From theatre to an operations and events manager | I Went to Arts School
Patricia Gabriel, a NAFA and Lasalle Theatre graduate and now an Operations and Events Manager talks about her love for content creation and theatre, her surprising decision to walk away from performing arts and overcoming the fears and stereotypes that arts school may carry. She also reflects on the valuable skills and perspectives she gained from her arts background, which continue to influence her professional journey.
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00:00I was definitely very naive, like I was like oh my god
00:03I'm gonna go out and like, you know, create all these things and like do all this fun stuff
00:07And you know, it's gonna be amazing. I'm gonna be so famous
00:10Hi, my name is Patricia Gabriel. I studied theater in Nafan, LaSalle and right now I'm operations and events manager. Sorry, I touched it
00:18Let's go
00:24I love creating. I think that's something that's always been in me
00:27I was very interested like in how movies were being made, the hair and makeup, the special effects
00:32I think that's when it kind of sparked my passion for the arts
00:36But like I also watched a lot of Disney Channel and Nickelodeon and I was like, oh my god
00:41I want to be like in one of these shows. It was just out of the norm like compared to like a boring job in the office
00:52I was always being compared to my sister a lot because she's very academically inclined
00:56I was not the studying type, but I would always
01:00Get involved in plays, in anything
01:03creative
01:05From a young age the arts and theater was something that I was good at and something that was mine
01:12Yeah, I just felt like I could be myself. So there was something that was kind of needed for my self-esteem
01:18Especially at a very young age
01:21So after O-Levels, I actually went to poly for like five months. I was studying arts management
01:27Yeah, it was just like not for me, I guess and that's when I decided to go to an art school
01:33It was the people there that just pushed me to you know, do all six years
01:38I think there's a lot of things that our lecturers doesn't teach you about the industry
01:44You learn when you're finally on grounds. Studying theater was just the beginning
01:51I
01:57Graduated in 2019 from LaSalle and after that I was doing freelance
02:02For about a year doing a lot of productions and drama teaching. In 2020, COVID hit
02:07So we kind of lost all our jobs and all the gigs that we were signed up for
02:12But I very much wanted to be a part of the data industry and I was trying to find ways to still
02:17stay linked to this
02:19So I decided to join a traineeship under technical production. So while I was doing this, I was still doing other jobs
02:28Theater was like my bread and butter. It wasn't really just a job for me. I was definitely
02:33Emotionally connected to it in that sense. It really struck me last year in 2023 that I wanted to leave this industry permanently
02:41One of the biggest reasons I left the data industry was because I was missing a lot of milestones in life
02:47I can't even tell you the amount of weddings, birthdays, deaths that I've missed
02:53It was taking out a lot from me than it was giving me. Just life, I'm missing out on life. Basically, yeah
03:00At some point you start becoming an adult and you know, you have to keep yourself alive
03:06You know how they always say like, oh art school kids like, you know, we don't have proper degree and stuff like that
03:11So there was a lot of fear around that stereotype and like as I was making the decision to leave the industry
03:17I was feeling a lot of guilt. But ultimately when I see the bigger picture, I'm just like I'm done
03:22I'm done with this job. I'm done with this career. I'm done with this job. I'm done
03:26I'm going to leave this job. I'm done. So now I'm like, okay, I'm done. I'm done
03:30I was feeling a lot of guilt, but ultimately when I see the bigger picture, I'm just like, okay, you did something good
03:38There's definitely a shift in like my personal life in my dynamics with my family and my friends for the better
03:49Like you're not locked into this one industry just because you went to an art school like all these tools that you've learned can be
03:55Applied at the end of the day being the arts taught me a lot of valuable things
03:59For example thinking quickly on the spot. That's something that we have to do a lot
04:03Especially in data whether it was backstage or whether it was on stage when something is not like going, right?
04:10You know, you quickly find a different perspective keep the dice rolling as they say it
04:21Haven't lost that aspect of the arts in my current job. I think
04:25Right now after I've taken a step back
04:27I have a more clear picture of like where I want to put my creative input in my current job now
04:32I get to use this creative perspective in a different way
04:36It's very much people oriented very much vibrant industry in that sense. It also helps me
04:42Rekindle my passion. So that's something that I'm very much excited about and happy that I get to do that
04:48So yeah, I still do have the passion for the arts
04:51That's something that would still keep me rooted
04:53Seeing people just forgetting the work day and then coming to watch a data show at the end like you cannot replace that feeling
04:59Now I can pick and choose the things that I would like to do in the industry and I'm definitely will come back
05:21You