Equus

Writing this while riding on the crest of the wave of a couple of truly incredible opening nights, it’s strange to think that it was only six months ago it all began – typically, of course, in a pub!

When I, the show’s Producer Jed, and my co-director Mike, sat down to discuss our favourite theatrical shows and the kind of things we’d be interested in bringing to the University of Southampton’s very own Annex Theatre, we ended up chatting about our ambitions within the theatrical world and, coincidentally, all found that we wanted to move away from the comedies we’d put on in the past and tackle something a little meatier, a text we could all sink our metaphorical teeth into, so to speak!

And what could be more challenging, and ultimately more rewarding, than a psychological thriller with hints of horror (particularly apt at Halloween!) and tragedy about it that caused huge ripples in its time? So without further ado, I’m very proud indeed to be co-directing the team performing Peter Shaffer’s challenging and controversial play, Equus, at the University this very week – if you’ve not already seen our trailer, check it out below!

It’s been quite an experience preparing for it as, having only just got over the Edinburgh (ahh, sorry!) post-show Blues at the beginning of September, Mike and I were immediately confronted by the pressing need to undergo groundwork for Equus – rehearsals started only two and half weeks after we’d got back!

Since then I’ve been a minor part of an absolutely brilliant team networking, promoting, scheduling, budgeting, blocking, managing, applying, scoring, sourcing, conveying information to and from parties, balancing it all with a degree and struggling in general conversation to think of anything other than the play to talk about – just ask my housemates who, whenever they try to drum up a conversation with me at the moment, are usually supplied with horse-related ravings!

Equus follows the investigation of a middle-aged Hampshire based psychiatrist, Martin Dysart, into the case of 17 year old Alan Strang who, in an inexplicable fit of rage, blinded five horses at a nearby stable. It falls on Dysart to find out what led the boy to this horrific act, and in doing so he begins to question the validity of his own practice and indeed his own state of mind.

Suitably atmospheric for the time of the year, then!

We wanted audience members to leave Equus chilled by a good scare or two – it is Halloween, after all!

When we set out, we had no idea just how much talent there really was on offer at the University!

And with two nights down and two to go, we’ve been absolutely blown over by the audience response we’ve had so far, including an extremely flattering five-star review, the first of any show I’ve been involved with, from the student publication The Edge, which you can give a glance here. We don’t want to blow our own trumpets, but the reception the production team have experienced has been overwhelmingly positive and exciting, and has really made all those late nights spent planning, designing, redrafting and generally selling our souls to the show all the more worth it!

But the achievement ultimately isn’t ours. Equus is such a highly demanding text, such a controversial and gruesome yet highly engaging and intense play, that for it to be performed, it requires absolute and total commitment on behalf of its actors, and we’ve been truly privileged to receive just that from the members of SUSU Theatre Group. In every single rehearsal our cast have constructed beautifully detailed characters and completely gone for it, not once losing energy or focus, in turn demonstrating levels of talent and willingness we never expected to witness in the University’s theatre, let alone in a play I’m part of the team for – trying to find things to constructively criticise in the final few rehearsals has been challenging to say the least!

And such professionalism has been more than matched by that exhibited in the work of the staging society, StageSoc, whose implementation and execution of our vision for the show has been nothing short of stunning. Seeing it come to life for the first time on stage was one of the most exciting experiences of my life to date, and it’s all down to the conscientious work of the people behind the scenes, with a particularly grateful mention for our enigmatic and imaginative technical director Dan Barr, to make our heavy technical requirements and vague descriptions a reality, so we can’t thank them enough.

We were also delighted to welcome a nationally recognised director from the National Student Drama Festival (NSDF) to see the opening show, and her presence in the audience inspired us all, as well as providing us with feedback afterwards which should prove invaluable in helping us to refine the show in its final runs. After all, just seeing it being performed with an audience in tow on the night was surreal enough!

However, the best aspect of being part of Equus from the beginning has been just how much fun I’ve had doing it. From the early meetings in cafes and pubs, where most of our ideas bloomed as we just chatted about the play itself, to the lengthy audition sessions (where most of the inter-team disagreements took place – ultimately for the show’s benefit though!), the plotting and execution of a dense rehearsal schedule to the nights spent listening to multitudes of royalty-free music selections, from the technical meetings where reality began to sink in, to the actual performances themselves, every step of the way I’ve enjoyed myself (despite the ever-growing fatigue throughout!), surrounded by incredibly creative, inspirational and personable fellow students who, despite the dark thematic elements of the show, have been an absolute joy to work with from day one, and given me a great buzz of anticipation and excitement ever since the idea was first mooted.

It’s been a pleasure to work with such an awesome group of people from the beginning – ‘proud’ doesn’t begin to cover it!

And despite the dark nature of the show, we made sure to enjoy it along the way!

I know I say it before (and after!) every show on here, but when and where else could I have been part of something as special as this? It seems remarkable that, entering my third year now, life at Southampton can continue to be quite so fulfilling: Equus most certainly has been.

SUSU Theatre Group’s Equus is showing on Friday 1 and Saturday 2 November 2013 at the Annex Theatre, Highfield Campus, with both performances beginning at 7.30pm. Tickets are £9 for Adults, £6 for Students and Concessions, and £5 for Performing Arts Members, and can be purchased via the SUSU Box Office or online at www.annextheatre.co.uk – with demand high, advance purchase is highly recommended! We hope to see you there!

Robin

Your Union

Phew! As I mentioned last time, things really are starting to heat up in my course as I delve into third year and assignment deadlines, not to mention project milestones, continue to pile up. This, combined with the arrival next week of a show I’ve been co-directing for the past few months, Equus (more on this in my next post!), at the Annex Theatre, means it’s all systems go at present, with breaks few and far between!

These days seem to routinely consist of getting up, scampering my way to morning lectures (I like my sleep!), filling in any gaps in my timetable with researching topics, undertaking coursework assignments, attending group meetings or tackling other commitments (which, by hook or by crook, I’m somehow still adhering to!), before heading on over to rehearsals or production meetings in the evenings – and then the cycle repeats. There’s definitely no rest for the wicked at the moment!

So any downtime I come across is greatly appreciated, and usually permits me to indulge in a spot of power-napping (a skill I’d never previously practised before coming to University, but one which I now couldn’t do without!) at home or to take the rare opportunity to blow off some steam by chilling out with friends and housemates.

And one of my favourite places to do just that is the Students’ Union (affectionately known as ‘SUSU’) and its buildings on Highfield Campus, where facilities and activities (and some might say distractions!) aplenty are on offer in many various forms, be they sports halls and courts, bars, the “Union Films” cinema (which also doubles as a nightclub on Fridays), cafes, a shop, the infamous “Stag’s Head” pub (many a happy hour spent there!), media (including radio and television) studios and countless underground networks of tunnels (always making for an entertaining wander when you’re lost!), making it the perfect site for some rest, relaxation and recreation.

There’s always something happening in and around the building to make your day a little more interesting, so I often find myself hanging about there just to see what’s new; for example, every Monday, you’ll find on the ‘redbrick’ area a wonderfully well-stocked and varied marketplace, packed full of stalls selling assortments of goods which are ideal for your fresh fruit and vegetable needs (or, indeed, those of baked goods!), and there’s seemingly always companies handing out freebies (buying a pen is somewhat of a rarity!) or great deals to passers-by, such as discounts on newspapers, stationery – and takeaways!

Indeed, just this past week I bumped into a promotional event I hadn’t quite expected to see on the ‘concourse’ (the area just inside the building) when, on one particularly busy morning, I popped into the building for a quick cup of coffee – scores of the latest games consoles with free playable demos, which kept me and some friends entertained for a fair while!

Needless to say, with the opportunity to try out one of the latest game consoles on offer, the need for coffee was quickly offset!

And it’s this constant buzz of positivity, this never-ending hive of activity, with its members at its heart, that makes SUSU such a great place to be around. You soon find that, regardless of what course you study or which societies you join, everybody seems to know everybody else at Uni, so you’re pretty much guaranteed to bump into several friends wherever you go there, be they studying in the pods, grabbing a bite to eat in the trendy Bridge Bar (recently renovated, and highly recommended by myself!), watching the footy in the Stag’s or relaxing with a film in the evening.

It’s all designed with the student body in mind, which means that, aside from offering cheap prices abound (a trip to Union Films is just like the real thing, only for a fraction of the cost), it’s always open for you to book out its services (often for free) for your own purposes, be it for something as grand as a whole society event, or just when you fancy a couple of games of squash with friends.

This definitely came in handy for a few of us the other night, when, needing to shoot a trailer for Equus to further our marketing push (which is also soon to take to Surge Radio, the Union’s own broadcasters), we were able to use the filming equipment and studio of the Union’s television station, SUSUtv, at no charge, and with the added bonus of having the extremely helpful assistance of one of its experienced committee members, Anjit, on side – thanks to him, the final product should be suitably atmospheric, and hopefully sell a few tickets too!

The availability of an underground TV studio allowed us to shoot a creepily eerie Equus trailer – soon to appear on SUSUtv!

So if you’ve not managed to make it in so far, I can only recommend visiting the Union as soon, and as often, as possible! Why not check out all the things on offer or, better still, get involved with the societies that run them? By allowing its members to assume positions of responsibility within the organisation that makes it up, SUSU not only grants us experience in roles of leadership (into which there are many people elected each year), but also gives the opportunity to influence changes, decisions and strategies for each other’s benefit and to reflect a common consensus, meaning more great perks to studying in Southampton for you, me and the rest of the student body, and for that reason alone it’s more than worth engaging with.

At the end of the day, it is YOUR Union, after all!

Robin

Making a home from home

It’s two weeks into the new term, and already the landmarks are flying in fast!

Aside from the looming prospect of getting into the real meat of a challenging Third Year Project, which I discussed in my last post, there’s also groups to be formed for term-long projects, schedules to be organised for meetings with supervisors and course committees, and assignments (or more intimidatingly their deadlines!) being thrown at us left, right and centre. Although we were, to an extent at least, protected from all of this by the way the course was structured in our first and second years, in third year there is no such alleviation – it’s very much sink or swim, with appropriate time management an absolute expectation of us (quite fairly at this point I guess!).

Add to that an extra-curricular activity which is almost single-handedly eating up any spare time I ever manage to get hold of, being a co-director of an ambitious production of Peter Shaffer’s classic play Equus (two weeks until opening night – ahhhhh!), and the occasional summons to events such as birthday parties, sound staging training sessions, committee meetings, academic talks and, rather inevitably, auditions for next term (I’ve managed to get into a musical somehow, and am now panicking that people are going to hear me outside of a shower!), and there’s ever aplenty to be getting on with each day!

But it’s one of those senses that, when I’m at my Northern home or any other break from life at Southampton, I miss at times; that feeling that there’s something important to do, somewhere vital to be, something significant you’ve forgotten to do (always the case with me – I find it worrying if I’m not worried about something!), that means that, no matter however fatigued or otherwise you may be, every day is full of purpose, goals and a good sense of achievement – in theory!

On the flip side, I wouldn’t say no to a more regular sleeping pattern from time to time!

The way I see it, however, is that I’ll probably never get too clear an opportunity to do much of this again after I’ve graduated in a couple of years (an occasion which seems far too close for comfort at this point!) because the focus will be on making my way up the ladder of employment, so while I can, why not?

And I reckon that it’s keeping myself so busy, immersing myself in all the fruitful opportunities that Southampton has to offer and, in turn, engaging with a broad variety of interesting and fun people wherever I go, that makes the city such a homely place for me. It’s been that way ever since Freshers’ week two years ago, when I attended five or six societies’ welcome meetings (a number which has since whittled down to one or two!), and I’ve just kept going along to things ever since, meeting more and more people and settling into the ranks of passionate folk that make up the Students’ Union, SUSU.

The people you meet can define your University experience – 

so try to get out there and meet them!

I can recall my first few weeks being full of unsure moments and frequent doubts; as one of my friends phrased it, moving away from home initially felt like an extended school trip, with the sense that we’d all be back in a classroom the following Monday. But being a relatively old hat at starting academic years now, and with a settled set of friends, contacts and societies (although it seems to ever be expanding, such is the fluid social nature of the Students’ Union!) to rely on, it’s sometimes easy to take for granted the most important factor in helping me adapt to independent life and study in the first place: my flatmates (and current housemates)!

Because (and I sincerely hope they’re not reading this) when you’re surrounded by such a welcoming, zany and hilarious bunch as I was in my Montefiore halls of residence, it begins to feel like a second family. After only three or four weeks of living with one another, we already had in-jokes aplenty (just ask them why they gave me the nickname “Mufasa” because I don’t know!), great rapport, loads of stories and, in a nice way, firm groundings and roles within the group; we knew who to go to for a moan when the chips were down, and who’d select the best film for picking ourselves back up again, or be aware of the cheapest place to go out that night for a celebration (although now we dispute this fervently!). I can’t thank them enough for the times they’ve supported me, and I can only hope I’ve returned the favour, or will do.

There’s nobody better to have a laugh with after a tricky day than your housemates.

And you’ll soon find there’s nothing better for getting to know somebody than living with them!

And it’s this curious feeling of place, of belonging, which I loved having amidst the adaptations I underwent during freshers’; my flatmates and I were ultimately a hugely diverse bunch with a range of personalities, hailing from vastly different backgrounds and areas of the country, but it just worked in halls, and it still does in our privately rented student house, as we enter a third year living together. This point was rammed home when we recently had a nostalgic viewing of all our first year photographs and videos, which started by reinforcing just how lucky we were to be put together in the first place, and ended in, typically, a house fight using foam dart guns and a bottle of somebody’s skin cream...

 ... which didn’t work out too well for me, as you can see!

Unfortunately, it doesn’t always turn out quite as conveniently for everybody, and if you find that, after trying to make it work with your current flat/housemates, things aren’t working as well as you’d hoped they might (sometimes they just don’t click, and it’s nobody’s fault), I’d recommend getting out there, joining plenty of societies and using them as a medium through which to meet people with more similar interests. They all tend to be incredibly welcoming, and it’s a great way to go into conversations with complete strangers knowing you’ve got at least one interest in common to talk about!

It doesn’t really matter where you find them because, for me at least, be they computer scientists, Performing Arts members or my housemates, it’s the people that I encounter in Southampton who make it my home from home.  

Robin

The long haul

I’m currently sitting at my desk, staring at a blinking cursor on a blank document, which currently represents the state of progress of my preparation of a project brief document for my Third Year Project, the year-long piece of work that I know will pose many conundrums to come.

Talk about standing at the foot of a mountain!

I’ve done something fairly similar before, for my A Level Computing coursework, where we had a nine-month stretch of time to develop a piece of software for a real-world application. Somehow, I managed to convince both my teachers and the exam board that programming a KenKen solving game (a kind of mathematical Sudoku) would be a good example of an educational utility (for improving arithmetic), and I was away staring at number grids for hours on end, but back then I had the firm guidance of a classroom teacher behind me on a daily basis, helping me overcome all the little errors and difficulties that such a large-scale project can throw up and forcing me to get down to the grit of what was a relatively simple task, at least technically, but was certainly tough at the time! And I ended up typing over 200 pages’ worth of report, which required a Herculean effort to print off and bind on submission day!

But the Third Year Project is a whole other kettle of fish, because although I have the firm support and help of weekly meetings with my personal supervisor, whose experience in and knowledge of the field I’ve already found invaluable in helping me to find areas in which to kick-start my project, the onus is very much on me to have the drive to drag myself out of bed (however comfortable it seems at the time – especially if it’s 8am!), get to the library to check out journals or labs to investigate topics, and stand on the shoulders of giants in applying my findings to the construction of an artefact, which I have to present for scrutiny at the end of the year in my project viva. And that’s while simultaneously writing 10,000 words on the experience!

So writing this blog at the very beginning of what seems like an ever-stretching path before me, having just been given a lecture on solid techniques for mapping out the time available in the months to follow, the prospect of taking on a Third Year Project is more than a little intimidating!

But already I’m finding that my previous experiences at the University of Southampton may well help me in tackling just that, both in terms of those gained from course modules (for example, over my first two years we’ve been introduced to a broad range of project management and design methodologies) and also those through my extra-curricular activities.

Because although it’s an activity which I participate in mostly because I enjoy it rather than because of any great benefit to my CV, learning how to direct a theatrical production through putting on my latest project with Theatre Group, Equus, has already seen us, as a production team, put a lot of management theory into action. For example, before the concept of the show was even formed, we established a core team for putting it on, who then branched outwards and delegated the responsibilities needed for building up a society show from scratch – and there’s a surprising number, as I’m finding out now while we all race around gathering props and costumes and sponsorship and such!

I’ve also had to learn how to schedule, particularly in piecing together a rehearsal schedule which defines the whole process of learning the play – although on one particular day I did cheekily take the liberty of making the rehearsal start and finish early enough for me to watch a Manchester United match! We’re now halfway through it, and things seem to be going very well indeed thanks to the commitment and talent of all involved (as well as their ability to make the whole thing a lot of fun!), although being on a short timescale it’s not always straightforward to tell; there may be some last minute line-learning or changing of scenes, as with any production, but fingers crossed we’ll avoid that scenario!

On top of that, we’ve been working closely as a production team to try and co-ordinate all of our activities to make sure everything comes together on time (helped again by everybody’s sheer enthusiasm and commitment to putting on a great show!), to market the show (you may see our poster on screens in and around the Students’ Union!) and to try and remain relatively within the budget we set out at the beginning – basically, many of the skills applied in a long-term project!

It sounds like a lot of work, and it’s not always easy as such, but it’s made all the better by being around such driven, personable and canny individuals as those which comprise Theatre Group.

In addition, taking on projects can give you great excuses to take much-needed breaks every now and then, which can be all the more satisfying for their timing! This previous weekend the cast and crew of Equus attended a riding school in Buckinghamshire, where we were given the opportunity to learn from, groom and ride horses, an awesome experience which made for a fun day out as a team. We’d like to thank Mrs Hart massively for making it all possible and lending us her time, knowledge and horses on the day!

 Some of us had ridden before and some hadn’t – with interesting results!

(Credit: Leo Darlington)

 We had a great time at the stables!

(Credit: Leo Darlington)

So it is with great optimism that I go into the new academic year, armed with an as-of-yet-unwritten proposition to take on the challenge of building an autonomous agent capable of live performance capture and editing, despite the numerous difficulties that are almost guaranteed to crop up because of it – and this time, I’m not sure turning it off and on again will solve very much!

Although it might mean fewer hours in bed (and those of you who know me well will know how much that promises to hurt!), this year I’ll be in it for the long haul, although given how I’ll be researching an area I’m interested in through a project I selected, I’m sure that this will just give me all the more time to relish my course during my penultimate year here.

And at the end of Equus, the Third Year Project and the rest of my degree, I’m sure I’ll have a complete product to look back on, to be proud of, and to savour.

Robin

A busy September

Following on from what was probably the best month of my life so far, enjoying the splendid festivities going on up in Edinburgh (the last time I’ll mention it on here – promise!... okay, well maybe not!), I was fully expecting the classic ‘post-show blues’, ever the nemesis of a performer in the form of the indisputable fact that a show is over and won’t return, to hit, and hit hard.

But in keeping with what has been a frantic but wholly memorable summer, I simply haven’t had the time to even think about it!

September opened in a whirlwind of activity as I found myself beginning to look at material for my proposed Third Year Project, the Electronics and Computer Science equivalent of a dissertation. Much like Edinburgh, this blog post is most definitely not the last time I’ll be mentioning it this year, as with a grand total of 10000 words to write at the same time as producing a fully functioning ‘artefact’ (in my case, an automatic show filming-and-editing autonomous agent) and then demonstrating it at an end-of-year ‘Project Viva’, I’ve got quite the prospective workload on my plate!

As the youngest of four siblings, I’ve seen my brothers and sister go through it all and come out with great success, so no pressure, then! Like GCSEs, A Levels and moving out of home and into Uni, it’s always one of those things you witness people around you undertaking, but never imagine will ever get round to happening for you, so it’ll probably be a shock when it finally does. Unfortunately, this philosophy doesn’t quite apply to assignment deadlines!

After a few days of using this research largely as an excuse to catch up on the sleep lost in Scotland (at the Edinbur- agh!), I was whisked back down to Southampton to participate in the recent Open Days in a similar manner to those which took place in July, taking part in the Pro Vice-Chancellor’s talks on the Nuffield stage on the themes of our stories in the city and our goals and ambitions for the future.

We were joined by fellow Life at Southampton blogger Jo again, who was as articulate and inspirational as ever, as well as Biology student Sophie Watts and Mechanical Engineering student Harry Morley, both of whose experiences were not only astounding in their own right, but also vastly numerous – I have no idea how they’ve managed to find the time to do it all, let alone the great deal of skill! Through having this opportunity to talk to visitors on the day about just how much the University of Southampton has offered us since we joined, we all had a superb time and received a salient reminder of how fortunate we’ve all been to attend such a great institution and be part of a brilliant set of people – and how much we’ll miss it all when, at our various stages, we’ll have to depart!

After the talks, we took the chance to make full use of the free photo booth outside! 

(Credit: University of Southampton Law School)

And that time may come quicker than I imagined, as, following a quick train journey back home to the North-West, the milestones came thick and fast within the space of my final week before returning to Southampton for the semester, so much so I began to feel very old indeed! First up was the chance to celebrate my sister’s birthday, and although it was a low-key affair as she was, at the time, in academic lockdown putting the finishing touches to her own Masters’ dissertation, the family had a great time together on a relaxed day, and we made sure she was well set up for a celebration when everything was handed in a week later!

This was quickly succeeded by a spontaneous day trip to the theme park Alton Towers with some friends from home, if only because we all wanted to give its new roller-coaster a try (it was epic!), and then the chance to meet up with my aunt and uncle from New Zealand and spend some time out, including a delicious meal out in a swanky venue, with them.

Hoping to take advantage of the early return dates for schools as well as the warm weather, we made an impromptu journey to our favourite theme park!

This is actually my favourite of all the rides there – though you might not have guessed it from this photo!

To put the cherry on a hectic but hugely enjoyable week, it ended with my 21^st birthday and a couple of celebrations of entering the world of adulthood (if only in age!), including another meal out and a meet-up or two with long-unseen friends, during which we went bowling and had a curry (not to mention a few drinks!) – a fantastic time was had by all, and it was a fairly quiet and chilled celebration to accompany the grey hairs I found in the morning!

Another year older... but probably none the wiser!

Finally, it was back down to Southampton for a third and final time this summer to kick off rehearsals for Theatre Group’s next show, Peter Shaffer’s Equus, as one of its co-directors. Having put a great deal of time into trying to think through every aspect and plan as much as possible in advance (for once!), it’s mildly terrifying to think that the show opens in just under five weeks’ time, a relatively short timescale for a show of such magnitude.

But both of us directors are very excited by the promise of the early work that everyone has put in so far, a testament to the dedication and sheer levels of talent that the actors and actresses here possess, and we’ve enjoyed working on the play by ‘blocking’ scenes, building characters and, most of all, taking part in and running the warm-up games – including incorporating dance routines from YouTube as physical warm-ups! We can’t wait to see the final product of the rehearsals – it should be spectacular!

Of course, it’s not all about hard work, and, as we reasoned as a production team, what better way is there to encourage strong inter-cast team building than by unleashing our inner warriors at Southampton’s “Sector 7” arena for some extremely competitive (if sweaty!) and exhilarating laser tag? Although the scoreboard didn’t end up quite as flattering as the green team I was on might’ve hoped, we all left feeling quite drained by the experience, suggesting the evening was well-enjoyed!

And to cap a busy month, the Theatre Group committee have been making preparations for welcoming freshers into the society, including manning a stall at the recent Students’ Union ‘Bunfight’ where all student groups are offered a post from which to recruit new members! Although it was a long day, the atmosphere and excitement generated by the occasion made it tremendous fun for all involved, and with over three times as many sign-ups as last year, we’re already wondering just how we’re going to fit all those people into the room should they opt to come along to our first meeting of the year!

So with the new academic year starting in just a few days and a flurry of activity having taken place, it’s been a summer, and September, to remember! As Jo rightly pointed out in her final blog post, time flies when you’re having fun, and although it seems strange to think that I’ve been lucky enough to publish my writing on here for a year and a half, alongside her stimulating articles and those of the vivacious Flo and adventurous Rohit, and that I’m the last of the original blog team, it’s just further proof that things in the student world really don’t stand still. I wish them every luck in the future and it’s been a real joy getting to know them all, just as I’m sure it will be with the new Life at Southampton writers – and the incoming freshers to the University to boot!

It’s safe to say that, being back at University, things are as busy as ever, but I wouldn’t have it any other way! Now, what was I saying about catching up on sleep...

Robin

So long, student life!

The time has come for me to say goodbye.

Goodbye student housing; goodbye student discount! Farewell lectures, seminars and book lists. Goodbye assignments and journals… goodbye student life!

I’ve had the most incredible time as a student at the University of Southampton and it’s very hard to believe that it’s come to an end and to put it all into words.  I knew for years that I wanted to go to university, and had no doubt about doing a degree. I even knew I wanted to do a Master’s Degree afterwards; when asked on my Leaver’s video at school where I wanted to be in ten years’ time, I said I’d like a degree and maybe even a Master’s – four years later, I’m already there!

For the first time in my life, I now have no concrete plans. I’ve always known what I’ll do next, until now. As somebody who enjoys organising every element of her life, this is an incredibly daunting thought. What should I do next? In my mind, hundreds of paths stretch before me, giving me so many possible options… should I do a PhD? Find a job in London? Stay at home to save money? Should I apply for an internship first? My main objective is to see this as more of an excellent opportunity to mould my life around my dreams and wishes, rather than a black abyss that many graduates often feel that they are facing.

Two cards I was given upon moving home, giving me optimism for the unknown future!

I’m not pretending it isn’t scary – it is! But ultimately, with all of the skills I’ve learned at University, both professional and personal, I could really choose any of the paths in front of me. The world is my oyster, and I could do anything.

Since I moved away from Southampton last week, my time as home has been somewhat of a whirlwind. I‘ve been catching up with friends from home and seeing family. I am very excited about being able to read for pleasure again, since my time is not taken up by course reading lists and assignments.  I’ve already got stuck in to Stephen Chbosky’s The Perks of being a Wallflower after numerous recommendations, and have a stack of novels just waiting to be devoured. I’m also keen to start sketching again, since art is a love of mine which has been neglected since starting my academic career at Southampton – although I did go to ArtSoc a few times! I’m also aiming to start up my own blog; since I won’t be writing for Life at Southampton any longer, I aim to maintain my passion for the written word myself. Blogging will allow me to get my writing out into the world, regardless of what job I go into!

I’m already a fair way into this book – a change from my usual course texts!

So yes, this is my last blog post for Life at Southampton, and it’s been an absolute joy. From the moment I submitted my first blog post, I have been keen to share every aspect of my student life with you all – from my basic culinary skills and experiences with student media and the Wessex Scene, to exploring the surrounding areas and recounting my wonderful graduation day. I am sad that this little pocket of my university life is over too – after all, it is one of the only connections with Southampton I have left. Through this blog I have pushed myself to experience new things, to visit new places and to see things in a new way. It has provided me with many opportunities, and I like to think that maybe someone who read our posts on this blog was compelled to visit Southampton at the recent Open Days as a prospective student. If you’ve been reading these blogs – written by myself, Robin, Flo and Rohit over the last year, thank you very much! I know we’d all like to think we’ve inspired someone along the way!

I started university as a very shy young lady who was unsure of herself and of her place in the world. I had low self-esteem and wasn’t sure if I’d fit in, since my time at school was not easy. I certainly would not have been able to run for Deputy Editor, talk at the university Open Days on the Nuffield stage, or even take myself off to explore the secret Valley Gardens or Hansard Galley on campus. But I’ve done all of these things and more,  made countless friends and gained so much experience, and I am emerging with more confidence and ambition than I had four years ago.

I’ve met some incredible people over the last few years, many of them friends for life. 

This is me with my lovely undergrad housemates the night before results day, 2012!

So who do I have to thank for all of this? Well firstly, my family. My parents have helped me through every moment, from stocking up on essentials and moving me in to Orion’s Point in 2009, to the minute I climbed into the car to travel back to Kent last week. Their support and encouragement has been invaluable and I couldn’t have done it without them.  My flatmates – including the original Flat 203 – coursemates and colleagues at SUSU Media have all played a huge role and I hope to keep in touch with many of them for years to come. Everyone I’ve met throughout my time here has made an impact on my life and I want to wish everyone the best of luck for the future! It’s hard to put into words how much everyone means to me. In that respect, thank you to the University – to the staff and the students, for giving me such a wonderful life for four years. 

I’m back home now, and adjusting to a new lifestyle

What would I say if someone asked me where I’d like to be in another four years – in 2017!? I’d probably tell them that I’d like to still be reading avidly and in touch with many of my university friends. I’m not sure what job I’ll have, but whatever I’m up to I’d like to be using my brain, challenging myself and experiencing new things every day.

Good luck to the next group of Life at Southampton bloggers – I’m looking forward to keeping up with all of your adventures!

Thank you and goodbye, student life. It’s been absolutely incredible. I’m very proud to be an alumnus of the University of Southampton.

Joanne

Tales from Scotland: Part two

It’s been almost a month since I returned home from the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, and yet it somehow feels like yesterday!

Perhaps it’s because, for me, its legacy lives on in what I took out of it. As I wrote last time, at the beginning of August, a bunch of students from the University of Southampton journeyed up to Scotland to perform at the biggest arts festival in the world under the moniker of “Gone Rogue Productions”, acting out the original student comedy Hanging Bruce-Howard every day for two and a half weeks; probably (although who knows, possibly not!) the closest thing I’ll ever experience to a professional routine, minus the exorbitant amount of time spent at the wardrobe department!

But, as we thought might be the case beforehand, we had to ask ourselves: how were we actually going to get people to come and see it? After all, already fairly tired out by the early wake-ups I described in my last post, and competing for attention amidst the swathes of street performers that lined the Edinburgh Royal Mile (the popular flyering ground) on a daily basis, what tricks could we pull out of our sleeves to draw people in? After all, one member of our cast being asked to promote an actor’s show on Portuguese TV wasn’t quite what we had in mind (although we did our best to show off some of our flyers in the background)!

And then, by chance, it hit us. A few days in, during a flyering session which was proving to be another tough sell, we all decided to strike “power poses” amongst the crowd in a bid to stand out to passers-by – and, with many reaching for their cameras, it surprisingly proved a success! We then decided to change pose every time a flyer was taken (cued by someone in our huge team of flyerers shouting “CHANGE!”) and, when young children began taking three or four just to cause us to jump around shifting positions every two or three seconds (and then sometimes put them back!), we found we had a hit on our hands, and our flyering technique for the rest of the trip was born!

Our “change!” game in full swing – and, in my case at least, costume!

We also used plenty of other methods which honed in on our target audiences of families and kept it fresh for us, trying to bring a smile to people’s days in the spirit of comedy. For example, as the play at one point concerned competing thespians, we held impromptu “Shakespeare vs. the Movies” quote-offs on pillars across the crowds, we undertook particularly loud vocal warm-ups in the middle of the street (while shouting a much-needed disclaimer that we weren’t a musical!) and we played some of our favourite dramatic games in the street, like “Ninjas” – I’ll let you guess what that involves!

It wasn’t always easy to sell the show, but we enjoyed chatting to the public nonetheless!

Sometimes, we got creative!

And although at first it wasn’t always easy to summon up the necessary levels of energy and enthusiasm first thing in the morning (coffee became my new best friend!), with our show starting at mid-day, it meant we were always out, about and drinking in the sights of a festival-laden Edinburgh.

It soon became something of an exhausting but enjoyable routine: wake up, wolf down breakfast, head out to the mile, promote like crazy, perform a show, come back and prepare yourself for the rest of the day (often including a vital power nap!), flyer a bit more and then experience the festival in all its glory, before a hectic night out or a more chilled one in!

In the afternoons, we were set free to see the other shows on offer at the Fringe and, making full use of the C venues company pass that being in Gone Rogue produced for us, we were able to get into many a show for free, to fill up otherwise-empty seats. This was a fantastic initiative and one which allowed me, personally, to see a whopping total of 54 shows during my time there, at an average of 3 a day – on my most packed, I saw 6! A few of these were part of the “free Fringe” (performers whose shows’ admission were normally free, and who raised money through donations), and some I had to pay for, but at the end of the trip I was certainly satisfied I’d got plenty out of it!

Indeed, we witnessed a massive variety of things on stage, from folk musicals about mystical kingdoms to Korean slapstick musical wedding ceremonies (as good as it sounds!), improvised films and musicals (hilarious!), from Kafka-esque metamorphoses to historical biographical comedies, cabaret to fully immersive plays set in trenches and courtrooms and séances, from stand-up comedy to magic shows, one-man political explorations to play noirs to musicals and physical theatre representations – plenty of strange things amongst all of them, yet richly diverse, refreshing and hugely entertaining!

‘Music Show: Wedding’ was the happiest thing any of us had ever seen – 

and we made sure to come back on our final night!

So many of the shows captured some great directorial vision, brilliant conceptual realisations and high-quality writing, that the overall level of imagination on show was truly awe-inspiring. My favourite of them all was The Trench, a play by the company “Les Enfants Terribles”, which showcased shadow puppetry, diverse sets, poignant music but overall some simply world-class inventive staging which left me and my companions speechless. We had to take a moment after leaving the theatre to just bask in how good what we’d just seen was – we had no words!

And as for our own, Hanging Bruce-Howard was a great success! Although we didn’t set the world on fire critically (the common criticism from reviewers being that it, although well-performed, didn’t break enough new ground), it nearly broke the society record for profits from any show, a remarkable feat given all the costs of taking it up in the first place! Plus, the healthy audience numbers we had all seemed to enjoy it judging from their laughter and praise afterwards, with the general reaction we received very positive indeed. On one day we were even stopped by a family in the middle of the street to tell us how much they had all enjoyed it, and how they’d recommended it to their friends, which was a touching experience, if somewhat surreal!

Towards the end, suffering from a degree of fatigue with all things theatre (a phrase I never thought I’d utter!), we took an afternoon out to climb Arthur’s Seat, the peak of a group of hills overlooking the city. It did, of course, decide to rain when we were halfway up, and we discovered near the end that we weren’t as fit as we perhaps thought we were, but it provided some dazzling vistas of the city (not to mention photo opportunities!).

At the bottom of Arthur’s Seat...

... and at the top, overlooking our new favourite city!

And in true Gone Rogue style, we marked the occasion with a couple of rounds of ninjas at the top! It was a brilliant afternoon out, and it drew a nice parallelism with the adventure we’d undergone in travelling to the Fringe: after months of fundraising, rehearsal and self-budgeting, all the hard work was entirely worth it just for the comparatively short time we were up there.

Billed as ‘the game of ninjas to rule them all’, things got intense!

But what Edinburgh really showcased for me was the level of achievement that a set of students can attain if they put their mind to something, keep a consistent vision and go for it. As I’ve written many a time before on this blog, I’ve found that being a student at the University isn’t just going to lectures, waking up exceedingly late on Sundays (although I don’t deny this happens!) and piecing together projects and assignments, but becoming part of an educational community, a brilliantly supportive platform for your development which grants you the opportunity to do what you want (well, within reason!) if it’s even potentially beneficiary to yourself and those around you.

This is realised in loads of different ways here. For example, the funding system we use in Performing Arts means that, when we decide to put on a show, it’s basically a no-lose process for all involved – although we do try to make money obviously! Any overruns on budgets are underwritten by the Students’ Union and any necessary expenses covered through the use of a set budget form (which boosts your financial management experience), so you’re encouraged to take, and learn from the results of, risks, with little fear of future personal loss.

Plus, you’ll often find that if you need funding, help or support to undergo an experiment, purchase a piece of equipment or even add a piece of software to a lab machine, it’s only the asking of a question, a friendly chat or a well-formed application away!

And it’s certainly an achievement and a half for the production team of Gone Rogue, and also its cast, to take Hanging Bruce-Howard up there in the first place.

So as I return to Southampton and begin the process of co-directing Theatre Group’s next production, the revolutionary and challenging text Equus by Peter Shaffer (for some people it might hold connotations of a certain wizard-based actor!), I know that there’s no other place I could do it. We as a production team are in a great position to take risks, make it as large in scale as we wish, and use as many of the wonderful frameworks in place to produce the best show we can, leaving boundaries asunder.

As a result, if there’s anything I’ve taken from my tales of Edinburgh, it’s this: Why not?

See you next year, Edinburgh!

Robin