Work Experience at The Watermill

30 June 2011

By Alex Knott

I was eager to work at The Watermill, as I have been part of several holiday courses that the theatre has created over the last few years.  Whenever I go to the theatre, I am always astounded by the mystery that radiates from the backstage area. Because of this, I was extremely interested in working towards being part of this mystery.  After being greeted warmly by Heidi Zimmerman, the Watermill’s Outreach Assistant, I was taken on a tour of the Watermill and its surrounding offices. The staff were all friendly and helpful, and I was more than happy to help with any administration work that needed doing. I condensed multiple pages of feedback from their last production, The Green of the Spring, into an easily accessible document.

Beth Flintoff, the Watermill’s Outreach Director, asked me to write an article for the Education Pack of the upcoming production The Marriage of Figaro, with a title along the lines of “Theatrical Controversy and the French Revolution”. Though I knew little or nothing about the French Revolution, with the help of the internet I soon had all the facts necessary to (hopefully) make my article interesting and engaging. In the evening, I assisted Heidi and Ollie Hawes in a junior drama course.

On Tuesday, I was set the task of updating the Outreach department’s database on local drama teachers. This was no easy task, as there were several hundred of them, but most of the schools were polite and helpful so it was not a traumatic experience! In the afternoon, I watched some of the technical rehearsal of “Figaro”. This was a slow and steady process and so by the time I had to leave, the cast had barely progressed beyond the opening scene.

Wednesday morning was devoted to helping with the small children’s drama-based playgroup, known as “The Waterminis”. This was a lot of fun and all the kids were very well behaved.  That afternoon I helped Beth give an interactive talk to some local primary school children about a career in the theatre. Beth had extracted an audition scene from Treasure Island and I helped by being the other character in the scene.

As Thursday evening was the opening night of The Marriage of Figaro, and I was to be an Usher, I watched the dress rehearsal of the play in full. As the evening rolled around, I helped a staff member with that grand old theatre tradition – setting up the ice cream for the interval. I was then granted an Usher badge and sent to sell programmes at the bar. I showed people to their seats and then was able to watch the play again, which I was very pleased with. The atmosphere during a real performance is completely different to a dress rehearsal. It feels as though the stakes are higher, and the presence of the audience forces you to heighten the quality of your performance in a way that it is impossible to do in a rehearsal.

The final act of The Marriage of Figaro took place in the scenic Watermill gardens, which were the perfect setting for the play’s denouement in the Count’s garden. This provided a source of anxiety for the cast throughout the week, as they were worried about the threat of rain. The weather stayed fine, however, and the play reached its conclusion to much applause.

Through working at The Watermill, I have achieved my goal of learning more about the interior workings of a theatre. I managed to have a lengthy conversation with Beth about the routes into working in the theatre and she was kind enough to give me some useful tips. I cannot overstate how personally beneficial my week working at The Watermill has been and I hope that I managed to repay their kindness by lightening their workload.