Third year Arts and Entertainment Journalism students spent the morning at Curve Theatre in Leicester as part of their studies into cultural forms such as drama, music and film.
Staff at Curve hosted a tour of the main space as well as the studio theatre and took part in a Q&A with DMU students who heard how programmes are selected and planned more than two years in advance and how specific shows are sold to the public.
Curve associate director Suba Das led the tour and discussions along with communications officers Jonathan Fraser and Nicola Allen, who herself was a student from the very first Arts & Ents cohort from two years ago.
Mr Das answered questions while sat on the set of Curve’s production of A Streetcar Named Desire, while the media team described how they pitched and secured a special Leicester Mercury supplement to promote the theatre’s world premiere last spring of The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole.
Module leader Andy Plaice said he believed that journalists interested in writing about the arts have to know their subjects inside out. “Part of that means learning what goes on behind the scenes at a big regional theatre like Curve – who funds it, who is the audience, what they produce and why.
“Feedback after the visit was terrific with several of the group saying they had no idea such a lot of work went into planning a production, from the smaller ones with a limited run to large-scale shows in partnership with people like Cameron Mackintosh.”
The visit coincided with DMU’s theme of employability. Recent cases of other journalism students sampling the world of work include Rachel Fernie’s stint at Fabulous magazine, Mollie Mansfield at NME, Mark Farmer who went to the Hinckley Times and Itunu Para-Mallam who, with her business partner, launched DK Online, www.diamondkelekeloonline.com which “aims to redefine beauty and empower generations through lifestyle, fashion and features”.
