I've finished all of my graduate school classes and am just waiting for the results of my second round of essays. I'll be spending the summer working on my dissertation, which questions what factors influence a theatre choosing to film a certain production over another. I'm so excited to get working on it -- and thrilled that I don't have to go to class anymore!
I've been interning at the Donmar Warehouse in the development department since the end of January and I've never been so in love with anything before in my life. I was a little worried that my expectations were too high, but it's blown me away. Not only are the productions incredible (The York Realist is definitely one of my top ten shows I've ever seen), but the people are so wonderful and lovely. I've extended my internship so I'll be staying through to the end of July and I'm already dreading my last day.
I've done some traveling over the spring, from day trips out to Brighton and Oxford to a spring break trip to Paris with my friend Patrizia. We had a great time in Paris and I finally got to visit Victor Hugo's house and burial site so I was very pleased. I've got some amazing travel planned for this summer too, including a trip to Disneyland Paris.
I've also had some lovely visitors in 2018 thus far, including my cousin Kristi and my friend from Elon, Stefanie, and my friend from New York, Julie. I also got to spend some time with my friend Skylar when he visited for his spring break and my best friend from home, Alex, was here over the weekend on a layover for about thirty hours. I'm looking forward to seeing Julie again and having Kimmy visit this summer. But mostly I can't wait for my family to come!
I've continued working at the Dickens Museum one morning every weekend, in addition to picking up the odd additional shift. I continue to absolutely adore it and some of my co-workers have become lovely friends of mine. I have developed a strange fondness for Charles Dickens that has very little to do for his work -- I suppose I'm a bit grateful to him for his former house becoming sort of like my home here in London.
I'm also doing a lot of writing for BroadwayWorld, both interviews and reviewing. I saw a poster for a musical with a quote for a review that I wrote which has long been a pipe-dream of mine, so that absolutely thrilled me.
The other big development of the spring is that I fell head over heels for a musical called The Grinning Man. It's based on a lesser-known Victor Hugo novel and integrated semi-immersive theatre, beautiful puppetry by some of the same people who worked on War Horse, and stunning vocals by an actor called Louis Maskell.
I ended up seeing it six times: the most I've ever seen one production. It also makes it tied for my second most seen show (Les Mis is still number one, but The Grinning Man is tied with Kinky Boots for the number two spot). While it closed earlier this month, I have high hopes that it'll make it to Broadway one day.
I've also been spending a lot more time around the RADA with my friend Rhiannon who studies technical theatre there. I'm looking forward to seeing more of their shows in a couple of weeks.
I'll definitely check back in at the end of the summer, before I head back to the States and end my time in London. What have you all been up to in 2018 thus far? I'd love to hear in the comments below or on Twitter.