Staff Profile – Samantha Semczyszyn, Hospitality Services Coordinator

How long have you worked for the Young Centre and tell us a little bit about what you do.

I have only worked at the Young Centre since July so for 4 months. Seems like a lot longer.  My role is a mixture of working with Development on events, working with Les Louises (our café in the atrium) and with our various caterers at the Young Centre.

What has your job consisted of lately?

Lately it has been crazy with four openings, our fundraising gala “Soulpepper at Play” and the Global Cabaret Festival.  Last week alone I got to drive a car to run around and pick up supplies, cut out sparkly paper to make signs, hang out in the paint shop spray painting things (learning about painting safety), communicating with our event Chef and his team to make sure they were ready and had everything they needed, working with the production department to order everything we needed for both the Gala and Cabaret Festival and I just like being generally helpful where I can be, hopefully.

What if any kind of shows/productions/events have you been involved in outside of work?

Recently I helped one of my friends who is a director build a set for a short film he made.  I love building things!  In this case I might have lied and said I had “confidence with power tools”. Turns out that confidence and experience are TOTALLY different things but I still got to use a nail gun and a jig saw.  Here is a link to his short film: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S5BmrIjKrMQ

When you’re not at work, what are you doing?

Well, I just moved at the beginning of October. My folks recently came to visit from Vancouver and then all the events in October happened so I don’t even know what free time is anymore. I think I like to read.  I have these little stories I like to work on and I have an addiction to watching murder mysteries so sometimes I do that too.

What do you love about being a part of the staff at Soulpepper/Young Centre?

So many things.  The first thing I noticed when I started working here was there was A LOT of clapping. We are always clapping for someone or something. I wouldn’t have said it before but now I would say I’m amazing at clapping. It’s hilarious here, everyone is so weird so I spend a lot of time laughing. Everyone is so talented and good at their job so things always get done and get done right.  Even when you think there is no time left and “how is this possibly going to happen”, like magic, it’s done.  Everyone is so helpful; I have only worked here for four months so I have a lot of questions and it doesn’t matter who you ask someone will answer, find the answer for you or point you in the right direction.  Also it’s just a happy place to work, example right now: it’s cupcake week!  Every day we get pictures of kittens and there are so many accents. I don’t do accents but it seems everyone else does.