(Image by Vipul Sangoi)

It's been a week where I've been so glad to be a professional artist. It's also a great feeling, when six months ago I created "Always An Artist" as a response to a rising panic that I wasn't really an artist at all.

I paid a visit to Longborough Festival Opera on Tuesday, a venue that sits very near and dear to my heart as the first place to really give me a chance in the industry by connecting me to directors during my gap year. I learnt more about their education programme and observed a rehearsal. The team were extremely welcoming, and I hope to be back soon.

Then I headed off to Newbury for the National Rural Touring Forum conference, attending as a delegate and performer. If you're unfamiliar, rural touring is a fantastic sector of the theatre industry, full of people working in innovative ways to bring exciting performances into the heart of the most rural communities. I have been connected to this sector for a few years, and have been in the audience of rural touring shows through my life, having grown up and still living in a very small Cotswolds village.

The conference was brilliant: full of fascinating discussions, fantastic performances and most importantly, wonderful people. I performed a "ballyhoo," which for our company took the form of a poem to describe our current show, Kingmaker. We wanted to share the silliness, the plot, our current stage of development and our use of poetry - all in an entertaining way in under 5 minutes. It was very well received and hopefully will take us further down the road of getting the show to audiences next year.

A few highlights for me: playing Arcade with Casson and Friends, a wonderful performance of "I'm Muslamic Don't Panick" by Bobak Champion, a great learning opportunity in the Access roundtable, and the incredible music of Suntou Susso.

Then I rounded out the week with my good friends at Escape Arts. Having choreographed a fun dance for the team to perform in the Shakespeare Birthday Parade, we reunited at their annual showcase. I taught the routine to the wider group of 'Escapers' and we kicked off the disco in style. And I get to call this a job!