Work Experience, Day 3

Day three of four, dear Black Coffee Theatre supporters!

And as of yet I have not done anything of huge hindrance to Luke and Maria – like delete the press release they were working on until stupid o clock in the morning, for example. (If I had accidently done that I doubt that I would be in a fit state to be writing this blog. Although to be fair, had I spent even half the time Maria has on the press release I would be ready to murder as well…)

But joyous news! I finally did it! I made tea and I am now an official work experiencer! I have experienced work, officially!

It happened like this; Maria sighed and looked at me and before she could finish the sentence ‘I could murder a cup o…” I had seized my opportunity, scrambled to my feet, and sprinted to the green room – where incidentally a samba band were practicing and looked miffed at my dramatic entrance – only knocking over a couple of chairs in the process. Perhaps it was because I was overly nervous, perhaps it was due to the interrogating eyes of 10 interrupted and angry drummers piercing my back, but whatever the reason in my haste I stupidly did not pour enough water into the kettle resulting in two and a HALF cups of tea instead of three. Goddamn! However using my newly acquired quick thinking problem solving skills I have acquired through my work experience, I cleverly and slyly topped up the other half of the inadequately filled tea cup with sweetened soya milk. (There was no ordinary milk – damn and blast!) I’m not sure who it was in the end that got the slightly too cold, too sweet and probably disappointing cup of tea, however neither Maria and Luke complained and whilst I had nearly suffered a coronary during the making process of the painfully mediocre beverage, I feel that I completed my task as succinctly and properly as I could. Although I may have displeased a non English speaking samba band in the process …

Anyhow, today Luke and me began to experiment with the set design – hanging strips of different weighted, coloured and textured Wilkinsons own brand wallpaper from a bar at the top of the stage to see how well each would drape. Our major problem was the poor quality of Wilkinson’s own brand Sellotape – take note Wilkinsons, I’m NOT impressed at its wallpaper hanging capabilities– and resorting to the use of masking tape which I kept calling Gaffa tape – because I get confused easily – which got Luke very excited.

‘Ooh, you have Gaffa tape, where did you find it?’

‘Err, no, I meant masking tape - I get confused easily. Sorry.’

‘Oh, ok, never mind.’

Anyway after winching the bar up high we got to have a look at our handiwork. The basic design is wallpaper hanging from the ceiling – as you would expect – but in a twisted turn of artistic and theatrical design the wallpaper then comes down and spreads across the floor towards the audience in a rather topsy turvey style. And may I say, for roughly about seven minutes of work it actually looks great! We haven’t yet chosen the wallpaper itself. We think we need it untextured, fairly thick and more colourful as we noticed that the white wallpaper strip looked like artistically hung toilet roll and not the classy interior of a bachelor pad that Maria and Luke had envisioned. Oh, and cheap; the wallpaper must also be cheap. (Which reminds me, if you are a wallpaper tradesperson in the northeast looking to get rid of any old stock or to expand within the theatre business for a low, low price, do feel free to get in touch!)

Anyway my next task was to create some business cards for the Black Coffee Theatre company. The creation of the cards was pretty simple – I put on my creative hat and had completed them pretty quickly. The hard part was maneuvering through Vistaprint’s various add ons and hidden costs. So about twenty minutes, several font replacements and a free metal cardholder capable of holding 10 of the 250 business cards I ordered later the shipment was placed and processed HAZAR!

Now for the rest of the day, we are going in search of a cheap photocopying deal to print out the flyers that were made yesterday. You hear that photocopier owners of Alnwick? We’re coming for you and we’re looking for some bargain deals.