Student Life V2
There’s truly something about being a student hey… it has such a distinguished culture of life associated with it for me! I remember a few days before moving to London, the thing I was most nervous about was just that I was a student again! It’s only been four years and a pandemic since I was last a student but like many others I feel like I’ve lived four different lives since 2019 (it’s currently 2024) and being a student feels very foreign. Academic language, assignments, REFERENCING (what a nightmare)… Thankfully I soon worked out within a week into the course that none of that was in my degree – thank the heavens! My degree of course came with its own challenges, the hard part is consistently showing up. The timetable is unlike anything else I’d ever encountered. Not much space for work or play but it was the intensive, hard-yakka musical theatre course I had signed up for.
I use diary prompts to help me reflect on how this global move is truly going for me and this is one: Has London been all I thought it would turn out to be like?
Yes. And some! The city, the study & the industry have left me speechless time and time again. Six days a week of ‘overtime‘ musical theatre training isn’t for the lighthearted and it has truly turned me inside out and back again. They weren’t kidding with the course being demanding! The opportunities and the people I’ve met and worked with here are truly what you pay for with the course. RAM’s prestige wasn’t an attraction for me at all when applying but it became obvious as I continued in the degree and the names and connections consistently stunned me. Common emails would be “Claude-Michel Schönberg is coming in next week (composer of Les Miserables) or “class is cancelled on Tuesday morning as Andrew Lippa will be popping in” (composer of The Addams Family & Big Fish) or even “west-end stars Hadley Fraser & Rosalie Craig are coming into your classes next week”. And don’t even get me started on Jacob Collier popping into school all the time and Annie Lennox in the corridor! The school really has such a credible name for itself plus all of our daily teachers have cv’s to admire.
I am constantly stunned by the city and find so many special moments in my week where I’m reminded of where I am and how wild this life is. Having only one day off means my ‘life admin’ list is usually huge and I also prioritise rest because this truly the most I’ve ever been asking of myself. Saturday’s usually contain a good sleep in, a fresh homemade brunch, an hour of PS5, ringing home or friends, maybe a wander & grocery shop, doing all of my washing and the other weekly chores and by then it’s 6 pm and to decide whether I’m seeing a show or staying in. I don’t work on school things on Saturday unless absolutely necessary. You can’t pour from an empty cup and Saturdays are essential to me for topping up mine!
Here’s a glimpse at what the timetable looks like…
Many were truly saying to me that I should stay, honestly, I was leaving Australia at one of the most pivotal points of my life. I vividly remember this one phone call with my agent, we had two contract offers, a callback for a great main screen role, a private request for an audition for a dream role and my callback for London had just gone unbelievably well. It was such an incredible moment in my working life, after the previous year being 28 rejections compared to this it really was something. There was magic in the air everywhere I looked and the future had me nothing but excited. I ended up declining one offer and the current auditions and accepting The Sunshine Club tour on the premise of being able to leave the tour in August if I was accepted into London. It felt wild, leaving a 1.5 year contract of work to complete a degree that would teach me how to get work and of course, how to work better.
Staying in Australia was the comfortable option, but moving to London was playing long-game.
It’s currently the weekend before the agent showcase and I honestly have no idea how things are going to go for me in the next twelve months. There’s not a single gig in my calendar or a plan in my mind at all post-graduation from the Royal Academy of Music. There’s every chance of London agents & gigs here going south for me but it was always a risk I was willing to take knowing I would be going back home a much stronger & centred performer. But there’s hope and a burn that I can give this industry a shot and there is such a thrill in the unknown as an artist. I’ll probably read this blog in a year and laugh but also be glad I gave myself a chance on the other side of the hecking world.
Student life V2 hey? I’m glad I’m doing it and I reckon I’ll look back at this time for a long while to come! x
