👋 Greetings, dear readers.

Today’s newsletter is special, so I’ll get a bit personal this week.

In the early 2000s, like many other people, I had a blog where I talked about my life, theatre, and anything geeky. I was pretty consistent and got a decent reader base. I even got small sponsorships, like the time I wrote about craving a specific brand of chocolate shakes only available in Catalonia; the brand reached out to me, telling me they wanted to send me some. And they did!

For a while, I also wrote theatre reviews for a local newspaper, and with that came free tickets. I even started writing for a modest video game website doing reviews, and it was nice getting free goodies and games. Eventually, that website got bought by a big media company and now it's thriving.

I was writing quite a lot for many years, and then life hit hard. My mother got quite ill, which began many months of living on and off at the hospital until a fatal resolution.

Dealing with grief and mental health issues attached to my recent orphanhood, I stopped all collaborations but kept writing when I could and on my own terms. The habit was quite damaged, though, and faded out.

I tried again when I moved to London, but the kite didn’t get off the ground. All my writing was relegated to social media.

Why am I telling you all of this? Well, exactly one year ago, I had the impulse to create a weekly newsletter against all the noise from my RSD fuelled inner saboteur: “No one cares,” “You are a nobody and don’t have a platform,” “You don’t have anything to say…”

Another thing popped into my head then: “Do it for yourself.” And I did. Now, 52 weeks later, marking the 1st anniversary of this newsletter, I’m still doing it.

Thanks to this newsletter, I re-acquired the habit of writing and putting my thoughts out there for anyone (interested enough) to read. I don’t have a huge base of subscribers but now I’m close to the point of having to pay Buttondown the fee to accept more. And I’ll do it gladly.

Sometimes I feel that I’m oversharing, like when I disclosed here my mental health journey and neurodivergency diagnosis. Other times I feel that I strongly get into the muddy waters of politics, potentially burning bridges. I try to keep this newsletter informative about the art forms that I preach, but wouldn’t it be boring without a dash of humanity every now and then?

Sometimes, it’s not easy to come up with weekly content. I try to push myself not to write just for the sake of writing. I really appreciate all the comments that some of you give me, sometimes replying to the email, sometimes in person. I treasure every single bit of input.

I know many of you enjoy the recommendations from “the geeky dessert”, and that makes me extremely happy. I could easily write a DAILY newsletter just with geeky stuff. But, hey, I’m an artist trying to live an artist's life! 😀 You'll have to settle for the geeky dessert special at the end of the year.

With all being said, know that I appreciate you. Please keep your thoughts coming, letting me know what you enjoy the most from this newsletter.And if you are in a similar situation to the one I was in a year ago and are thinking about starting something like this, don’t overthink it and do it! Let me know if you do, I’ll gladly follow you.

Love to you all! 🫶

🗣️ Shout-out!

I’m bringing back this section to recommend another newsletter. It’s starting to feel like the blogosphere of the early 2000s all over again.

Julien Bertrand is a French actor and improviser based in Paris (I know, how cliché). We met in Belfast during the 2019 Improv Festival and reconnected a couple of years back, bonding over conversations about the struggles of being a freelance performer and facilitator.

In the most recent entry of his newsletter, Is improv dying?, he offers yet another view on the state of the art that is worth reading. And of course, I recommend you to subscribe to his newsletter.

📆 What is coming up

• 🇬🇧 15th of April - Not GCSE Drama (London, UK). After a long hiatus, the clueless teenagers are back for another GCSE drama exam and they will do their best to use their creativity to get excellent grades. It will be at The Signal Pub, hosted by 🌲 The Forest 🌳 Improv Comedy.

• 🇬🇧 1st to 4th of May - Two Islands Playback Theatre Gathering (Buckden, UK). Join playbackers from UK and Ireland on a long weekend of camaraderie, connection, and, of course, Playback theatre. Check the information.

• 🇬🇧 8th of May - Acaprov at Shoreditch Balls (London,UK). After a delightful show in April, we wonder how our next musical will go. Care to find out? Get your tickets here.

📚 🎮 🎥 📺 The geeky dessert

Do you ever enjoy something so much that you don’t want it to end? That happened to me with Resident Evil Requiem. “Enjoying” is a peculiar word to choose, considering I spent most of my playtime actually terrified. The balance achieved here between horror and action campiness is brilliant.

This game is stunning as well, even on Nintendo Switch 2, a less powerful machine than the Sony or Microsoft counterparts. I’m happy that Capcom brought back the zombies that were once the staple of the franchise. However, this time they are more unsettling, retaining traces of a long-gone humanity, like the zombie of a classically trained singer whose constant, wailing song made my blood chill.

Such a great experience. Bravo.