There are currently two interns at Omnibus, myself (Pia) and Ed. I thought it would be nice to get to know Ed as we haven’t been able to meet as we have both been working from home. We arranged a zoom call and used the time to have a chat to get to know each other and find out about what we’ve been up to while working at Omnibus. The following is the conversation we had, as we thought you might like to get to know us too.
PIA: So Ed, would you like to tell me a bit about you?
ED: I’m Ed and I am currently doing a Masters in Creative Producing at Mountview. I got into theatre properly when I did my Undergraduate at Cambridge and I did a load of… well actually more theatre than my degree.
PIA: What undergraduate degree did you do?
ED: I did modern and Medieval languages, so I did Spanish, French, and Catalan. I started out acting, got into production and technical theatre then I did a lot of producing; I decided quite quickly in my final year, my fourth year, that I wanted to do it as a career. I went straight into a masters, well the pandemic happened before my masters but now I’m here. When I started at Omnibus it wasn’t as a placement originally. It was because I met Marie in September because we were going around various theatres and asking them about the steps they had taken to minimise covid risks and what their plans were to reopen. Then we had a little session with her, me and a couple of friends from my course. From that I spoke to Marie and said your theatre sounds great and I live just up the road I would love to help out if I can. So, I volunteered just an afternoon a week, helping out with what I do now and then she said we can now do it as a placement so it can be two days a week. Yeah, that’s me.
PIA: I feel like my journey to getting the placement was so different.
ED: Oh, that’s so cool. What was yours?
PIA: So, I am currently undergraduate so It’s like a sandwich year. I’ve done my first two years and obviously corona happened halfway through my second year. It didn’t affect it too much because we don’t really have a proper third term anyway. I just ended up doing my performances two weeks early because they were planning for the university to shut down. We missed out on a bit of development time, but we just got graded slightly differently. I got this placement last January like before corona because I was supposed to start in September.
ED: With Omnibus?
PIA: Yeah, because I was doing a placement year, so I had to find a placement. This was the only place I applied to.
ED: Fair
PIA: I was going to apply to other places, but I got accepted at Omnibus, but then corona happened it got delayed and kept getting pushed back, so I had to find another placement.
ED: Okay.
PIA: So, I got a placement in construction.
ED: Okay. Wait so what’s your degree in?
PIA: Drama
ED: Okay so what do you do on your other placement?
PIA: I’ve done a bit of everything. I’ve done a bit of media; I’m writing a blog for them. Doing all the blogs.
ED: Good experience. So how many days are you at Omnibus like per week?
PIA: Two and half slash three days. I do a bit today (Monday). Then I work with Ellie and Shaun on Tuesdays and Cindy on Wednesdays.
ED: I was originally Mondays and Fridays. Now I’m just Fridays, I still come to the meetings because they want me there.
(We laugh)
ED: But that’s cool very varied.
PIA: Yeah, but then I’ve got to go back next year and I’m like what’s happening.
ED: Wait are at university right now?
PIA: No like I’m not at university at all, although this is part of my course, I don’t really have much to do with my university right now.
ED: What university are you at? Is it Surrey?
PIA: No Kent. So, what do you want to do in the future? What are your ambitions?
ED: Well, my masters is in producing, I want to go into producing… ideally. I’m currently applying for some stuff. I want to end up producing or marketing because I have quite a bit of marketing experience in things like graphic design. Then I also have a lot of experience in technical theatre and I really like stage management so I’m a little bit torn but producing is the main path I’m planning to pursue. I think, at least at the start, I want to be employed by a producing house or through a theatre rather than freelance because freelance is very stressful and I want some job security. So that is my current plan. What about you?
PIA: I was literally having this discussion with my mum like an hour ago and I still don’t know. I think like again producing maybe stage management. I don’t know if I want to go more towards film or if I want to go more towards theatre because I also like being able to afford live. Like as you said with the freelancing there’s not as much security and I feel that through commercial and film you make more money. I feel that being a lot more open and being willing to do stuff benefits you a lot more than being regimented in your mind like this is what I’m doing.
ED: Yeah, because I had it in my mind that I wanted to go work for Cameron Macintosh or Glass Half Full or something and immediately be a producer. Then I was like that’s not realistic.
PIA: What have you been doing on your placement?
ED: I was originally doing a lot of fundraising and I helped out with various applications for funds and a lot of data input, now I do programming. So, I sift all the programming emails and submissions then evaluate them against the mission and values of theatre, the practical considerations, the length of run and then brief Marie. It’s fun and I like it when we agree on something. That’s what I mainly do but I occasionally do bits and bobs, they just throw jobs and me and I just do it. What about you?
PIA: I’m doing marketing with Shaun and Ellie. I do quite a lot of weekly tasks, so like they’ll throw stuff my way and then I’ll do it. It’s kinda the same for participation as well but that’s been quite research based. I’ve also been sitting in on the Anti-Racism meetings. I’ve been doing the listings for different websites like sending them the info for the shows that are coming up. Then also joining in with the interdepartmental.
ED: Nice.
PIA: Have you had any challenges within the placement during in covid? Has it been a struggle?
ED: Not really. I guess switching to remote was quite annoying because I used to like being able to go out and just walk down the road and go work somewhere that wasn’t my bedroom. It wasn’t really challenging it was just a bit of an annoying situation because I liked being able to go out.
PIA: I feel the same to be honest. Like not being able to go in and properly meet everyone is quite hard. Also like the uncertainty of it all like not knowing what’s going to happen with anything is quite hard. It’s been really nice speaking to you getting to know you. Hopefully at some point in the future we will be able to meet in person.
ED: Who knows when?
(We laugh)
ED: It was nice speaking to you too.
I hope you enjoyed getting to know a bit more about us and our experiences with Omnibus Theatre.
