Introduction.

My name is Daniel Gubba, I am student studying Drama and Theatre Arts at St. Mary's University in twickenham. I have just started my third year of the course, by the end of which I hope to be confident and ready to start finding work in the theatre industry, fingers crossed! This year i'm focusing on the technical side of the course. Hoping to improve on my existing skills in the backstage areas of theatre. My specific interests are the more artisitc elements, such as set, props, and lighting. As well as anything else I can get involved in!

In the past two years of my course I've been fortunate enough to be involved in a number of exciting shows around London and beyond, in a few instances even being paid. These have included shows within the university itself, working with lecturers, and also within the drama society a number us (students) in our year have set up independent from our course. Both have been extremely important in developing my skills within all areas of theatre. I have also worked on a number of shows outside of uni including a show that took place underneath Waterloo train station,which was a collaboration between the theatre company Punchdrunk and the Old Vic theatre.

I also went up to Edinburgh with a show in 2009 which was written by one of my lecturers. This was a brilliant experience not only for the amount of shows I saw for free but also the huge variety of people I met and chatted to during my time there. My latest show was at the Lyric theatre in Hammersmith where I worked on a show as a scenic artist and even had my name in the programme! Big morale boost!! This was a brilliant experience as I was given a taste of working in a professional environment on a daily basis. I found this really satisfying as i was placed under a certain level of pressure to meet my deadlines and found it thoroughly enjoyable to completely devote myself to my work, which i imagine is a hard thing to come by!

During this summer I spent a few weeks in the Czech Republic, during which time I visited the Drak theatre, famous for its puppetry, and was lucky enough take part in a workshop that focused on the handling of a variety of different puppets. This also included talks/tours on the construction and evolution of the art form, from its basic origins, to the more complex but also traditional methods of building and controlling used today.

So, this brings me to the beginning of this academic year, my last, and I am both hugely excited, determined, and slightly very terrifed to make the most of it! Only time will tell and I will be updating my blog consistently to chart my progress...

Ciao for now!