What I learned working backstage on a theatre production

I applied for the Production Assistant role on Three Ghosts of Silvertown through Unitemps, MDX's job platform. It was a chance to work with Newham Plays on a real theatre production, and I wanted to see what that world looked like from the inside. 

I'm a BA Hons Fashion Communication and Styling student, graduating with First Class Honours. My background is in styling, set design, creative production and content creation, built through work like set design assistance on Tatler editorials, styling assistance on Man About Town shoots, and creative direction and brand photography at DLTA Studios. I came into this internship expecting to use those skills. I didn't expect how much else I'd end up learning. 

A day in the role 

My day-to-day work covered a mix of things: 

• Managing the ticketing platform and keeping it ready ahead of auditions
• Supporting the process leading up to auditions
• Creating promotional materials
• General admin and reaching out to people
• Providing assistance across different stages of the production.

No two days looked exactly the same. That was part of what made it interesting. 

Learning something new on purpose

I could have stayed in the areas I already knew, styling, creative direction, content. Instead, I chose to pick up the skills I didn't have. 

Learning to use a ticketing platform from scratch was one of the biggest. It meant taking on admin work that needed a level of computer knowledge I hadn't used in my previous roles. It pushed me to diversify what I could actually offer, beyond the creative skill set I'd built through my course and my previous work. 

It would have been easy to only take on tasks that matched what I already knew. But part of what made this internship valuable was choosing not to do that. 

Theatre vs. Magazine Production 

Most of my experience before this had been in magazines, photography, set design assistance on editorial shoots, and one-day shoots where I was usually in a team, behind the camera, or involved in the planning stages. 

Theatre production is a different scale entirely. Getting to see how a show comes together, all the admin, logistics and, audience-facing systems that happen long before it's ever staged, showed me a side of production I hadn't come across in my course or my previous roles. It's given me a much broader picture of what a career across styling and production could actually look like. 

What I'm taking away 

I'm proud of how quickly I adapted to work that was genuinely new to me. Coming in with a creative background and being trusted to run the ticketing system, alongside admin I hadn't done before, was a real test. Getting to grips with it, rather than sticking to what I already knew, is what I'll take away most from this internship. 

If you're a student weighing up an opportunity that doesn't sit squarely in your usual lane, my advice is simple - take it. My course gave me a foundation in styling and creative production, but it was stepping into something as unfamiliar as theatre admin that taught me the most. 

Find out more about the Fashion Communication and Styling BA Honours at Middlesex.