Meet Our Team: Publicity and House Managment

How did you find out about the Ensemble Project? Did you see a poster somewhere? Read it in a newspaper? See it on Facebook? Twitter? Through your sister's ex-boyfriends third cousin twice removed?

Hopefully,  it's because of the publicity surrounding the project and the play.

Kirstin Shale and Jessica Milliken, Publicity and House Management Team. This was the day we had our first meeting as Publicists. And the only photograph of the two of us together. 

This is where I come in. I am one half of the Publicity and House Management Team. What do we do? Kirstin says it perfectly,

"We put butts in seats and make sure those butts have the best experience possible."

Promotion, marketing, tickets, lobby, posters, communications with various outlets, blog, social media, programs, ushering, you name it, we have or are attempting to do it.

Kirstin hard at work! Photograph by JI Milliken. 

My partner in crime, is Kirstin Shale. She is a Bachelor of Arts student with a double extend minor in Theatre and Geography.The most exciting aspect for Kirstin has been

"Being able to break out of the UFV mould and do something a little different."

Her biggest challenge? 

"Not having a "grown-up" there to tell us what we're supposed to be doing."

Kirstin designed our program and contacted several media outlets with a press release. 

I need lots of room to work, apparently.
Photograph by Kirstin Shale. 

And me? Well that's one secret I'll never tell. Okay, it's not that big of a secret. 

My name is Jessica, and I am an English Major with a concentration in Creative Writing and an Extended Minor in Theatre, with hopes of becoming an English Honour student next semester. Grad 2017! And then a Master's or five. For this project I work Publicity and House Management with Kirstin, where we spend our time dripping in emails and communications and on various social media wishing we could duplicate ourselves. 

The hardest thing on this project has been - well, everything. We are the only department in the project without a faculty member versed in our area. We are on our own. Doing something neither of us have ever done before. You're reading this now, though, so clearly I've done something right?

The most exciting thing was when I learned that the playwright herself, Trina Davies, was retweeting my blog posts. And when Playwrights Canada tweeted about us. That was pretty sweet. 

My advice to you, and to every soul on this earth: Be your own cheerleader. It's okay to be proud of who you are and what you've accomplished. No one knows your struggle or pain, or overwhelming sense of purpose when something in your life clicks, like you do. If you don't cheer for yourself, who else will?

And that's our team folks! 

Thank you for reading and sticking with me. We open in three sleeps. I can't wait.

-JI Milliken