‘Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success. If you love what you are doing, You will be successful.’ -Albert Schweitzer
If you truly love what you are working on, it doesn’t feel like work. In IT Sligo’s Theatre Design degree, my creative projects became a structure by which to funnel and focus my creative energy. My haphazard style of creation and artistry now has a defined process and academic backing. I have learned so many new skills, some of which I didn’t even know existed such as puppet making and origami engineering. The more practical lessons were incredibly useful, such as pattern making and machine sewing, video editing and academic writing. I have gained such a well-rounded understanding of design skills and now feel competent as not only a student of design, but an individual practitioner. This course has given me a desire to learn even more, to pursue more creative projects and constantly expand my skillset. I have created a home for myself in the world of Irish Theatre.
I began my four-year journey into third level education with a sense of ‘coming home’. The design workroom became my centre of creativity, the black box stage became my space of imagination and feeling, and my classmates became my friends. Prior to beginning my course, education seemed like an elusive and anxiety-inducing thing, something others just ‘got’, something not quite for me. From the first days of learning the right way to hold a scalpel and learning the meaning of the term ‘Brechtian’, I felt a great sense that this was the right place. This college and this course in particular was a thing that I ‘got’. I understood the esoteric and round-about ways of directing, the acting practices that got me out of my head and into my feelings. Most importantly, I discovered my true passion for design.
