Judging from previous years, catching this illness is something of an inevitability around this time of year – particularly when all of your housemates have it as well (we’re all looking after each other with tea and biscuits)! In that sense, just because it seems to largely stem from sheer exertion on everyone’s part, I always think it’s a sign of a freshers’ fortnight done well. It’s proof that you’ve packed loads in and made the most of the incredible opportunities brought by arrival of new students for a new academic year – and, with a few days’ rest, we’ll all be back to our feet in no time!
This time round, I really have tried to make the most of the occasion, cramming pretty much everything I could into the timeframe – while adjusting to some interesting variations in the body clock as a result! The vast majority of this activity has stemmed from the Student Leader positions I was fortunate enough to be elected into at the end of last year, as President of Showstoppers (the musical theatre society) and the Web Officer of Performing Arts Committee, so over the past fortnight or so there’s been a huge amount of organization to get done behind the scenes to ensure everything runs as smoothly and slickly as usual!
Just being on the other side of the table has been a revelatory experience for me, as I’ve seen now first-hand just how much effort, dedication and time goes into putting these awesome events on for freshers to make sure they receive a customary warm welcome. For example, this year I was one of many volunteers up at an extremely early (well, in the student world at least!) hour to help set up the Performing Arts section of the Bunfight, which, as James discussed the other day, represents the annual gathering of all societies to allow them to showcase themselves to potential new members and get people along to taster sessions and welcome meetings.
This year, Performing Arts were in the vast and brilliantly atmospheric space of The Cube, so as Web Officer, an early morning was spent constructing showcase photo slideshows to be projected on the wall, shifting tables for societies to place their material on, and ultimately trying to make sure everyone knew where they were going and when. With an estimated through-the-door flow of nearly 6,000 people on the day, and the whole Union bouncing with energy (although coffee machines may have helped in some cases!), it truly was a magnificent occasion on an unprecedented scale – so a massive congratulations is in order to everyone working behind the scenes at the Students’ Union and University to make it happen!
The Performing Arts invaded the Cube and put on quite a spectacle!
Of course, Showstoppers were also there on the day to encourage people to come along (and if you’ve ever been tempted at all by musical theatre, please do give it a go – it really has made my University experience!), so we also spent plenty of time manning our display, signing people up to our mailing list, talking to many a friendly fresher, and encouraging people to come along to our first meeting.
At one point in the afternoon, we also performed a thirty minute set on the central stage featuring some classic musical numbers from the likes of Les Miserables, Wicked and Hairspray, which seemed to grab some people’s attention and was great fun to boot (although we hadn’t had time to choreograph any movement at all, so Dad-dancing was the order of the day!)! It was an utterly exhausting experience at the Bunfight, but also incredibly enjoyable and inspiring to get to talk to so many enthusiastic and friendly faces eager to embrace the opportunities at university – so fingers crossed we’ll see many of them at our auditions next week (and you too)! Thank you so much again to all of both Performing Arts and Showstoppers committees for making it happen!
The Showstoppers committee having one final planning meeting (and rehearsal) for the big day!
An exhausting, but extremely inspiring, day, representing Showstoppers at the Bunfight was fantastic!
Of course, there was to be no rest for the wicked and, only ten hours after arriving at the Bunfight in the morning, some of us from the Union’s Theatre Group were on the road again, heading to the University’s Winchester School of Art to perform a free preview of our show, a production of John Kolvenbach’s romantic comedy Love Song, as part of the welcome events there. Having never been before, it was a fairly surreal experience arriving quite shattered in an entirely new place, setting up in a café with a freshly-rehearsed show, and performing it to an audience we’d never met before! But thankfully, despite our initial nerves (personally I was terrified backstage beforehand!), it all seemed to go down well and we received a great reception, so hopefully it proved a good advertisement for the Performing Arts as a whole (again, if you’re from WSA, let us know if you’d like to get involved - as we’d love to see you do so)!
Performing a show for the first time in an entirely new space was an intimidating prospect, but also a lot of fun!
Having slept for pretty much the entirety of the next day (playing catch-up!), it was straight back into rehearsals for the main showings of Love Song, which went on to take place at the Annex Theatre at the start of the next week, and which were gratefully witnessed by some large audiences including reviewers from the National Student Drama Festival (NSDF) and local student media. It was definitely the most testing play I’ve been a part of so far, not only in terms of the difficulty of the text but also with regards to getting used to the concept of acting in a “studio space” (where the audience are on stage with you – very, very visible!), but the reception the production received as a whole was phenomenal, with some high-scoring reviews (a 5-star and a 4.5-star!) and very humbling feedback from many people afterwards (so thanks if you saw it!). It was also the first time I’d ever been able to feel happy on stage when I glimpsed people in the audience crying at its ending – we thought that meant we’d done our job!
But the best thing about Love Song was the people. A ridiculously talented (scarily so when you’re trying to match them!), brilliantly amiable and downright hilarious fellow cast and production team, they made the most intensive rehearsal experience I’ve ever been through one of the most natural, enjoyable and productive – it really has been a blast, and many a cheesy in-joke has been formed at rehearsals!
Now in the weird transitive state where, for the first time in just under two and a half years, I’ve no theatrical projects on the horizon (although given the propensity for opportunities to pop up around here, I’m sure that won’t be the case for long!), I’ve realised just how much I’m going to miss the production, and can’t thank them enough for letting me be part of what felt like, on-stage at least, a truly special show. Here’s hoping we find ourselves working together again soon!
Love Song was one of the highest quality shows I’ve been a part of – and was a heck of a lot of fun to boot!
The Love Song cast – one of the best groups of people I’ve ever met, thanks for having me!
Back on the organizational front, things came full circle the other night with the Showstoppers ‘welcome meeting’, an event where we handed out plenty of sweets, chances to play games and, most importantly of all, information on how to get involved with our upcoming events. Personally I found having to lead one of these events for the first time quite daunting in truth, particularly as we, as a committee, are the first people from the society that freshers are likely to meet, but everyone seemed very friendly and receptive, and on the whole extremely enthusiastic to get involved with everything, so fingers crossed we’ll see them again very soon – particularly if we continue to bring along free food, I guess!
Finally, and by no means least of all (honest, Mum!), my fourth academic year has kicked off in style, which means my integrated Software Engineering masters year is now in full swing! I’ve been tasked with a large-scale (and I mean large!) group design project (which I’ll write about more next time!) which stems directly from a possible implementation in the psychology industry. The brief has already proven fascinating to explore and, getting to know my new group a bit better, it’s already been a fantastic experience which I’m fully looking forward to embracing over the coming months – although I may need a reminder of this when the work truly begins to pile on around Christmas-time!
So, as I write from the comforts of my bed, thoroughly exhausted but incredibly fulfilled, I can reflect on an amazing final freshers’ fortnight, which has not only seen a whirlwind of activities and hectic schedules, but also some truly memorable experiences to boot. Freshers 2014, I hope we’ve all managed to lend you a warm welcome to Southampton – and if like me you’ve been feeling flu-ridden at any point, get better soon, so you can enjoy your new lifestyle to the maximum! Here’s to a great year ahead!
Robin
No comments:
Post a Comment