The heart of the Management Department of the Accademia Teatro alla Scala is the Master in performing arts management, a course realised in partnership with POLIMI-GSoM.
For the Hall of Fame, we asked former student Alessandra Testoni, now working in the Communication Office of the Teatro Grande in Brescia, to tell us about her experience.
Alessandra, we ask you to reminisce with us about your first approach to musical theatre and how you came to decide to enrol in the Academy's Master's programme in performing arts management.
The decision to enrol in this Master's programme was the result of an ever-evolving stream of thoughts that first came into my life when I was studying acting. In addition to a degree in Languages, I have an acting diploma, so I actually started as a drama devotee. That is why I have always been somewhat of an outsider: I approached musical theatre 'on the run' thanks to my lessons at the Academy, and today thanks to my contact with the reality in which I work.
However, despite this, apart from the type of theatre I preferred, during the years when I frequented different theatrical realities as an aspiring protagonist, I felt the lack of something very strong: the idea of contributing to 'holding up the world of the performing arts' was emerging in me more and more, because it is one thing to think of being part of it by being on stage, but the incredible machine that holds that stage and makes the curtain open every night has become much more interesting to me in adulthood than the rest.
It was not difficult to make the choice fall on the Master in Performing Arts Management. I wanted to focus on a Master's course because I felt the need of a springboard between the study world, which I already knew well, and the concrete working world, of which I still had no experience. I wanted an institution that had the right mix of prestige, contemporaneity and - needless to say - the highest percentage of employees in the performing arts sector after graduation.
The Master's programme allows access to students from all over the world and from completely different backgrounds.
How did you get on with your class? Can you tell us the best memory you have of the course of study?
The MPAM6 class was a very heterogeneous set of participants. Not only in terms of origin, but also in terms of age, and consequently experience. Probably this element is what contributed the most to making my class' environment so stimulating. We were very different people, sometimes with totally opposite backgrounds: it couldn't get any better than that. My favourite part was when we got together to work on group projects: the great thing was that each team had its own way of approaching work, and with many of my groups the common practice was often to organise dinners at one of our houses and work like that. By the way, always with excellent results.
In your opinion, did the Master's programme give you a different mindset, stimuli and opportunities?
If I am where I am, it is thanks to the Master's degree, as well as the desire to roll up my sleeves.
The curricular internship experience allowed me to train in the field in which I now work, actively and by my own choice. It was a natural process: during the Academy's lessons, I realised what was the most suitable context for me, what my working interests were and which professionals I would like to work with. I was lucky enough to be able to do a fairly long internship at the Piccolo Teatro in Milan, an institution I have always looked up to with great admiration, where I learnt a great deal. If I had not been there, and of course had not continued looking, in fact, for a job (essential advice: always send your CV to an institution you are interested in, even if there are no open positions!) I would never have received the phone call that brought me to the Teatro Grande in Brescia.
The Teatro Grande in Brescia, your city. Tell us in detail how you got there.
I arrived in the Communication Office of the Teatro Grande thanks to the skills I developed during my internship at the Piccolo Teatro. I got to know many people during those months. Working with the person in charge of the events on the communication side and with the Marketing Director, I also had the chance to move away from the Piccolo and get to know different theatre realities, such as the Triennale in Milan or the Teatro Regio in Parma. Beyond that, however, more concretely, while I was still on my internship I applied for various open positions I found during those months.
One of them was for a Milan institution; the interview went well but they chose another candidate. Shortly afterwards I received a phone call and here I am. By the way, today (May 2) is exactly one year that I have been working here!
In conclusion, what advice would you give to the students who are sending their applications for the next edition of the Master's programme to make the most of the experience?
Be very sincere in your applications, present yourself as you are. Always put yourself out there and try to get the most out of the experts with whom you will have the opportunity to confront yourself with, asking questions and making yourself recognisable. The Master will give you a lot, it will give you the possibility to meet people who have already been working in the industry for years, to understand what you like best, to learn actively, to meet people who will also enrich you greatly from a human point of view. Thanks to the Master's programme, I found a job shortly after attending it, but I also found friends who I still keep close to me.
