My time at Mimbre as a Kickstart Company Trainee, by Tyaine

01 Jun My time at Mimbre as a Kickstart Company Trainee, by Tyaine

This is a guest blog post by Tyaine Wright-Shirley, who was our brilliant Company Trainee coming through the Kickstart Scheme. She brought a fresh perspective and was a quick learner and great support for our team. Tyaine worked with us for six months from 6 October 2021 – 5 April 2022.

My name is Tyaine Wright-Shirley and for six months I was employed at Mimbre as their company trainee.

Working for Mimbre was my first job in the Arts industry. I didn’t know anything about how arts companies, or companies in general, worked so it was interesting to see how the company worked on a day to day basis and how much goes into the work they produce. From an outside perspective, it is easy to not think about the process it took to get the show to the stage or the people outside the cast and creators who helped it get there. The process seems relatively easy: come up with an idea, plan it, make it, finished but being able to see in person the journey from concept to production and how many people are involved in different areas like design, funding and marketing has given me a deeper appreciation for the work. I think the fact that the work I did was spread around the company was one of the things I loved the most. The fact I got to help with social media, research and at rehearsals meant that work never felt boring or mindless, it felt like I was constantly learning new things and developing my skills .

Communication and planning are likely the most essential skills I learnt while working. As I gained more responsibilities they became necessities as being able to know what comes next and what everyone is working on made it easy to stay on track with my own work and offer support to others when it was needed. I have a much greater value for structure which I’ll carry with me in future work and within my own personal life.

Going forward I’d like to continue working within the Arts industry, one of the reasons being I enjoyed that there were so many opportunities for open discussions and the fact that I was able to see finished products of work where I can actually notice and recognise where they have grown and changed from their beginning concept. Whatever I do next though I want to be able to feel like, no matter how small my role, I had some influence over the bigger picture. 

The best thing about Mimbre, outside of their work, is their staff. The team at Mimbre are some of the most accommodating and genuine people I’ll ever meet and they create an incredible working environment. I feel so lucky to have had this opportunity and I don’t think there was anywhere else that could have given me such a welcoming  introduction to working life. Meeting and getting to know them over these last few months has been amazing. I went into work with a lot of expectations about the company but Mimbre has created such an empowering image of women in and outside of Circus and engage with their community in such a genuine and respectful way.

Thank you to Anna, Lina, Lissy, Silvia and Zsofi for all your help and support these last few months.