Welcome to RADA

Surprisingly my first week at RADA wasn’t as terrifying as I envisaged. In the lead up to my induction day all I really thought about was the outstanding reputation of RADA, the intense training programme – but I prepared myself for this. I realised at the last minute that the thing that I hadn’t thought about and really worried me was I hadn’t for one second contemplated what it would be like to meet my fellow students. Would they be friendly? Would they already have a long history of experience in theatre production?

Let me explain a little about me and how I got to RADA - I am a Technical Theatre and Stage Management student, but honestly I am very new to the technical and production side of theatre. I started out (like lots of people) acting, but when my drama group back at home in Wales started rehearsing ‘Grease’ our director asked if I would be interested in being the production’s Deputy Stage Management (DSM).

I agreed, not even knowing what a DSM’s job was. I developed a basic level of understanding of the job during production week, and by the end had decided that I needed to learn everything I could about production arts. Now here I am, studying it at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, and I couldn’t think of anywhere else I would want to be.