Introduction

My name is Rachel and I am about halfway through a 12 week internship with Theatre Hullabaloo. In 2013, Theatre Hullabaloo will be launching its Theatre Firsts campaign. The aim of this is to encourage people to share their first experiences of the arts and encourage others who haven’t previously been to the theatre or have had very little experience with the arts to get involved and make their own Theatre Firsts.

As I am with Theatre Hullabaloo for the next six weeks, I have been tasked with launching this blog and the Theatre Firsts campaign by writing about my own Theatre Firsts and asking other people to contribute theirs.

Before I begin writing, I need to get this confession out of the way. I may be working for Theatre Hullabaloo, but I have never really considered myself a ‘theatre person.’ I’ve studied Literature and Creative Writing, even dabbled in a bit of social science, but not since I was about twelve and going through a stage of wanting to be an actress have I thought of myself as a theatre person. I spent a good hour before writing this staring at the blank page, panicking and thinking ‘but I know nothing about theatre!’ So this is my first. It’s a first in the sense that it’s my first job in the arts, and it’s a first that I have to learn about them and experience them and quickly!

This isn’t to say I’m not familiar with theatre. I’ve seen four different west end shows, I’ve read a lot of Shakespeare and seen Macbeth and I took my mam to see River Dance for Mother’s Day a few years back. I also read (most) of Death of a Salesman in Sixth Form, but I feel like I know very little of theatre that might not be particularly mainstream or well-known and I’ve definitely never really thought about production values, programming or anything like that before. I figured that I couldn’t be the only one, so I rang a friend from uni who is also an arts intern.

‘Clare, do you consider yourself a theatre person?’

I was met with an awkward pause.

‘No… I guess I’ve never given it much thought. I mean I’ve seen operas and once saw Julius Caesar. Didn’t we have to read Renaissance plays at uni?’

So it wasn’t just me, but it wasn’t exactly an inspirational response, so I thought of another angle.

‘But is theatre relevant as an art form?’

‘Of course it is. Literature and film are culturally relevant and both are just different forms of clever writing that entertain and make us think, how is theatre different? It’s dynamic and stimulating. I know when I was at school I’d rather have gone to watch Macbeth than have read it. It’s more interactive.’

After, the conversation inevitably turned to whether £60 is too much to spend on a dress, but as I hung up, I felt enlightened. Theatre is just literature in a different form. I shouldn’t be intimidated by it, I should embrace it. It often expresses social values and issues, it entertains and incites emotion. I remember the first time I went to see Blood Brothers and I remembered how the narrator’s voice and the fact he is always in the background gave me chills. I felt the dread of his presence and was trying to pass my damp eyes off as the result of a sneeze long before the tragic climax. I felt the same way as when I read Catcher in the Rye or His Dark Materials. I was emotionally invested and moved and I couldn’t stop thinking about it for days afterwards.

So perhaps I am a theatre person. In many ways, I’m on the same journey as my readers who also may not consider themselves ‘theatre people.’ I’m intrigued and a little bit intimidated, but at the same time, looking forward to experiencing these theatre firsts and learning something new.