Upstart is designed for Year 10 and 11 students who want to gain practical experience of working in a theatre. It is a two-week placement and there are 12 places available, 10 for performers and two for stage managers/designers. All the students taking part work together as a small theatre company to produce a short play. How it works
Upstart is open to all young people in Years 10 and 11 who att
end schools in Nottingham and Nottinghamshire. We run the scheme in partnership with schools, and don’t take applications direct from students. This is how it works:
· The Playhouse sends out application forms to school Work Experience Co-ordinators
· Work Experience Co-ordinators give the forms to two selected students
· The students fill in their application forms and return them to the Playhouse
· The Playhouse short-lists the best applications
· The short-listed candidates are offered an audition or an interview
· The successful students are chosen from these and offered a placement
There are more than 70 schools in our catchment area and we have just 12 places on our scheme, so as you can imagine we get far more applications than we have places available. This is the reason we restrict the scheme to students attending Nottingham and Nottinghamshire schools. Dates
Upstart runs twice a year, in July and December only. The next placement runs from 29 November to 10 December 2010, and the application forms were sent to schools at the beginning of September. We will send out the application forms for the summer 2011 placement next January – the dates for this placement are 27 June to 8 July. If you would like to apply for Upstart, you should see your Work Experience Co-ordinator at school. Even though the scheme is always over-subscribed, 12 students do get places every time, so please don’t be put off from applying. For Work Experience Co-ordinators
We send the application forms to all schools in Nottingham and Nottinghamshire automatically. If the member of staff responsible for work experience placements has changed recently, please call Kitty Parker on 0115 947 4361 to update your school’s details. We ask students not to write to us to request a placement, but to see their work experience co-ordinator at school.
