Michele Theil, Author at The Orbital

12Nov

By Michele TheilNo Comments

Culture & Literature, Theatre & Performance

Life is a Cabaret, Old Chum

Saturday 11 November saw the opening night of Musical Theatre Society’s (MTS) show, Cabaret. It was held in the SU Main Hall and despite a slightly delayed start to the evening, it opened with pomp, circumstance and a bang. The hall was set up with a thrust stage, meaning the cast performed in the centre of the room, with the audience settled in three sections around the stage area. The 26-piece band was placed up on the stage, in full view of the audience, conducted by Musical Director Flynn Sturgeon. Tom Holmes was the ‘Master of Ceremonies’, or Emcee, who provided an entertaining commentary throughout, peppered with nuanced jokes and cheeky double entendres. Because of the way the staging area was set up, there were many opportunities for the cast to interact with the audience throug...

12Nov

By Michele TheilNo Comments

Features

Hidden Heroes

In celebration of Black History Month, Orbital Magazine decided to take a look at the successes of Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) alumna in the history of Bedford College, Holloway College and Royal Holloway, University of London (RHUL). There are many prominent people that attended Royal Holloway and Bedford New College but there are only a few that have made such a difference in the world. Sarah Parker Redmond attended Royal Holloway’s predecessor, Bedford College. It is often not mentioned that Bedford College, established in 1849 “the first higher education college for women in the UK”, previously merged with Royal Holloway College to become what we know it as today.Redmond was a lecturer on slavery and race and was part of the American Anti-Slavery Society (AAS). She is...

Lock Her Up: A Shot At The Prison Experience

2Nov

By Michele TheilNo Comments

Opinion

Lock Her Up: A Shot At The Prison Experience

Trigger Warning: Self-harm, Suicide East London is home to a great many things: Olympic Park in Stratford, The Tower of London, Emirates Air Line Cable Car, a Board Game Café and the many quirky bars of Shoreditch. One ‘quirky’ bar is causing controversy with the theme it chose. ‘Alcotraz’ is a new prison-themed bar in East London based off of Alcatraz Prison and prison systems in general. The bar is only open for three months and the exorbitant entry fee of £30 guarantees an orange jumpsuit for the person to wear throughout the session, which lasts one hour and 45 minutes. At first glance, this may seem like a fun idea for a London night out with your friends. But it’s not. It is incredibly problematic and should make us all think of the endemic issues within the prison and judicial...

Emily Wilding Davison Building Officially Declared Open

24Oct

By Michele TheilNo Comments

Features

Emily Wilding Davison Building Officially Declared Open

On Wednesday 18 October, the Emily Wilding Davison was officially opened by Her Royal Highness The Princess Royal, Chancellor of the University of London, Princess Anne. The building was closed to students between 9am and 4:30pm on that day to allow for the Princess’ tour and speech to be given. The building was worked on for nearly two years, with almost 3000 people working on the construction of the building to get it to what it is today. The library contains more than 400,000 books and over 1000 study spaces for student use. It offers other services, such as the Union Shop, the Santander Bank, the Student Services Centre, the Careers & Employability Centre and the Exhibition Space for interests in art and culture. The opening was a remarkable event, with many students head...

2Oct

By Michele TheilNo Comments

Science & Technology

Vaccination Fears Go Viral

People are divided on the role of vaccinations. Most see them as a godsend, the product of the miracles of modern science, and the only way to prevent their children from getting diseases like Diphtheria, Polio, Smallpox, Measles and Whooping Cough. There are, however, a growing faction of people that are against inoculating children with vaccines as they believe that there are doubts over the antigens contained within vaccines and the effects they may have on their children and families. In addition, there are those who are in favour of vaccines but want them to be given in smaller doses over a longer period of time. Vaccination is, simply put, the process of injecting a sample of a weakened or killed virus into a person in order to provoke an immune system response into producing anti...

22Sep

By Michele TheilNo Comments

Science & Technology

AI on the Radar

Ever since its inception, Artificial Intelligence (AI) has not only been at the forefront of technological advancement but also a major theme within many action films. What many films of the last decade have told us is that AI will either stage a hostile takeover of the world, or send us into obsolescence by one day replacing us, thus taking over the world regardless. For any journalist, current or aspiring, that day may be today, as it was announced earlier this year that Google is funding an AI program that will create news stories for publications. Google manages a fund, the Digital News Initiative (DNI), that awards grants to digital journalism projects around Europe. They awarded a grant of over £600,000 to Ireland’s Press Association and Urbs Media for their collaboration on the R...

19Sep

By Michele TheilNo Comments

Opinion

A Bone to Pick

Netflix' new film To The Bone stars Lily Collins as Ellen, nicknamed as Eli, a girl struggling with anorexia nervosa and portrays her journey towards recovery as she is admitted to a new in-patient facility for sufferers of eating disorders. When the trailer was released earlier this year, there were many who thought of the movie as groundbreaking, with some hailing Netflix, and writer & director Marti Noxon, for portraying an often stigmatised and usually difficult topic. There was also praise for the production team leading the project, many of whom suffered from or had experience dealing with eating disorders (including Noxon), using their own stories to shape the narrative. However, it also sparked controversy due to critics' views that it may, in fact, be glamorising the illnes...

RHUL hits the Fringe: Singing on Skid Row

15Sep

By Michele TheilNo Comments

Culture & Literature, Theatre & Performance

RHUL hits the Fringe: Singing on Skid Row

Ethereal Theatre Company held auditions at Royal Holloway months ago, choosing the best of the best to go with them to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe to perform the cult classic ‘Little Shop Of Horrors’. As the other audience members and I stood in line to enter The Grand Theatre at Surgeons Hall in Edinburgh for their last performance, two of the show’s crew greeted us in hazmat suits and stamped us all with Skid Row barcode ‘tattoos’, a key component of the direction in which the production has gone in. Director Mahmoud Zayat took Howard Ashman’s script and incorporated dystopic themes of “control”, “surveillance” and “innovate science”. This production thus has Skid Row under surveillance, as they are an experiment in determining a person’s level of greed. For those who don’t know,...

13Apr

By Michele TheilNo Comments

Sports & Socs

Charity Insanity with Insanity Radio

Sports & Socs Editor, Michele Theil on Insanity Radio's Easter charity extravaganza. Royal Holloway’s radio station, Insanity Radio, has been doing a lot of great work in the last few weeks for charity with many of its members hosting 24hr radio marathons in aid of 18 different charities. 19 teams, consisting of 42 people, have been broadcasting for 24 hours each over the Easter holidays and have already raised over £6000. The charities that Insanity are aiming to support include Mind, Autism Together, Roald Dahl’s Marvellous Children’s Charity, Alzheimer’s Society, Macmillan Cancer Support, Save The Children and Future Sense Foundation. All of these charities provide great services and are always in need of donations and support. RhubarbTV has been live-streaming each and every ...

28Mar

By Michele TheilNo Comments

Culture & Literature, Theatre & Performance

Dreamgirls: A Dream Come True

Dreamgirls, a brilliant musical that opened in October 2016 at The Savoy Theatre on the West End stars Glee’s Amber Riley and tells the story of a group of African American singers in the 1960s trying to make a name for themselves. I had the opportunity to see Dreamgirls last month at the Savoy theatre and, not having seen the original movie that the show is based on, I wasn’t sure what to expect. What I found was an amazing spectacle of bright lights, beautiful costumes and spectacular music, used to tell the story of these young women who struggled to make a name for themselves while having to deal with the societal pressures of beauty and race in the male-dominated world of music. Amber Riley, with her powerful voice, played the role of Effie White, the lead singer of ‘The Dreamet...