Week 4:
Research Time

June 19, 2018

This week was a lot calmer than previous weeks have been. I feel like I’m getting into the swing of things and really starting to settle into a rhythm at work and outside of work. Everyone else is a lot calmer now that Wizard of Oz has started performances, and they’re all getting into the headspace of 9 to 5. I keep getting songs from the musical stuck in my head since I can hear rehearsal pretty well from both the Development office and the box office desk. I like being around all this creative energy all the time- it helps keep me from getting too frustrated at work. Plus, they sound fantastic!

I worked my first matinee show for the front of house today. It’s a little hard having to balance taking calls and helping people at the box office with trying to make sure people stay quiet and respect the fact that there’s a show going on. Mostly, however, everyone’s pretty respectful, and they can sense the rest of us being quiet and know to stay quiet themselves. In general, I’m really enjoying my time working in the box office. I especially like working at the will call desk at the front of the theatre. It means that I get to greet all the people coming into the theatre and help them directly. In-person communication is a lot easier for me than over-the-phone communication (although I’m getting better at working the phones) so getting to work will call is really nice, and I like being able to be a friendly face for CRT.

This week I had my first meeting with my mentor, Bethany. She took me to lunch at Arp’s, a nice restaurant in town, and we talked a lot about my future and what I want to do with my life and what I’m currently doing with my life. The mentorship program for interns is new this year, along with the entire formalized internship program, but so far I think it’s working really well for me. I like knowing that I have someone I can talk to about my job and about my career who can give me helpful advice without shaming me for things I don’t know. Bethany has many years of experience in theatre and can give me lots of help- she’s personally experienced a lot of what I’m doing right now and will do in the future

In Development this week, I did a lot of work researching grants. This is now basically my default task, what I do if I can’t work on any major projects. We’re looking for grants for a lot of different things, ranging from our Young Adult Outreach Tour to new safety equipment for the scene shop. This is super important work, but also really frustrating sometimes. A lot of grantmakers that give money within Colorado only give it to Denver-based arts organizations, or only give to children’s programs if they give money to the arts at all, etc. I’m learning a lot about the things people prioritize when it comes to giving money. A lot of companies or individuals want to give money to help out children or develop new programs, but not a lot want to give to basic things like updated equipment. A lot of times, what non-profits need is not necessarily what donors want to give.