Tag: Theater

  • Whitney Mcdonald

    Whitney Mcdonald

    “If you ever start to feel inadequate at what you’re doing, don’t let that stop you.” 

    Whitney McDonald is the Theatre Operator for the Amentum Center of Performing Arts and the Aiken Community Theatre in Aiken, S.C. She acts as a liaison between the city and the theater, runs the box office, and handles communications for the venue. 

    Interview Transcript

    There was a technical issue with our audio during this interview, so we are providing just the transcript.

    Whitney McDonald  00:00

    Hi, I’m Whitney McDonald, I live in Aiken, South Carolina. I am the theater operator for the Momentum Center of Performing Arts. It is a city-owned facility, and Aiken Community Theater, are the main tenants. So, I work mostly for Aiken community theater, but I also do work for the city as well. I’m kind of split between both. I’m more of like a liaison between the city and the Aiken Community Theater.

    Haley Hansen  00:28

    How long have you been doing that?

    Whitney McDonald  00:29

     Two years in August, coming up in August. So, it’ll be two years.

    Haley Hansen  00:33

     Can you walk me through your typical work day?

    Whitney McDonald  00:36

    Sure. So, I come in at eight o’clock every morning, even though the box office doesn’t open until nine o’clock. I got that hour to kind of check my voicemail. Check my emails on the theater side and the city side. I kind of walk through the theater to make sure everything looks okay, especially if we’ve got a rental going on that day.  So, make sure that the stage is clear, been cleared out the back hallway is clear, that, but that, and then I come back up here and I just answer the phone. I answer emails. It kind of just depends on what’s going on that week. That’s the main thing that I do every day. Like, there’s always something different to do every day. There’s not… it keeps you on your toes. Sometimes, it just kind of depends on what’s going on that week or that month. Yeah.

    Haley Hansen  01:21

    How did you wind up in that field?

    Whitney McDonald  01:23

    Well, I’ve been a part of the theater for a long time, and the previous theater coordinator was with the theater for 20-something years before she left the position. So, that always thought to myself, “Man, if she ever retired, it’d be really great to have her position.” It just seemed like it was really just easy. You know, you had your weekends off, you had your evenings free. And then, in early 2012, mid-2022, she made an announcement that she was leaving the position, and I put in for it.  I knew it was a city position, so I’d have to interview through, you know, the city, and also with the executive director of the theater. And so, I had an interview one day, and then two weeks later, they offered me a job, and it just worked out. I mean, I know everybody in the theater anyway, but I’ve always been a performer. Always been on stage. I’ve been a little bit backstage, but I didn’t ever really realize how much goes on behind the scenes to run a theater until I took this position.  I am still learning things every day, something new all the time, and I try not to feel bad about myself because I should have known that. But really there’s, there’s no handbook on how to do this position. Like I said, the original theater coordinator, she was in this position for 20-something years. She made this position. So, I’m only the second person to fill it, and, yeah, just take it day by day. But I have help from board members and the executive director, I have good guidance with me, but I’m sorry if that kind of stray from your question a little bit.

    Haley Hansen  03:08

     No, that’s good, but yeah. Was there any specific moment where you realized that you wanted to do this job, like you mentioned you wanted to take it from the previous person? Was there, like, a particular moment, or maybe after you got the job?

    Whitney McDonald  03:25

    No, I think it, it was always kind of in my mind, like, in the back of my mind, like that would be a really sweet job to have, but I never thought that anything would come of it. I never even considered getting into this profession at all. I was always just happy, you know, doing theater as a hobby, but it kind of, when this job came open, I was, like, the opportunity at least, you know, so I don’t regret it, and I hate the job, but I could go, you know, I can at least say that I, you know, put in for it and but I wouldn’t say there was any real defining moment that made me realize, like, I really wanted this position.  It was just always kind of in the back of my head, but think it would be a really cool job to have. And then it kind of still seems like it’s not real sometimes. And I do get to work here, so I mean, yeah, in a way it is. It is kind of a dream job for me. Sometimes, it’s like that it doesn’t feel real all the time.

    Haley Hansen  04:21

     What were you doing before you came to this position?

    Whitney McDonald  04:24

    I did a lot of retail food service. I worked in banking for a while. That was kind of my main, um. These are the three main things that I had done before this position. So, I didn’t even know if I was even qualified, because I didn’t have a whole lot of administrative experience other than some banking. But, I just got lucky because my, I just, I think, I think me knowing the people had a lot, had a lot to do with it too. Yeah, that was….

    Haley Hansen  04:45

    What was the biggest adjustment when you started where you are now?

    Whitney McDonald  04:58

    I would say. Getting comfortable with answering. I keep my personal phone on silent all day, every day, as a true millennial. But we, but– so getting comfortable, you know, answering the phone, getting comfortable with the, the ticketing system that we use. I’ve never used anything like that before.  It was a little bit, a little daunting at first. I had, because I didn’t really have the previous coordinator wasn’t here to train me. She had already left for her new position, and so she wasn’t here to train me. So it was left up to some of our theater volunteers, the executive director, a couple of board members, and so a lot of it, I’ve just kind of been figuring it out on my own. So, I would say that was kind of the biggest adjustment, was just coming into a completely new field and having to learn things very quickly.

    Haley Hansen  05:50

    Are there any specific skills that a student or young adult aspiring to be a theater coordinator or working in theater administration should pick up?

    Whitney McDonald  06:01

    I would say that having a background in some sort of administration would help because, like, say, I didn’t have a whole lot of that. I just kind of got lucky that this job doesn’t require it kind of, I don’t know. I guess it just depends on how heavy that particular theater depends on the theater coordinator or operator, whatever they’re they’re called, how much of the administrative side they do. We have a treasurer who takes care of a lot of the financial. So, that’s that part’s not on me, and we, we have an executive team that takes on some of the administrative side, too.  So, I would say just having some sort of knowledge of what it means to be in an office side of things, I guess. Being okay with working by yourself is a big part of it, because there are a lot of, lot of days where I’m just here, although all-day customer service is a big thing too. And I think having a background in any kind of customer service is a big help in this job as well, because you are, you are the face of the box office.  You know. When people call in, they expect to speak to you, and you want to be pleasant, and you know, be able to help them as best as you can.

    Haley Hansen  07:19

     Oh, yeah, that’s helpful.

    Whitney McDonald  07:20

    I’ve never, as a— I don’t know any other theater operators, or that work at any other theater, so. I don’t really have much to offer or compare with what they do day-to-day. I think each theater is very unique in their day-to-day business.

    Haley Hansen  07:34

    Are there any organizations or programs or maybe events that you would recommend for people who are interested in getting more involved in theater?

    Whitney McDonald  07:43

    Yeah, we used to do workshops. We haven’t done one in a while. We used to do workshops for, like, improv or just certain acting classes. If you are interested in getting involved in theater in any way, that’s where to start, or even just coming to an audition just to play. That’s how I got into it. I’ve never done theater before, and I came to an audition and I got cast, and it kind of just went from there. But as far as, like, if they’re interested in getting into a job in the industry, I wish I knew the answer to that. I just kind of got lucky. You know? I know that there’s some theaters that do require you to have a certain degree or what have you for it. I just got lucky.

    Haley Hansen  08:28

    Oh, it sounds like if you start showing up and getting involved, then people will help, so.

    Whitney McDonald  08:33

    Absolutely. And we are always, always welcoming new volunteers to come in and help. Yeah, we always encourage new people to come.

    Haley Hansen  08:40

    Do you have any advice for current students who are pursuing a creative career?

    Whitney McDonald  08:46

    I would say, if you ever start to feel inadequate in what you’re doing, don’t let that stop you. I feel like that all the time in my position, like I said, I’m just learning new stuff all the time. But don’t let it discourage you. If it’s something that you really want to pursue, don’t give it up. That’s that’s what I would say.

    Haley Hansen  09:05

    Thank you.

  • Thurayya UmBayemake

    Thurayya UmBayemake

    “Your path in life won’t look like anyone else’s.” 

    Thurayya UmBayemake is the Spark Lead Actor-Teacher in support of the Arts Grow SC program at SC Governor’s School for the Arts and Humanities. She delivers literacy-based drama programming to public schools to encourage “creative thinking, divergent thinking, and overall motivation to read.” UmBayemake earned a degree in drama studies at South Carolina State University (SC State). 

    Interview

    Transcript

    Thurayya UmBayemake 

    My name is Thurayya UmBayemake. I moved to South Carolina a couple of years ago from Ohio. But I claim Ohio, Kentucky, and South Carolina because I went to college here, and I felt like I grew up here, so.

    Emma Plutnicki 

     Perfect. So, what do you do for work? And where are you currently working from?

    Thurayya UmBayemake 

    My official title is Curriculum Coordinator, actor, teacher/coach for the South Carolina Governor’s School for the Arts and Humanities. So what that entails, is that I’m the lead actor teacher for a program called Spark, which is through their department of outreach and community engagement. And, the Spark program is a literacy-based drama program. So we go into elementary schools. And, not only do we show students how to take stories from picture books and how to add drama enactments in there, to show characters, to show settings, to show plot. To reinforce the literacy-based learning. But also creative thinking, divergent thinking, and just overall motivation to read. So we do that. That’s our main goal. But we also have a goal of showing teachers that hey, even though you don’t have an arts background, you could do this too. So it’s a two fold job.

    Emma Plutnicki 

    Amazing. So you’re working out of South Carolina?

    Thurayya UmBayemake 

     Yes.

    Emma Plutnicki 

     Okay. Perfect. And how long have you been working there?

    Thurayya UmBayemake 

    So, I’ve been here for a little over two years. And that’s when the program, the residency program started. Ah, so, this program has been going on for a minute. But, um, the program before I came along was a summer based only pilot. And when the SR [Sub-recipient], ARP [American Rescue Plan] grant money came in, that’s the federal, you know, grant money that was given for the pandemic, it turned this program into a year-long residency program. So, that’s when I was hired in. And I had a team of, underneath me,  other actor teachers, and we’re spread out throughout the state. So, we work somewhat remotely and we traveled to different schools across the state. So, just you know, to spread the, to spread the wealth, to the spread the joy of the, of the job.

    Emma Plutnicki 

    Yeah, amazing. So two years, how did you end up in this field? How did you hear about it? How did you know that this is something that you could do?

    Thurayya UmBayemake 

    So, my background, I’ve always been into theater. Well, I shouldn’t say I’ve always. I’m a storyteller. So I’ll try not to be so long winded, I will promise you, I will try hard.

    Thurayya UmBayemake 

     So, it all started. When in high school, I was actually an athlete, I did cross country and track and field. I got injured my senior year. And at the same time, I got injured, the African community theater opened up in my hometown. And I tell this story, because it’s very important. That’s how I got into theater. Like I was involved in a theater that embraced me for who I was, and told stories that I could truly relate to. And so, that gave me that, the theater bug because, actually, I wasn’t even initially an actor; I was an assistant director, slash stage manager, then acting, and I knew from that I wanted to stay in theater. So I went to college ended up at South Carolina State University because they had a drama education program. And that’s how I ended up from Ohio down here. I have no ties to South Carolina other than that, but that program really developed me. Um, one as a family unit, you know, I felt comfortable and vulnerable enough, which is, which is very important. When it comes to drama and theater, you gotta be vulnerable onstage, in the script, everywhere, for the story to be told authentically.

    Thurayya UmBayemake 

    So, that was one thing. But then also, when I realized how long the drama education program was going to take to complete, I switched to drama studies, which was good for me because it helped me learn other aspects, more in depth in theater, like I learned Tech, I learned administration, like all these different aspects, versus just little surface levels and education. So, that is my educational background.

    Thurayya UmBayemake 

     Once I graduated, I did some traveling. I called myself a little bit of a nomad, I went back to Ohio for a bit. I did children’s theater up there, and I opened up my own theater, basically for social justice. It was called Sue Company. And I opened it with two of my friends, and we focused on telling the African American stories, you know, up here. I don’t know why I said up here, I put American in there. African American stories.

    Thurayya UmBayemake 

     From there, I went to New York and, actually when I moved to New York, I took a break from theater, even though I was living in New York. I know that’s backwards, but I just was living life and, and me… me being a natural storyteller, you have to experience life to tell stories. So, that’s what I did in New York. I just was experiencing life. I did go to play readings, you know, and volunteered as an actor, but that’s the extent of my, my theater experience in New York. Once I came back to Ohio, I realized I wanted to get back into theater. But I also knew I wanted to come back down south to South Carolina, because this, to me, is where my home theater is now. Like, where my friends from schools kind of stayed in the area. So, I was looking for jobs. And then one of my colleagues or old classmates sent me this job. He was like, Hey, I think you’d be interested. So that’s how I learned about this job. And I was like, I am interested.

    Thurayya UmBayemake 

    So, I was nervous. I actually applied for both that just the actor, teacher job and the actor, teacher coach job, because I didn’t know if I, ah, you know, fully qualified or not. And it’s funny, because I think you’ve you’ve probably seen that article where like, there was a study on men and women. How women feel they have to heal. That’s me. I was like, I don’t know. So, obviously, I interview well, and I got the position. And it’s just been smooth, not smooth sailing, but it’s been smooth sailing since. It’s, it’s definitely been challenging, but it’s a good challenge. And I’m really happy that, one, that they picked me, and they trust me with this position, and that I could do justice for it.

    Emma Plutnicki 

    Yeah, amazing. So what kind of challenges have you experienced? And how have you overcome those?

    Thurayya UmBayemake 

    Well, one is I’ve somewhat managed before. My managing experience has always been like short-term, right? Like my last job, I worked for the Board of Elections up in Cuyahoga County, and I was a recruiter official. So, what that means is that I basically was responsible for filling in the poll workers. So I was, I hired them. And then sometimes I had to fire them, you know, or, or, or relocate them, and like, different things like that. But it was a very short-term commitment. This job is a very long-term commitment. You know, because once someone’s on the team, we want them to stay on the team. So I had to grow as a manager to overcome difficulties, whether it’s individual or personal, or just overall team dynamics.

    Emma Plutnicki 

    Yeah, that makes sense. So now, on a daily basis, what kind of things are you working on? And what are your responsibilities on just a day-to-day basis? Are you working more on long projects? Or are there kind of short assignments that kind of come up? Or what does it look like?

    Thurayya UmBayemake 

    It’s a mixture, of both. And it’s, I feel like since I’ve been brought on, it has always been a mixture of both. Mostly because it was such a brand new idea of a program, where we had an idea where it was gonna go, but we didn’t necessarily have the pathway. So we had to be always flexible, which sometimes it’s harder than what it sounds, you know. So my daily projects, like the shorter terms is what I know, right? Like summer programming, I know what comes up every year. So I have to plan for it right? During the school year residency, so I have to plan for that. That’s the short term, you know, constantly, but the long term part is choosing the districts, how we’re going to get to those districts, who’s going to be involved like that’s more of the long term, and also getting the word out about our program because, there’s a lot of challenges that comes with our program, because it’s new, you got to explain it. But you gotta explain it in a way that you don’t lose interest. For instance, not being too long winded. But you don’t also don’t want to be too short, because they’ll come up with their own idea what the program is. And so yeah,

    Thurayya UmBayemake 

    I feel like the whole program has just had a signifigant impact on me.

    Emma Plutnicki 

    Yeah, makes sense. So, throughout your time doing this, has there been one project or something that you worked on that stood out the most as like resonating with you or something that had a significant impact on you?

    Emma Plutnicki 

    That’s amazing.

    Thurayya UmBayemake 

    It is. You know what, one thing I’ve always wanted to do is be like a presenter, right? Like when I go to conferences or things, there’s always a presenter up there explaining. And I always thought that job looked cool. I didn’t know that this job would turn into part of that. So I get, this past year, particularly, I got to go to different conferences and present the program. So, I was really happy about that accomplishment.

    Emma Plutnicki 

    Yeah, that’s so fun. And so you said that you came, you didn’t really have too many ties to South Carolina. So when you came, were there any, um, like organizations or events that you went to, or interacted with to kind of build a network, or just overall help you in your field?

    Thurayya UmBayemake 

    Yes. So, this is when I bring in my mama. But, ah, so growing up, we moved around a lot. Um, and my mama has always instilled in me like, you get to know the community. Like, first and second day moving, we always went and got a library card. We met at the police station to meet the officer, like we you gotta know who you’re living with, you know, your neighbors and everything. So, when I came down here, not only did I reach out to like, my former classmates at, from SCSU [South Carolina State] who are still in the area. I did the same exact things. I went to get a library card, I went to local community festivals or events, you know. And I reached out to different communities to let’s say, hey, you know, introduce myself things of that nature, you know. And that’s how I built, build my network here. I also went to many of the different theater events around. I live in Colombia. I don’t know if I mentioned that but, my remote position is Midlands. So I went to the theater network here to just introduce myself because I’m also doing something in drama and wanted to know the familiar bases.

    Emma Plutnicki 

    Amazing. And within, when you were trying to get this job, were there any skills that you found helped you land, the position, or any skills that you think someone trying to get into your field should have in order to find success?

    Thurayya UmBayemake 

    Definitely. So, I think two major skills is what got me the job. One was my natural storytelling ability. Two was just my background and job experiences. I have worked so many different types of jobs. And I know some people feel once they get out of college, they should only work in their field, right? You’re missing out, right? Like you are missing out on meeting different people, learning about different situations, how to overcome it, you know, taking that L, you know, learn from your mistakes. So, I think me having all those different types of jobs, one led me to be a recruiter official, because I could deal with people well, and that recruiter official helped me get this job because they’re like, Oh, you have management experience, see how it all just comes into place?

    Emma Plutnicki 

    Yeah, perfect.And just as we’re wrapping up, do you have any advice for someone who would want to get into a position like yours, and how they can manage that? And just any overall advice for them?

    Thurayya UmBayemake 

    Yes. One, don’t narrow your network, right? Like, make friends with any and everybody, just to learn about their life experiences and what they went through. It will help you learn that your path is not going to look like anybody else’s. Like, you could talk to 100 people, I promise you, your path is going to be different from all 100 people. Right? And with that being said, you can’t take everyone’s advice. Everyone’s advice is used with a grain of salt because, again, your path is going to be different no matter what.

    Emma Plutnicki 

    Yeah, for sure. That’s, that’s good advice. And is there anything else you’d like to add about your experiences or your profession?

    Thurayya UmBayemake 

    Yeah I, I would like to add one more thing.

    Thurayya UmBayemake 

     I feel like this job was a dream come true. And I say that because when you major in one of those fields that doesn’t, quote-unquote, guarantee you a job. You have to learn patience, right? And, like, when I was again when I came out of college, I think my first job was housekeeping. Like, who wants to admit that nobody, right? I eventually got into like children’s theater and other stuff, but none of those paid the bills, right? Like it was just something I enjoyed doing. But, this job is the first one, you know, that meets both. That satisfied my living situation. And I really love and enjoy doing it. And, it took a while. But, I feel like it was the perfect timing. So it’s about faith. It’s about persistence. And, like, I just had to, like I said, refocus and learn different jobs and different skills and enjoy the journey of life. But I really do love this job. My, team is great. Working at the, um, SC gov school is great. And, I couldn’t ask for anything better.

    Emma Plutnicki 

    Yeah.

    Emma Plutnicki 

    Amazing. I’m so happy you found your dream job. So good to hear.