All that work

It was a great experience to share the project after all that work; it really was a project that could have gone a thousand different ways!

Somewhere in the rehearsal process, I had almost forgotten that we would be doing it in front of an audience, so when the opening night finally came, it was a really weird feeling. I loved seeing how the piece changed every time we performed, depending on the audience and the energy and togetherness of the company. One evening for example, Matthew was doing one of his scenes where he screams at the audience and a woman stood up and screamed back! It was fantastic! It’s amazing to be a part of a piece that invokes rebellion in the audience.

The company sometimes had good and bad days as well. We had days where we were all loving and happy and in tears because we knew we would all miss each other so much, and then we had days where we were fighting like cats and dogs and just wanted to get on with it so we could go home to bed.

Every day the content of the play changed a bit as well. Our director, Jon, added and changed parts almost every morning. When we came in for notes there were new scenes added in, or scenes taken out; we cut away the entire end, we added choreography, we did some scenes double speed, we added a song - we were always on our toes! On the opening night, one of our company members, Iga, broke her foot during mid-performance so she went through the entire show in pain and agony without anyone noticing. Then the day after we had to re-block the whole thing so she (and we all) would feel safe on stage.

It was all very stressful, but still quite exciting and a really good experience because these things really can happen when you least expect them and devised pieces are always an ever-evolving process.

Last week, the new term started for all the other RADA students and we've been doing our last cross-course projects, working with the notion of racism as a stimulus for a creative response. It's been really weird to see the buildings full of people again, since it's just been us ‘Labbers’ for the whole summer. Suddenly there are people running around everywhere and you have to wait in queue to get to the loo...

It's quite a strange feeling that it's September again as well...I feel like I didn't even notice we had a summer. It's as if this year has flown by, but at the same time been the longest year of my entire life.

It hasn’t really sunk in yet that I am nearly at the end point. It’s hard to think that we are leaving- suddenly there are new people everywhere and I'm postponing finishing my essay, maybe because I know it marks an end for me. Last week, I was emptying my locker and when I brought my key down to the reception, we were all very emotional.

For the last year we have kind of forgotten life and now that we have some extra time it feels as if I should be doing something or going somewhere, I feel like I should be booking rooms and desperately trying to memorize scenes and meeting up for rehearsals.

I have just spent my first Friday in a year outside of RADA – I had forgotten what they looked like!

There is no way I could describe this year and what it teaches you. You really have to experience it to understand – I could write a thousand words and still not be able to explain these strange and eventful twelve months. I'm not even sure I understand everything yet.

I might have to write a blog in five years’ time when I have finally got my head around it (if even then!)

Well, off to my essay (These things don't write themselves.)

-Auður :)