Lucy Thomas Interview - Early Days & Learning From Your Mistakes
Title
Lucy Thomas Interview - Early Days & Learning From Your Mistakes
Date
20 November 2017
Description
Oral history interview with Lucy Thomas, Theatre Royal & Royal Concert Hall Press & PR Manager since 1997
What's the story?
Lucy Thomas has been dealing with local and national media in relation to the shows and stars that come to the Theatre Royal since 1997: 21 years and counting!
In this interview she describes how she got the job and how important it is to learn from your mistakes:
So, embarrassingly, I had no experience whatsoever in Theatre or PR. It was back in the day when jobs were advertised in the Nottingham Post on a Thursday. There was no internet, so you had to look for a job via the newspaper. And I saw this job advertised, which was Press Officer for the Theatre Royal and Royal Concert Hall and I just thought, well, what an incredibly interesting job that would be, so I applied for it. All they were looking for was a graduate and experience was desirable, but not essential. So, luckily I had a degree, so I thought, well what’s to stop me. Even though I don’t have experience, I can “wow” them at interview. And luckily, very luckily, it all went quite well for me and I did get the job, but it was a steep, steep learning curve and I made lots of mistakes - wouldn’t necessarily recommend it.
Although, I do think that you learn by your mistakes, so as long as you don’t do it more than once, then it’s just how you learn. So not double-checking with taxis that they’ll definitely going to be where they’re going to be, not double-checking with actors that they’re going to be where they’d said they were going to be yesterday. Not double-checking with the media that they’re expecting you when you arrive.
I think that even though you do your best, what you learn very quickly in this job is that you have to be the organiser, you have to be the one that double-checks, you have to be the one that makes sure that the people who said they were going to be where they’re going to be are there. And you don’t just ask once. You don’t just order the taxi once. You don’t just send one email. You really do have to double, triple check.
Every very informal and friendly looking photo opportunity or off-the-cuff radio interview has to be planned with military precision. And you only learn that by being deeply mortified when all those elements need to come together at the same time and if they don’t, everyone looks at you and says “How could this have happened, Lucy?” So nobody wants to be in that situation, so you learn very, very quickly that you need to be incredibly organised and that everything needs at least a double-check. I’d say that’s the main learning curve of that first three months which nobody would ever want to live again.
In this interview she describes how she got the job and how important it is to learn from your mistakes:
So, embarrassingly, I had no experience whatsoever in Theatre or PR. It was back in the day when jobs were advertised in the Nottingham Post on a Thursday. There was no internet, so you had to look for a job via the newspaper. And I saw this job advertised, which was Press Officer for the Theatre Royal and Royal Concert Hall and I just thought, well, what an incredibly interesting job that would be, so I applied for it. All they were looking for was a graduate and experience was desirable, but not essential. So, luckily I had a degree, so I thought, well what’s to stop me. Even though I don’t have experience, I can “wow” them at interview. And luckily, very luckily, it all went quite well for me and I did get the job, but it was a steep, steep learning curve and I made lots of mistakes - wouldn’t necessarily recommend it.
Although, I do think that you learn by your mistakes, so as long as you don’t do it more than once, then it’s just how you learn. So not double-checking with taxis that they’ll definitely going to be where they’re going to be, not double-checking with actors that they’re going to be where they’d said they were going to be yesterday. Not double-checking with the media that they’re expecting you when you arrive.
I think that even though you do your best, what you learn very quickly in this job is that you have to be the organiser, you have to be the one that double-checks, you have to be the one that makes sure that the people who said they were going to be where they’re going to be are there. And you don’t just ask once. You don’t just order the taxi once. You don’t just send one email. You really do have to double, triple check.
Every very informal and friendly looking photo opportunity or off-the-cuff radio interview has to be planned with military precision. And you only learn that by being deeply mortified when all those elements need to come together at the same time and if they don’t, everyone looks at you and says “How could this have happened, Lucy?” So nobody wants to be in that situation, so you learn very, very quickly that you need to be incredibly organised and that everything needs at least a double-check. I’d say that’s the main learning curve of that first three months which nobody would ever want to live again.
Type
Oral interview
Location of item
Theatre Royal & Royal Concert Hall
Rights
Theatre Royal & Royal Concert Hall
Contributor
Interviewers: Stephen Bray & Liz MacKenzie
Transcriber: David Chilton
Transcriber: David Chilton
