MY STORY (Tjaša amateur actress)

I’m an employer of Kadis 2002 and an amateur actress at Šentjakobsko gledališče Ljubljana theatre, which is a society operating in the public interest in culture. It is supposedly the oldest permanent repertory amateur theatre in Europe, in fact, we are just now celebrating its 90th anniversary. In the cultural area of Ljubljana, our theatre has an overall specific position because of its semi-professional nature with professional administration, technicians and external co-workers (directors, stage designers, costume designers etc.) on one side and amateur actors on the other. I’ve been a member of this non-profit society for 7 years now. I joint because I wanted to play in a real theatre after attending drama classes for several years. This is a theatre that has for almost a century offered a great amount of fun and culture to Slovenia’s capital city and gave young (and also less young) talents an opportunity to develop their acting skills and contribute to the artistic spirit of the city centre.

Experience I’ve gained in these years are very valuable and memorable. Being in a society like ours means belonging somewhere, working in a team and working for the public good. That is the payment we get. Spending time with those who share our passion. Growing as personalities and not letting our talents unrecognized. Feeling the people in the audience, hearing them laugh or just appreciating their meaningful silence. It is overall about knowing that we’ve made someone’s day different.

Besides making the audience happy, my activities in the theatre also make me happy, of course. Without acting, I wouldn’t be the person I am today, it has influenced me so significantly. I believe that every person has at least one real talent and noticing them and exploring them is something that we owe to ourselves, otherwise we are, in a way, wasting our time on this planet. However, my hobby also gave me a wide range of practical knowledge and skills that I can use in the workplace. Interpersonal competence, team work, communication, speaking in public, group leading, empathy, those are all skills that my job position demands of me and were actually mainly “practiced” in the theatre, before I even entered a labor market.

For the future, I mostly wish that local authorities would continue supporting our theatre, acknowledging its reach and long history. I hope for the people to keep coming back to see our plays and for the members of society to always do the best they can to maintain the quality. In the artistic sense, I hope that our financial situation is one day stable enough, so that we can experiment just a little bit more with less commercial programme and make room for a greater number of challenges.

 

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