Whether it's stewarding at a festival, writing for a magazine, or producing works of art, volunteering for creative projects is bound to get those juices flowing.

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Saturday Aug 02, 2008

Opening night

I'm fully recovered from that odd illness I had as the wonderful Louisa and Beth let me get home early and get 16 hours sleep.

The festival has now started and we're being overwhelmed by members of the public wanting to see some shows.

On the first day (August 1st), I was working with the Front of House team, checking people's tickets, directing them to the right place and generally, just sitting around waiting for shows to start and finish. Overall, a very relaxing day before a night at the theatre!

As a member of staff at C Venues, I get to see all the shows I want for free and I've seen five already. Quick Thrill's After Liverpool was a giggle and the 50 minutes flew by whereas Glenn Chandler's Boys of the Empire whilst a clever and witty satire, wasn't quite to my tastes. Plague! the musical was definitely the highlight of that evening; it was hilarious, silly, funny and very high-spirited and energetic.

On the second day, I was trained to work in the box office where we are doing manual bookings and ticket sales. It was immensely chaotic as theatre and propduction companies were running around carrying out technical rehearsals and freaking out over missing deliveries, a lost prop and the tight time schedule they have to keep to. Sitting in box office itself was great though. We were constantly busy and I'm getting an idea of what shows are popular and so, which I should watch.

After work, the staff at C venues went on the C Hunt bar crawl and so, I got back home at 5am and only had 3 hours sleep before coming into work, *sob*

Then yesterday, I learnt that just because the festival has started, doesn't mean I won't be called on to do random fit-up work again. I spent about 5 hours with Hyon Chu wallpapering the gents' toilets with posters and flyers before the Press Launch party last night.

You know, I'm manning the Urban Garden box office at the moment and there's a pirate reciting a speech from Macbeth in front of me.. I really ought to find out what he's doing...

Last night, I went to see Strippers and Gentlemen which was interesting;. The way they used the space was great. The audience stands in the room for the entire show (30 minutes) whilst the show takes place before them. (on a nice floor from which I spent 3 hours pulling out rusty nails, using a crow bar)

I also went to see 21:13 which was quite possibly one of the best pieces of theatre I've seen in a long while, just WOW. I can't recommend it enough, its that wonderful. I'm planning to go see it again soon.



And I leave you with a picture of me (right) being all hula!girl on the opening night as a Front of House person.

Posted by Mei ( 12:22 PM )
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