Elia's Story

Serving customers to captivating audiences to crafting campaigns.

Elia worked as a retail supervisor, where she was driven to reenter the creative world. Reconnecting with her old drama teacher, she was directed to Chickenshed, where she studied for three years, earned first-class honours, and now serves as the Marketing and Communications Officer for Chickenshed.

In 2019, I enrolled in the Foundation Degree Course, initially feeling shy and anxious about this new chapter in my life, given that I had previously been working and felt as though I was taking a step backwards. Adjusting to this shift, I struggled to recall how to socialise and make friends. However, the moment I walked through the double doors at Chickenshed, I was greeted by people with warm smiles who engaged me in conversations. As I was welcomed into this new phase of my life, my anxiety began to dissipate, and I formed friendships that fueled my creativity like never before.

In 2022, I continued my studies at Chickenshed by pursuing the BA (Hons) Course. By then, I had become familiar with the building and was involved in creating shows that we would later tour to schools and perform in our in-house Rayne Theatre. This experience ignited a passion in me, and I could often be found in the cafe or garden space with my laptop, feverishly typing away new ideas.

While studying I found out about the Space Between Us community. My journey with this company all started with the Living Letters programme, where younger people were assigned to write letters to people of the older generation. At first, I was unsure how I would even connect with someone x3/x4 times my age! I soon learned that I would have a lot more in common than not. It widened my eyes and made me realise how special those little moments of bonding are.

I then continued my work with the Space Between Us community. Doing various dance and acting workshops to help facilitate the 2022 Space Between Us summer school. I remember we had to do partner work where we had to mirror each other while maintaining eye contact during this exercise myself and my partner started to cry as we felt this insanely powerful connection.

Continuing my journey through this intergenerational community, I encountered the Gladrags Secret Society. Gladrags wasn't merely an event; it was an experience! I served as a Gladrags host for the first three events, and each one was more glamorous and bigger than the last.

As I became familiar with the guests attending, my excitement and passion for the events grew. I had the privilege of dancing with people who told me they had never been asked to dance before!

I discovered my passion for directing while at Chickenshed. It wasn't something I had ever thought about before, I became intrigued about being off the stage and pulling the words off the script creating little moments of magic on the stage. I started directing short plays as part of the annual monologue seasons here, I have directed two monologues and a duologue all receiving positive reviews. 

My latest directing venture has been directing a short play about three people tempting/teasing death in different ways for the RISE festival.

My journey in marketing began while I was still studying. I had to complete a work placement as part of my degree, but my initial arrangements fell through, leaving me with no place to go for my placement. As I explored my options, I recalled a lesson with Beth, the Digital Content Marketing Manager, who had visited us once. I remembered enjoying that lesson, so I took a chance and emailed her, asking if I could do my placement with her.

Not long after completing my work placement, I was lucky enough to be offered a part-time role. It was a role that before work placement I never saw as an option but now It's one of the biggest parts of who I am. I slowly worked my way up to a full-time position and the rest is to be continued!