In October Half Term 2010, with the assistance of Boyse Educational Foundation Trust, I got on a plane to travel across the pond to Los Angeles, California, USA. I was travelling with Playbox Theatre Company, and taking two very different shows to Santa Monica Playhouse in LA.

The main focus of the trip was the show called ‘The Fallen’, which focused on the after-effects of war on a soldier, and the universal bereavement and the role of young people in conflict. I played this soldier, and in the gruelling and emotionally draining period of rehearsals leading up to the tour I learnt a lot; including about 20 pages of lines. I put quite a lot of research into the character and watched various programs on Afghanistan, Iraq and the modern conflict in the Middle East. It was hard to get the balance of making the show entertaining for an audience, but also getting my character honest and deep enough so that I felt I had done justice to the character and the faultless script we were given by a writer at the theatre company - Toby Quash. The performances went very well and they concluded the tour receiving great praise from the Americans who came to see the shows.

The other piece that we took was called ‘The Divine Comedy Experience’, which was a devised piece. At the beginning of the rehearsal process our director gave us a ‘mother word’ that was ‘time’, and we had to brainstorm this word and write down on a piece of huge paper words and phrases that we associated with ‘time’. I had never done anything like this before and learnt a lot about a different side of theatre, as well as the strangeness of our director's mind, which made me worry slightly about what went on in there. It was very enjoyable though and there was a lot of improvisation that was put in.

At one point we had an American primary school come and watch and give us memories they had; one enthusiastic three year old just wanted us to perform Batman, though.

As well as just rehearsing the shows we had workshops with Santa Monica Playhouse directors and saw performances from the company that ranged from the absurd to the poetic. Chris DeCarlo, a director at Santa Monica Playhouse, was a big inspiration when we were over there, and supported us in everything we did, giving a look on theatre that us Brits had never seen before.

We stayed with homestays and got to grips with the culture. My friend Jon and I were given a very small and wacky American Grandpa named Barry who enjoyed taking us for a drive by the Playboy Mansion and Rodeo Drive, talking of his guitar and golf along the way. Although rather surreal, this was very fun, as was carving pumpkins as he spoke of his UCLA days and we nodded and said ‘yeah’ a lot.

We also went on many outings to Universal Studios and Warner Bros. Studios, which for me was one of the highlights of the tour. We saw sound stages, green screens, famous actors walking by to get a coffee, props from a huge range of films from Jaws to Harry Potter to Batman - if only the excitable three year old American kid had been there, he would have exploded with excitement, even more than we all did as we stepped across the ‘Friends’ set and the Walk of Fame in Sunset Boulevard.

I learnt a lot on this tour, from preparing for a show in a darkened room as I went through heaps of emotional lines to getting to grips with which side of a car to get into to get into the passenger seat. I made a lot of friends and a lot of memories that I won't forget.

Ralph Davis