Internship Reflections

Over 10 weeks, as part of a B-Experienced Internship from the University of Birmingham, Fisola worked alongside the team on Wuthering Heights. In this blog, she reflects on her time and what she has learnt working as a Producing Assistant.

My name is Fisola and I am a BA English Literature graduate. I have completed 10 weeks with China Plate as a Producing Assistant for the University of Birmingham, Be-Experienced Internship!  My internship with China Plate has been the beginning of my career in the arts. I joined the latter part of the tour for Wuthering Heights and my role involved a combination of social media content creation and general admin for the show.

I am a writer but I have always wanted to understand how a show goes from page to stage. I was curious about the producing role and liked the idea of helping oversee a project. China Plate and Inspector Sands’ production of Wuthering Heights was an exciting opportunity for me as I enjoy reading, so this was a great combination of my passion for books and theatre.

The producing role gave me insight on how to talk about a show to different audiences. This required me to generate anticipation for the lead-up to the show. Social media marketing is a logical process but it is also creative. It required me to find ways to engage with audiences, other creative members on the production team and capture the creative vision of Inspector Sands. I worked closely on content aimed at students. I picked up the student societies campaign from the first intern Orla. We contacted students to promote the great ticket offers we had for the show. I later took over Oxford Playhouse’s Instagram stories where I took followers behind the scenes and interviewed the director Lucinka Eisler.

I was fortunate to see the performance in the first co-producing venue Royal & Derngate, Northampton. The show consumed the fullness of the space. I was mesmerised by how the production used all elements of the stage, sound and lighting to tell the story. Coming from a background in literature, I was able to see how Brontë’s classic was made modern for a new audience. I also helped conduct the vox pop interviews and hear about the audience’s opinions on the show. The audience ranged from young and old, those familiar with the story and those new to it. The production was successful and this was reflected in audience responses.

My internship with China Plate has been fun, fast paced and exciting. The experience has ignited a desire for me to make things happen! I was surrounded by the expertise of the team and I learnt the internal structure of China Plate. I have been supported by Kristina throughout the programme in our 1-2-1 pastoral meetings. This has been a good opportunity for me to discuss my next steps. I am very excited to pave a career for myself that involves my passion of writing and my new learned skill of producing. I will take the skills I have learnt into my producing toolkit to work on creating my own events. I am passionate about my podcast about books and I am excited to be planning a launch event for it. My home is theatre and the big goal is to be producing plays and shows in the future.