Friday February 10th

The 10th of February was the day we had agreed to have the meeting at the New Vic Theatre.
 I had looked up exactly where it was located so that I knew how I would get there, and so that I could leave myself plenty of timed to arrive.



During the week since the initial phone call I had written myself a list of all the groups that may appeal to me and ones that I would be able to attend:

• Drama Club: Saturdays ages 4-10
• Youth Theatre-  Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays ages 10-12, 13-15 and 16-18
• Ask about Borderlines groups

I had prepared a bit of a speech about myself, about who I was and what I was doing at the moment, the MA for example, and about the previous work I had done in the sector, and about if it was possible I would like to do some work with the theatre. I felt like I had done ample research on the theatre, and the things that went on there, and I also felt like I was completely prepared to talk to them about myself, about my strengths and my hobbies and my work previous to this opportunity. 

I tend to think that with situations such as these you are either going to be lucky, or you are going to be told that they will not be allowing you to do work there. To me it felt like I was going into a interview for a paid job, so I would treat it as such as, I had got my hopes up about being able to do a placement there. 

I got there early about half two as I got a taxi up and didn't know how long it would take me to get there, my worst fear about any of these situations is being late. I went into the box office and said that I had a meeting with Lynn Parry but was a bit early. They kindly called up to the education office and shortly Lynn came to meet me. We headed upstairs and she told me that both Jill and David would join us for the meeting. We did all the introductions and then Lynn came out right and asked if I was interested in doing some work with them. I explained as part of my Masters I was required to undertake a work placement and that I had been looking at local places in the area, and the theatre seemed like a good fit for me. They asked me a few questions about different age groups I had worked with in the past but mainly suggested groups I could work with.

David runs the Monday, Tuesday and Thursday Youth Theatre and because I work on  Mondays and Tuesdays we decided that I would attend the Thursday groups for 13-15 year olds, which runs 4.30-6pm. Then Jill mentioned that the Home Ed group may be on interest to me. They explained that this was a group which ran on Tuesdays mornings from 10am-1pm and was especially for children who were not in full time education, some because of special educational and behavioural needs, and some because their parents preferred them to be home schooled.

The week after my meeting was the February half term where sessions were not running so we agreed on dates for after that week and within about 20mins I had established my work placement. With all the preparation I had done I felt very grateful that I hadn't needed a whole lot of what I wanted to say, and that they had been so welcoming and obliging in allowing me to gain some experience with them.