Hey, I’m Zöe I am 20 years old and I have been involved with Creation Theatre on and off for 5 years. I first heard of Creation Theatre in 2012 when my Mum took me to see The Odyssey in the Norrington room in Blackwell’s Oxford. I loved it so much we went back to watch it a 2nd and 3rd time during the shows run. I then started following them on every social media you could find them on: Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
Fast forward to the summer of 2013 when I was looking for work experience for the following school year, and I took a stab in the dark and tweeted to Creation. Much to my surprise I got a reply the same day; one day into my summer holidays I had sorted out my work experience for the next summer. During the two weeks I spent with them they really made me feel like part of the team and involved me in so much; from working in the office to going into Oxford leafletting, and even helping run their after-school Drama Clubs and Holiday Workshops. It was as a result of their welcome and the variety of role I experienced that led to me asking if I could do further work experience at Creation when I started performing arts at college in 2015.
In 2016 I was invited to work for Creation over the summer, doing Front of House for A Midsummer’s Night’s Dream and Hamlet. I can say without a shadow of a doubt that it was the best summer I have had in my life so far. Working on such amazing shows that were performed in such unique ways was such an extraordinary experience. My Front of House role at Dream was more complicated than your average front of house duties, owing to the peripatetic format of the show. I’d start my day setting up camping chairs in the garden of Creation’s old office, then I’d collect a briefcase containing a set of fake roses and head over to the Science Oxford building next to Oxford Castle to set up 10 pairs of Bluetooth headphones, and then I would head back to drop the briefcase off to a group of audience members. After that I sat in Science Oxford and ran this section of the show by controlling the audio clips played through the headphones to each group of the audience, and when the final group arrived I would lead them to St. Frideswides Church for the rest of the first act. There I served drinks and snacks during the interval, and then I’d tidy up everything away during the second act, ready to repeat the next day.
It was amazing to bepart of such a spectacular production.
When Dream’s run ended, I moved over to work on Hamlet in University Parks continuing to do Front of House. It was a completely different experience than working on Dream as I got to work as part of a bigger team and explore other aspects of the theatre, such as talking to the stage manager and getting to look at some props. The team of volunteers were amazing to work with and I can honestly say I have made some friends for life from working with Creation. After the team and I set up the seats my job was to show members of the audience to their seats, pass on information about the show, and make sure that they didn’t interfere with the shows running during the performance. During the interval I would either stand on the stage to ensure the safety of the more breakable staging or I would be at the Bar selling soft drinks, sweets and programs.
Not only did I love being involved with the fantastic show that Creation put on and getting to work as part of the team, I also loved being able to watch the show so many times and get to know all its different details. I highly recommend volunteering for Creation Theatre; it is a wonderful experience unlike any other.
Zöe Ralston
Current positions
Game Theatre Interns x 4 (paid)
8 July – 16 August
We’re hiring four Game Theatre interns to support this summer’s production of The Tempest. Depending on the show this could be anything from ASM duties, audience interaction or behind the scenes support. The show has a week-long rehearsal period, a week of tech and four week run. In addition, once they’ve worked on the professional production, the Interns will lead a week of Holiday Workshops for up to 16 under 16 year olds in Game Theatre.
As these positions are funded by ACE to increase access to careers in the arts, we are only able to accept applications from candidates who have not completed higher education.
Part time 30 hours per week
£8.75 per hour
Downloadable job description: Game Theatre Interns
To apply send an introduction email and a CV to charliemorley@creationtheatre.co.uk
