We had a chat with Sonia Moloney who is a 3rd year student in Creative Digital Media in the Institute of Technology, Blanchardstown. Sonia is on work experience here at The Civic. The placement runs over 12 weeks.
My name is Sonia I’m currently in my 3rd year at ITB (it’s in Blanchardstown) studying Creative Digital Media. A lot of people (who don’t know me too well obviously) have asked why I picked to do work experience in a theatre. The answer to that is around the age of 12 my Mam and Dad brought me to a panto in our local theatre. A few weeks after this I begged my Mam to see if there was a stage school in the theatre (there was) and every since then I caught the acting bug.
I have been in several shows such as Oliver and even managed to be in a play which was put on as part of the Dublin fringe festival. By the age of 19, I had written my first play called Playlist for Life (I’m still working on getting it to a performance level ). I also go to as many plays as possible. My favourite play is Break written by Amy Conroy and Waiting for IKEA is one I would really like to see hit the stage again.
So….. what have I actually been doing at the Civic theatre over the 10 weeks I’ve been here so far? To be honest, the days fly, this is a good thing there’s nothing worse than being on work experience where the weeks drag by.
Early on, I was asked to do photography for The Civic’s Apprentice Theatre Programme-Tenderfoot.I’d never done theatre photography and my biggest worry would be that I would end up with photos that were very dark. Thankfully this didn’t happen, you can see some of my photos here.
I’ve also been given the opportunity to work alongside a videographer who has been creating a video for the Civic. He allowed me to help with sound, which mainly involves me making sure the microphones are connected properly, keeping audio at safe level to stop it ‘distorting’. Other jobs I’m doing for the Civic is help update content on the website.
I have just completed a season launch video. I have been editing together video clips of all the shows that are going be on during the coming months. This involves a lot of time and research to put together. The first step is to look for inspiration and see what other theatres are doing to then decide on a text animation. This has been a big bonus for me as I had the opportunity to go off and teach myself after effects and make a text animation that I have currently placed at the start of the video. The good news is that this video will be displayed across the social media sites for the Civic and also live on the Big Screen in the Square shopping centre now!!! You can also watch it here
The biggest thing I’ve learned so far for me say skill-set wise, is learning about new software. What really is going help me in my future working career (the biggest and most important thing I learned while at the Civic) is to be confident in my ability. Being able to see what I can achieve in just a few weeks with a bit of time is great. Normally if I had been asked to go do a text animation for an assignment and was only learning the software I would panic. I wanted to see what I could do with no pressure that’s what great about the Civic they let me go off and see what I can produce. And I think I haven’t disappointed (well hopeful I haven’t).
I love working on the video stuff it’s what I’m most passionate about and think that really does come across when people get a chance to see my work. I’m a strong believer that if you are passionate about what you do then this really come across in your work. Plus video is the original reason I decided to do the course. It’s been a great learning experience so far!
See below for some of Sonia’s photography:
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- ‘The Dead’ Audience attendees
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- ‘Dublin Old School’ post-show discussion
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- ‘Dublin Old School’ performance
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- Tenderfoot rehearsals
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- Tenderfoot performance
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- Caith Amach E performance
