My Intense Summer Experience by Nevada Christensen
Serendipity is “the occurrence and development of events by chance in a happy or beneficial way", and that defines exactly my experience at Rose Bruford College of Theatre and Performance's Summer School 2015 in London, England. A few years ago, I watched a UK television mini series titled Nearly Famous, about young people at a drama school. I loved the show so much and longed to go to a school just like that one day! Imagine my surprise, when walking through the doors of Rose Bruford for my first day of the course–this was the exact school where they filmed! And I had no idea! As we toured the campus, I felt I was in a bit of a dream.
Rose Bruford is one of the top drama schools in Western Europe and it also happens to be the Theatre School that one of my teachers at dramaschool, Antony Stamboulieh, went to. The first week was classical training, culminating in a performance of The Tempest and the second week was contemporary study with a performance at the end of the week in front of an invited audience entitled Renegades . We also did voice and musical theatre workshops each week with top notch instructors.
To say that the course was challenging is an understatement. Imagine having to prepare a top quality performance in less than 3 days of rehearsal, but it was 100% worth it. The instructors on our course were wonderfully supportive and pushed each student in a way that brought out their best. Our course director, Tony James, said that you learn nothing from success, and that failure is the best way to get better. You bet we failed! But it only made us stronger as a ensemble.
There were 10 of us on the course, and we were from all around the world. I was the only North American student, but we had students from Sweden, Germany, Belgium, and all across the UK. These people were so wonderfully talented, and I made the deepest friendships with them in just two weeks.
The facilities at Rose Bruford are beautiful. It is such a creative, calming campus located in Lamorbey Park in Sidcup. From the trees and grassy areas, to the studio spaces and the original barn theatre where Miss Bruford first began her school, there is such a richness of culture and creativity here!
To close, I want to really emphasize the idea of taking risks and not being afraid of failure. I'm a perfectionist, but the most important thing I learned from my time at Rose Bruford Summer School, was to try and if I fail, I will have learned something valuable.
“In life and this craft called 'acting', you must work very hard, face your fears/push beyond them, be kind, not take yourself too seriously, and have fun", Judith Luscalzo.