A friend has recently started posting videos on her story showing ‘a day in the life of an Oxford student who does anything but her degree’. This is the reality isn’t it? Oxford is a high intensity environment already, but almost every student also engages in a range of extracurriculars in an attempt to truly cripple themselves during term time. For me these are typically theatre related, ranging from directing, to reviewing to photographing. While this term I have taken a step away from directing, I still find that I spend an inordinate amount of time in a rehearsal room. So, in the spirit of my friend’s stories, here is a week in my life…

Monday – Typically, my Mondays are pretty slow, the day consisting of a bit of dissertation reading and an OUDS committee meeting in the evening. However, this week my mum was staying and she had other ideas. As we caught the train to London, her excitedly documenting the experience for her followers, building up suspense ready for the reason we were heading to the capital when I should have been working. We trekked an hour towards The British Museum (she is very anti tubes and a historian and artist who likes to observe everything) and found ourselves outside the quirkiest little art shop I have ever seen. Looking like something straight out of a Dickensian novel, it was an unassuming building opposite the grandeur of white pillared establishment. She had come to buy the equipment needed to make her own paint, but as a birthday gift someone had beaten her to it and she arrived at the counter to find it all paid for. While my mother excitedly bounced around the tiny shop (think woman with ADD in the centre of her special interest), I picked up some of my own equipment, being recently asked to design the costumes for a show. It’s been a good few years since I did any costume design and my art box has been carelessly stowed in a cupboard since A-Levels. From here we popped to Regents Street so that I could go and do a bit of necessary shopping of my own and then towards Covent Garden for lunch. There was some cooing over old printing tools and then the challenge of getting back to the station with a massive piece of glass. Back in Oxford, we grabbed a quick dinner from Itsu and then I went into college to set up a room for a photoshoot. The rest of the evening was spent in a chaos of misbehaving flash, angel wings, and my wonderful model going all in and leaving you to wonder how he was a law student in the light of day. Back in the comfort of my room, I edited photos into the wee hours.

Tuesday – Tuesday is the typical start of the theatre week, with this week finding me sitting on the floor of the O’Reilly photographing a dress run. However, first, it was Shrove Tuesday, so I took my mum to my favourite little deli for pancakes. Then, she wanted her termly Blackwell’s and Crosstown fix. During this time, I was asked to photograph the afore mentioned show. Between my mother leaving and the run, I sat surrounded by books and made my way through as much World War One reading as humanly possible. Arriving at Keble half an hour early, I caught up with the crew members that I have made friends with during my three years at Oxford, reminiscing about the first show I directed (in that space exactly a year before). Photoshoots in dark spaces without being able to use a flash are some of the most challenging you’ll ever do and I am very much still learning. Some of the photos I went through after were blurred or out of focus, but as always there were some gems. You can usually tell immediately that you’ve captured something stunning and in the case of my favourite shot from this show, I knew the second I took the photo (in fact, I took a photo of the camera screen to remind myself of its existence).

Wednesday – With two late nights editing under my belt, it was a slow start. I still had a lot of reading to stagger through before photographing yet another dress run. In this case, it was the Jesus College Shakespeare Project’s dress run of Titus Andronicus. JCSP was where I gained my first dress run experience, so, as such, I have photographed their last three shows. Just like with every other show in Oxford, I have gained friends under the obnoxiously bright lights of the Habbakuk Room. For this show, Peter Sutton took the leap to go in a bold new direction with the show and it absolutely paid off. The reactions from myself and the other crew member watching for the first time highlighted quite how excellent and hard hitting the piece was. The regulars were as always incredible and it was a pleasure to watch – dealing with the weird lighting of the room less so.

Thursday – Getting up slightly later than I intended I spent some of the morning organising my reading and starting to get ready for my evening. In a full face of make up suit trousers and a vest top, I popped to the Junior Common Room to pick up my college stash and ended up helping my college daughter organise boxes work of stag adorned clothing. In the meantime, my best friend turned up, raving about the show he’d seen the night before. We debated the week’s theatre offerings for a while and then I returned to my room to finish donning a suit. Choosing Docs over heels for the journey, I caught the train to London, working on my dissertation reading and some admin for the student opera I am working on. Once in the city, I caught the tube to Charring Cross, preparing an Instagram post as I went. First stop, The Savoy. Given the fact that it’s BAFTA season, a photographer I admire (Charlie Clift) and The Savoy have collaborated and a series of his BAFTA portraits are currently on display. The staff were so accommodating to the student wondering around in her college puffer and were even able to tell me about some of the other portrait artists I discovered on their walls. I was quizzed about my degree (Medieval Literature always gets a raised eyebrow!) and had a wonderful conversation about the history of the building and the memories that it holds. Loath to leave such a beautiful place, I continued my way along the Strand and into the heart of the theatre district, trying to dodge the chaos of rush hour by talking to a friend. This conversation was rather fortuitous, as thanks to him I acquired a ticket to a sold out show. Navigating my way to the Peacock Theatre, I dodged gathering crowds and picked up my ticket, programme and drinks voucher to that night’s performance of Everybody’s Talking About Jamie. To Starbucks for food and matcha and then back to the theatre where (much to my friends’ horror) I walked unashamedly down the red carpet wearing my Jesus puffer. The show was phenomenal and for more details you can read my review 🙂 Suffice to say it was a night of minor celebrities, drag queens and some really lovely reviewers. Back across London to Paddington and then to Oxford, where I started writing my review at 1am following multiple show discussions with various friends.

Friday – Yes, I had a lie in… Maybe. I got up around 10am to rewrite my review thanks to the feedback from my editor and tried to get my head (and my camera equipment) together in order to go on another photography adventure. This time, it was trip to Blenheim with one of my favourite people in tow. We frolicked and talked and laughed and she terrified me by climbing into a fountain and onto a windowsill. All in all a stunning day that is hard to put into words. What did entertain me though was that this was my London born model’s first time seeing a pheasant – I grew up in the deep countryside so this baffled me! We both half snoozed on the bus home, exhausted from the fresh air and getting lost in a maze. Back in town, I had an hour to grab food and start to look at the photos before heading to the theatre to review a show. Said show ended with a trip to Magdalen bar, where there was something of an impromptu Toad of Toad Hall reunion.

Saturday – The next day was slow, starting with a rehearsal in which I was part photographer, part associate director and part ignorant student writing her dissertation at the back of the room. There was plenty of entertainment and a limited amount of working taking place (for a sample of the chaos check out the reel on @peedie_productions). For my few hours freedom, I continued to work and also flicked through my photos. In the evening I took advantage of the ticket I’d been given a few days before and went to see Daddy Long-Legs at The Michael Pilch Studio. I am not writing a review, so will unashamedly write that it was one of the best pieces of theatre I have seen at Oxford. It was excellently written and Will Shackleton’s performance was both phenomenal and the best he’s ever given. The only downside to the whole affair was this burntout autistic girlie having something of a meltdown at the intensity of the show. Anyway, incredible. Plus I got a go on the rotating stage! Back in college, I continued my meltdown, did some creative writing and then attempted to continue my dissertation write up.

Sunday – The day of rest… or a mammoth sprint to the deadline. By 10am I was in Blackwell’s typing and didn’t stop until rehearsal at 1pm. Relocating to the rehearsal room, I photographed, continued typing and occasionally interjected with a directorial thought. From here to Crosstown, which is one of the only places that appreciates the Sunday student experience and stays open until 8pm. Sitting there working away, I ended up making friends with the girl I was sharing a table with. She was an Oxford graduate and we talked and worked alongside each other, both in Crosstown and after they closed in the college cafe. It must have been around 10pm that I returned to my room and about 4am that I submitted the 4000 words of the World War One section of my dissertation. Watching Netflix’s One Day helped to turn my brain off after the ordeal.

And let us begin again…