MA Theatre Lab Blog pt.3

You could have graduated 20 years ago and Andrew Visnevski would still twist your arm into making you do things. Imagine the grim resignation, then: when upon popping my head around the MA Office door before an audition one Friday afternoon it was mooted that I should write a ‘life beyond the Lab’ blog. Homework, by any other name, would smell as sweet. The audition went terribly, by the way, but even I can’t really blame Andrew for that.

Life in the 6 months after the Lab has been a bit of a blur. Immediately after finishing the showcase of Possesssed in September I rushed back into the rehearsal room for a production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream at the Courtyard Theatre in Hoxton. One minor hangover from this madcap time is that I still haven’t got round to collecting my feedback from the dissertation. In fact, life was so hectic, even my wonderful agent Jane Shepperd recommended I take a couple of weeks off.

January 2013 came and with it came the promise of making more theatre, this time Ibsen’s Lady from the Sea again at the Courtyard. The text was a translation that came from a really organic rehearsal process and the actors themselves and was a rewarding exercise in devising around an extant story (thank you Ian Morgan!). The production was twinned with an hilarious all-female production of Pinter’s The Dumb Waiter featuring graduate Lab-bers Clare-Louise English and Margot Courtemanche. Both are now working with Jo Sargeant in creating the exciting Hot Coals Theatre Ensemble, of which I’m sure we’ll feature again!

February, March and April were filled with the most fantastic tour of Italy in a production of Macbeth directed by Clare Dunlop, (that audition didn’t go so badly!). We rehearsed in a small town called San Cesario di Lecce in Puglia (Ciao Patricia!), and took to the road on the most fantastic, all-encompassing tour of one of the world’s most amazing countries. Without a doubt the last three months have been the most rewarding of my young career. Nothing gets better than playing a witch, and those Grotowski classes are certainly experiences that never leave you.

As for the future… I have no idea. At least ‘a rolling stone gathers no moss’. That’s the most rewarding thing about life ‘north of the wall’. No one knows what’s around the corner. The Theatre Lab certainly prepares you well, but if I have learnt one lesson in these six months, it is this: don’t get lazy, you never know what you’ll be up to in two weeks’ time!

One small footnote to finish, since I have been away I have apparently acquired some Estonian readers. And to you lovely people I say “Jüri Nael IS A LIFE GURU, and don’t let him tell you otherwise”. Ciao tutti, e buona fortuna!