IES Abroad London – Theater Studies

My experience in the IES London Theatre Studies program was nothing short of life-changing. As a theatre student, I needed to make sure that wherever I studied abroad was preparing me for my future career. London was the place that I could live and work surrounded by the industry that I am studying and IES Abroad was the perfect way for me to do this. Academically, I got loads of hands-on practical experience by attending productions, going backstage and doing workshops with professional artists working in London. I would recommend this program to anyone interested in the entertainment industry or the performing arts in general. On top of academics, the IES community will always hold a special place in my heart. The administrations genuinely cares about the well-being of their students and I felt like I could personally connect with them. I wasn't just a number in the program, I was treated as a complete human being and was given a community that helped me thrive and live up to the best of my potential. After returning home, I am confident that London is somewhereI would love to move to long-term after graduation, and I wouldn't have realized that if it weren't for my semester studying abroad with IES.

Studying abroad allowed me to expand my horizons by broadening my mindset. Prior to my time in London, I was stuck in rut. This negativity infected my social life, family ties, academics and relationship with myself. However, my new environment gave me enough space to feel comfortable exploring myself: my likes, dislikes, desires, career aspirations and so forth. I rediscovered myself. This utterly changed my trajectory and now I feel refreshed and ready to take on the world.

IES provided me a stable foundation for the experience of a life time. Ultimately, there are things the program could improve upon, but in today's academic world IES fares well for itself. I would repeat my last semester in a heartbeat, if given the opportunity.

When I decided to study abroad, I knew exactly where I wanted to go. London, England was really the only choice for me. I wanted to learn everything that I possibly could from the extraordinarily talented people in this wonderful city. My ten-year goal at the time was to actually live in London, England and establish a life for myself there. I wanted to use my study abroad experience as a sort of “tester” for eventually living there. I chose IES Abroad because it offered a flexible program that could work with my majors. I am currently pursuing a double-degree in theatre and business marketing at my home university and wanted a program in which I was able to study both of these subjects. IES Abroad London – Theatre Studies program allowed me to focus on my theatre classes and be with fellow theatre majors while also taking additional business classes. IES Abroad also makes it SUPER easy to travel while doing a semester abroad, but it is not required to travel independently. I participated in almost all of IES Abroad’s travel programs and was not disappointed. I visited all of the places that I wanted and learned even more about the country itself. After a semester abroad, I really wanted to come home to the States, but the IES Abroad program staff and professors made this one of the most rewarding experiences of my life.

My London experience was AMAZING. The city is wonderful and there is always something going on. Some of my experiences included a pop-up salon in Covent Garden, a songwriting workshop at the Apple store, and London Fashion Weekend at Somerset House. Traveling is so easy from NIDO. King's Cross is 5 minutes away, and you can get a tube to anywhere in London from there, as well as trains to all over England and Scotland. St. Pancras is right there as well, giving you even more access to other parts of Europe. The Theatre Studies program is fantastic. The teachers are working professionals in the industry and have so much knowledge to share with their students. Just soak it all up. I went to so many shows and was exposed to so many varieties of theatre. Professional actors and directors were brought in to talk to us and we were able to go backstage at the National Theatre for a tour.We were given the chance to record a voiceover at a professional recording studio and get a start on our reel. The opportunities were endless. I learned so much that I am able to take back to school and to use as a start my career.

One day at my internship at The Actors Centre one of my coworkers announced that Paul McCartney was putting on a surprise concert in Covent Garden just across the street. During our lunch break we gathered with hundreds of other Londoners, and waited for Sir Paul McCartney to come out onstage. There was so much excitement in the air and despite how packed the audience was in the too-small courtyard everyone was extremely polite in their typical British way. And of course the concert was amazing! So London. I chose IES London because of the opportunity for internships and the strong reputation. Nido is a fairly new building and looks very modern. The rooms are teeny tiny, you share a sleeping space and teeny bathroom, but that is how almost all accommodations are in London. Each floor has a communal kitchen, there is a movie screening room, a café where you can get pre-made sandwiches or pasta, a wii, and an expensive laundry room. Each room comes with pots, pans, dishes, and cutlery and it was easy, so it was easy to make food in the kitchen. There is an Italian restaurant built into the dorm, but it is expensive and there is no student discount. The staff was less than helpful, but I didn’t have to deal with them too often. The locations is the best part of Nido Kings Cross. Kings Cross stations has a lot of tube lines and is fairly central. On the tube it takes 10 minutes to get to class, 15 minutes to get to the west end, and usually no more than 35 minutes to get anywhere in the first 2 zones. I was a 6 minute walk from Kings cross, a 20 minute walk to school and the British Museum, a 15 minute walk to the British Library. The area used to be really run down and sleazy, but it’s becoming a kind of artsy area and is really close to a cute neighborhood with a lot of good pubs, food and shopping called Angel.

London is a fabulous place and IES gives students a lot of opportunities to explore it in many different ways. If you are a theatre student I would highly recommend the IES London theatre studies program because they take you to at least one show per week and the professors in the theatre program are the best. As a theatre major who wants to act the things I learned from my acting class were extremely useful and the professor has a lot of connections. I also think I learned a lot from watching so much good theatre and having discussions with multiple professional actresses. The program led me to so many great connections and opportunities to learn about acting. Classes were small (5-9 students) and many were discussion based. All of the professors were British and focused on helping us to understand their culture along with the course subjects. There are some especially great professors who went out of their way to make our experience as fulfilling as possible. One of my theatre professors took us to many extra shows, brought professionals into the classroom, and took us to a homeless centre to work on Shakespeare with the homeless. London is fabulous and anyone who wants to be somewhere urban would love it.

My most memorable experience was getting to fly to all the different European countries with my boyfriend on the weekends! I chose IES because my boyfriend's school only accepted IES and we wanted to go together. Therefore I asked my school to switch my program to IES and with much difficulty, they did =) We lived in the NIDO building which was beautiful and new. However the management was just awful there, they wouldn't listen to any of our complaints or take any action. We lived on the 3rd floor, and there were people who smoked out on the courtyard illegally; the smoke rose up through our vents and filled our rooms with cigarette smoke every day which was not good for us. This was never acknowledged or fixed.

I absolutely loved my semester in London. I am a theatre major and the theatre studies program at IES is all about getting you out in London to experience theatre. We saw shows every week for class and got to attend priveleged rehearsals and other theatre industry events that our professors were able to get us into. Having classes only three days a week didn't make for my most challenging academic semester but it was exactly what I wanted: I learned a lot without working endlessly on schoolwork and was able to use my four day weekends to travel and see A LOT of London. IES organizes a lot of day trips and a few overnights that I thought were fantastic. They took the planning aspect out of it for me and guaranteed that I would have friends on the trip. Overall I had no real negative experiences with IES with the exception of a small dorm room but the building was in a fantastic neighborhood and at least it made me get out into the city and live life in London instead of sit at home!