The Academic Actress

PhD in English, MA in Shakespeare, MA in Creative Writing, actress, writer

[the-academic-actress]

UK-based friends who love opera — you NEED to see Wild Arts’s production of ‘The Marriage of Figaro.’ It’s SO GOOD.

Here’s my mini review (from my Instagram).

And here’s the list of their remaining tour dates/venues:

Wild Arts

Experience Mozart's 'The Marriage of Figaro' with Wild Arts in Summer 2026. Book now for a delightful opera adventure!

[the-academic-actress]

Classical theatre nerds & fans of Arthur Schnitzler’s play La Ronde — I found this screen adaptation from 1982. It’s got a stacked cast (including Anthony Andrews and Dorothy Tutin, among others), plus music sung by Kiri Te Kanawa.

[the-academic-actress]

Update: I won’t be seeing Inspired By Theatre’s production of Spring Awakening (because I’m prioritizing my thesis) but I hope whoever sees it has a wonderful time.

[the-academic-actress]

Contemplating Mozart’s The Magic Flute, as one does, and it’s occurred to me that probably most of my fellow ladies in their early 30s have by this point met, dated, or are related to a guy like Papageno: single, desperate, and sweet.

Also he and Papagena are my favorite characters in the opera — they’re just so adorable. 🥰

And if anyone wants a recommendation for a good version of Flute, Kenneth Branagh’s 2006 film adaptation (set in a World War I-inspired fantasy world) is marvelous!

[the-academic-actress]

The rest of the character photos for Inspired By Theatre company’s upcoming production of Spring Awakening (again, I’m not involved with this but I enjoy supporting local theatre).

Otto

Ernst

Wendla

Georg

Thea

[the-academic-actress]

Follow up from my last post - Inspired By Theatre company (based in York) has released some beautiful character photos and I thought folks would like to see them (for context, I know no one in this show but I do enjoy supporting local theatre). ☺️

Martha

Melchior

Ilse

Anna

Moritz

Hanschen

[the-academic-actress]

Ok, Spring Awakening fans — there’s a local company staging the musical, and it’s an actor-musician production. Here’s the link to the company’s Instagram, if anyone’s interested:

Inspired By Theatre (@inspiredbytheatreyork) • Instagram photos and videos

656 Followers, 242 Following, 162 Posts - See Instagram photos and videos from Inspired By Theatre (@inspiredbytheatreyork)

[the-academic-actress]

Follow-up to my last post: turns out that Saint-Martin (Masetto in the 2023 Versailles production) has also sung the role of Giovanni in a 2014 outdoor production in Paris (it was abridged, presumably for time, but it’s lovely all the same)

https://m.my.mail.ru/mail/vassilevv.v/video/32/5990.html?from=videoplayer&currentReferrer=https://www.google.com

*Also (spoilers) the production does something I’ve never seen before in any version: Zerlina and Masetto’s marriage is portrayed as something they want to do because they’re in love but also have to do because she’s visibly pregnant with his child. It’s definitely an interesting choice; not one I love, frankly, but it does add a darker shade to Giovanni’s advances to her (this peasant couple’s just married, they’ve got a kid on the way, and he swoops in to take the wife and mother from this family) — vile.

[the-academic-actress]

Ok, opera fans — if you love Mozart’s Don Giovanni, I think you might like this gorgeous 2023 production from the Opéra Royal du Château de Versailles. It’s a feast for the eyes and ears.

My favourite aspect is the relationship between Eléonore Pancrazi’s vivacious Zerlina (also she’s a mezzo singing Zerlina — love it!) and Jean-Gabriel Saint-Martin’s endearing Masetto — it’s absolutely adorable.

[the-academic-actress]

Y’all — I just saw a local production of Parade (it was a bunch of Brits pretending to be Southern, and very well, I might add). Amazing. I’d never actually seen Parade before, and I’m so glad this was the one I saw. Wow — 10/10.

[the-academic-actress]

So, among my interests, I have a deep appreciation for opera, especially those by Mozart — recently I was reading Sir Thomas Allen’s memoir Foreign Parts, and there’s this wonderful section where he’s recounting his experience singing Don Giovanni at Covent Garden in 1991. In this section, he’s describing the staging process for the Don’s duet with Zerlina and the surrounding recitatives, and he goes into detail about his character — fascinating.

Here’s the duet from that production.

(Also, in my humble opinion, Allen is the definitive Don Giovanni of the late 20th century).

[the-academic-actress]

Ok, fellow Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell fans — regarding the outcome of my recent poll: what, pray tell, is the allure of John Childermass? Genuinely curious here.

[the-academic-actress]

Guys, I saw a local production of Next to Normal today — never saw the full show before and I’ve never seen it live, just clips online. I wept, a lot. From what I could hear, there wasn’t a dry eye in the house. The worst part for me was when Dan finally sees Gabe during ‘I Am the One (Reprise)’ — heart-wrenching. I actually felt my heart wrench. Wow, just wow.

[the-academic-actress]

Book review: Esther is Now Following You by Tanya Sweeney

Rating: 0/10 — a sobering study of how obsession with celebs can utterly destroy people’s lives — some might see it as a transformative, cathartic journey for the heroine Esther (who becomes obsessed with a male actor in the wake of devastating personal grief and it takes over her life), but I ended the book feeling extremely glad it was over. It was a real downer and I definitely don’t recommend it.

[the-academic-actress]

Ok Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell fans, I have a question which I’ve long pondered and I’d love to hear your answers.

Who’s more popular, John Segundus or John Childermass?

Segundus

Childermass

Voting ended onMar 28

I won’t be voting but I personally prefer Segundus — he’s just such a sweetheart. ☺️

[the-academic-actress]

Saw Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell in the York Waterstones today — it made me smile. ☺️

And then just now I saw this ad, of all things, on Facebook. 😂

[the-academic-actress]

Also: I didn’t realise this till I saw it in the local production, but Petra and Frid can actually be played older than the script indicates — usually they’re played like a couple of attractive young 20-somethings but in this version she looked to be somewhere in her 30s-40s and he looked to be in his 60s-70s. And honestly, it worked. In that circumstance, ‘The Miller’s Son’ was more a celebration of Petra’s youthful spirit rather than actual youth, and it made total sense.

One more note: it was a production in Yorkshire, and while most of the characters had standard RP accents, Petra and Frid had strong Yorkshire accents and it was utterly charming. I didn’t know I needed to hear ‘The Miller’s Son’ sung in a Yorkshire accent, but it was absolutely delightful.☺️