Laura Ferrin (England) BAPP Blog

Quick post today (a little reflection?) Today I took myself off to have a sports massage as rehearsals for a new trio and my active day job were starting to take their toll on my back and shoulders. The therapist was a specialist in treating musicians and we had a very interesting conversation about well being and injury among professionals within the arts.  He said that in similarly physically demanding jobs (for example professional sports) people treat injuries immediately and often have therapists on staff to make sure the players bodies are functioning correctly. However, he sees musicians in professional orchestras who have similar issues with carpal tunnel or shoulder problems from playing a full season and touring, yet they don’t have the same facilities for keeping their physical health up to scratch. Alongside this, they often feel shame and nerves about treating an injury as they worry about loss of future work if their employers find out!  This made complete se

Well...it’s been a busy few months personally, professionally and in terms of Module one! I thought I would start off checking in and giving an overview of my professional practice since my last blog before kicking off this term! In November/December I worked on new family musical ‘The Secret of Christmas Eve’ for Oldham Theatre Workshop. For this project, I relocated up North and stayed in digs for the first time in a while (shoutout to my lovely host Anne). I was very excited about the project and it even exceeded my expectations! (with a great cast to work with and beautiful original music and story). Oldham Theatre Workshop is an absolute institution within the area and working to develop the piece with creative storytelling was hugely exciting as an artist, it all just felt very quirky and magical. Upon reflection, the only part that was tricky was the quick turnaround in learning the script and getting new pages each day even up to the dress rehearsal. There were times when I w