Second Year – 2020
A full year has gone by and I am now officially over halfway into my career at RCS. The start of first year feels distant but also like no time has passed. Looking back on my previous reflective summary and blog posts are jarring. I both understand the feelings of that person but feel entirely different a year on. Reading back, it’s evident that I lacked in confidence. My opening paragraph to my reflective summary was enough to tell you just that. Fast forward a year and I think it’s safe to say my attitude towards work and myself have matured. This did not happen immediately overnight, but as each allocation went by and listening to the feedback, it’s apparent that I have advanced since last year. My allocations this year was quite varied, so I had plenty of opportunity to fine tune different area in each one. Being deputy electrician in Cinderella exercised my management and technical skills. The Shakespeare block was a great allocation that taught me programming and communicating with designers as well as an intensive test on my patience. And Love and information was a design allocation that tested my creativity and problem solving.
First came Cinderella as deputy electrician. I went in nervous but with a small flame of confidence that had me excited to see how I had bettered a year later in the same show. That small flame flickered, shrunk and grew throughout. ‘’So, having the role of deputy was good as this meant it allowed me to take more responsibility and work more autonomously whilst also having space to learn and still ask questions whenever I was confused.’’. This statement is an accurate overall assessment on my feelings towards my time on Cinderella. I was trusted with tasks to do by myself and lead others when my superior was unavailable. But questions I had were never ignored or belittled. This role was the perfect intermediate level for me to use and enhance my skillset. I look forward to stepping up to the managerial roles with a larger flame that overshadows my doubts and fears.
The two Shakespeare shows was an interesting term and a lot more eventful. My time programming for Comedy of Errors was more pleasant than I had imagined. I had tried to prep beforehand and do online tutorials that got me familiar with the syntax and flows of programming. This prep helped me, but I found myself needing the assistance of my lecturer often. However, ‘’It was nice to finally gain confidence and shed the training wheels somewhat and work a little more independently as the sessions went on.’’. My progress was sufficient, but I think I would like to achieve a higher quality of work next time a programming opportunity comes around. I intend to do more of the advanced tutorials online and make use of the visualising suite more often. Doing this will boost my confidence and widen my repertoire of tools I have at my disposal as both a programmer and a designer. Hamlet, however, was an entirely different ball game that really tested my soft skills. Each team member had their different quirks that I had to navigate differently. There was a lack of leadership, planning, safety and an incredible amount of laziness. I do label myself as being quite calm and level-headed when I work, however this experience really tested my limits. I guess this experience was less about picking up new skills but enhancing those I already possessed.
The development of the pyro showcase so far has been excellent. Moving on a year from Innerspace and learning from that time has made working on the showcase a smoother process than I had anticipated. Innerspace was difficult for me ‘’Because I came up with the ambitious idea, I felt responsible to make things work and took on too much.’’. This time round – as another ‘design by committee’ project – has also seen me take up quite a lot of work. However, my management of it has been better and the ways I’m choosing to communicate have been more effective. My peers this time round have been a lot more responsive and work is not left to the last minute. I am also happy that I was able to design and create another show in a similar vein to Innerspace that received such positive feedback. I can only hope that I won’t fall into the same pitfall traps as I once did and take the best parts of Innerspace forward and leave the negatives as first year blunders.
My last term of second year became a victim of the ongoing global pandemic. This shook up the final half of the year as it is supposed to be the most challenging for us second years. We finally step up to managerial positions and progress towards our final senior year. Obviously, this did not take place and I cannot help but feel I have missed out on a vital part of my education despite us trying our best efforts. Although I created some great ways of visualising and communicating my idea, this would not have sufficed in a normal working environment. Before the pandemic took place, I had many discussions with the director and designer and came up with some ideas that would have been interesting to see in a show. Communication with my production electrician had always been difficult before and after the crisis hit. And once it did it was hard to stay motivated and keep up with course work. I am satisfied with the work I produced in the end, but I know there is more I could have done if this were to go ahead.
The final year is starting to look very different to how we all imagined. In normal circumstances it would be easier to state what things I look forward to and could improve on in the next. But now our workplace might not revert to normal so soon. We’ll need to work collectively to ensure everyone’s safety as well as making sure we’re not sacrificing too much of our learning journey. What I can say for sure is my confidence has grown and my levels of uncertainty decrease each time a new project begins. I had hoped I could step into the production electrician role and test just how efficient a leader I could be, but that might not happen the same way as our contact becomes limited. I hoped I could test the limits of my creativity and design more shows and complete the showcase. Or working with the new first years and collaborating more with the second. And continuing to build confidence and getting more prepared for the workplace once I had graduated. Whether or not these can be fulfilled to a satisfactory level is uncertain, but we can only try our best. Ultimately safety is the most important factor and I look forward to my final year with doubt, but optimistic for new and innovative ways we can create.