New to the world

[erwaggoner]

Hello community!
I have been working with my school theatre doing lights and other technical whatnot for about 7 years, and have developed a fairly good working knowledge of the systems and equipment that we have there. I really love doing it but want to get more of an idea of how a professional theatre or production crew works. There aren't any professional theatres very near me so unfortunately I don't have the convenience of being able to network with anyone. I was wondering if anyone had any thoughts on how to approach a theatre or production company on helping/interning with my little to no experience. I am not really interested in the college route because again there aren't any places near enough to where I live to get a full time job, but if I could somehow intern or something for a couple productions I'm sure I could learn a lot to bring back to my theater and the local community theater in my town.

Any ideas are greatly appreciated!

 

[icewolf08]

Not knowing anything about the area you live in makes some suggestions hard. You say there aren't any professional theatres near you, are the production companies? Are there places near you that you think might be looking for interns? If your goal is to stay local, then just start calling the cclosest companies you are willing to commute to and see if they have positions to offer. One of the things about this industry is that a lot of the time if you want to advance yourself, you have to be willing to move to where the jobs are (unless you happen to live in a hub city like NYC or Chicago). A lot of times moving up means moving out.

I have to assume that your seven years of working with the school includes some years as a student? If that is the case, I would suggest moving on (unless the pay is fantastic or you have some heavy ties to the area). I am just a big advocate for not sticking around your school after you graduate as it doesn't really hep to advance your knowledge or skills.

There are plenty of companies out there who will hire people who don't have a college degree. I have had many friends who either never went to college or dropped out get jobs with big companies and to this day are happily employed.

As far as how to approach companies, we (my theatre) field calls and emails from people looking for work all the time. Most theatres have a section of their website that is dedicated to telling people how to get involved. Some theatres look for volunteers and others look for overhire. It never hurts to send an email or call the production manager and ask about opportunities. The worst that can happen is that they tell you there are no openings at the moment. If you are willing to volunteer your time, the odds are much more in your favor as many people are happy to have free labor.