So with February drawing to a close it is time to acknowledge the imminent end of what has been a significant step (I hope!) towards gaining my desired career in the arts – my six month marketing internship at the Royal Shakespeare Company. Last summer when the advertisement for the placement came out I had only recently discovered my love for arts marketing (as opposed to straight arts administration), but the enjoyment I was experiencing in my voluntary marketing work at a local theatre spurred me on to take the plunge and apply.
Of course, at application stage when you refuse to let yourself think about the possibility of actually getting the position I was comfortably blasé about fitting an internship in Stratford-upon-Avon into my life. As a one day per week placement it seemed perfectly logical that it could fit neatly around both my paid job and voluntary work, in fact it felt positively meant-to-be. For once, a little faith in fate paid off.
Leaning favourably towards writing (of course!) my work throughout the placement has ranged from drafting synopses for upcoming productions to creating a report for the RSC Key Blog on the behind the scenes tours on offer at the Royal Shakespeare and Swan theatres. This is certainly an area I feel extremely comfortable in, and so it has been great to apply my love of writing to individual projects, but having the chance to learn exclusive new skills essential for a career in arts marketing (specifically using RedDot, Tessitura and WordFly) has felt rather like finding a Golden Ticket! However this internship has also been one where you can never know what each day is going to involve. Whilst everyday tasks such as organising print and publicity have undoubtedly emerged throughout the six months, assisting with promotion at university Freshers’ Fairs and a spontaneous trip to a model box showing and photo shoot have been particularly unique highlights.
The internship itself has turned out to be a surprising rollercoaster of both intellectual and physical exertion, and it has kept me on my toes and working to my maximum all the way through. Surely it’s unnatural to go from amateur to professional without working hard and earning it first, and my experience at the RSC has certainly reinforced this belief. People talk about hard work and the rewards it can reap, and it is often forgotten that hard work is, well, hard. But if it wasn’t that satisfying sense of accomplishment would be missing, and therefore truly earning something means truly enjoying it.
NB: Information about the RSC’s range of work placements can be found here.
All the World's a Stage 