buzzing around my head. Should I be doing something more productive? In a desperate attempt to transform my summer into something that I could put on my CV, I turned to Google, and after a couple of hours of investigation, I stumbled upon my dream internship. If I was going to spend the break photocopying, stuffing envelopes and making coffee, it was going to have to be somewhere exciting, and the Royal Court Theatre was exactly the sort of place I was looking for. Two weeks and an interview later, I arrived at the stage door of London’s famous ‘Writers’ Theatre’ not really knowing what to expect. My nerves quickly disappeared when the lovely Head of Trusts and Foundations, Lucy James, came to greet me and induct me into working life at the Royal Court. Walking through the backstage area of the building for the first time was a surreal experience, piles of unsolicited scripts lay in the Literary department awaiting their first perusal, the stage was set in the Jerwood Theatre Upstairs for the evening performance of ‘Grasses of a Thousand Colours’ and open-plan offices full of people buzzed with voices discussing press-nights, international development and casting calls, yet despite all this bustle, everyone seemed so relaxed! By the time Lucy showed me the office in which I would be working, I was beginning to think that there had to be a catch. The words ‘photocopying’ and ‘coffee’ had not even been mentioned. I was therefore both shocked and delighted when my first assignment was placed on the desk before of me; two newly printed and unpublished, scripts by playwrights Mike Bartlett and Michael Wynne. For an English Student this was a dream come true! As I became more and more settled in my placement, I discovered that whilst working at a theatre is not always glamorous; databases have to be maintained, season brochures have to be sent out and events have to be organised, as far as work goes, the arts world is not a bad place to be. From bumping into a rather luscious Skins actor on the stairs, to searching for the latest reviews of Jerusalem the morning after press-night, my time at the Royal Court was fast-paced and exciting. And so to conclude, whilst internships can seem a frightening prospect for the second-year student, I would whole-heartedly recommend some Google research next summer. When it comes to work-experience, the Careers’ Centre lady really does know what she is talking about, an internship can give you the practical skills and contacts that will put you in a very good position come graduation, not to mention an interesting way to spend your holiday. I even got my name in a playtext!