Linda Rose was lucky to live for two separate years in the US.
The first year was after her O levels, when she was 16 accompanying her family to Calvin College, Grand Rapids, Michigan, where her father was on a writing sabbatical. As she was in between her O and A levels in the UK, Linda had no educational pressure and enjoyed taking various classes for her interest including psychology, philosophy, economics, German, and lots and lots of theatre!
It was here that she developed her drama interest into a passion and learned many important skills in writing, production, acting, and set and costume design. The Calvin College drama department and the productions club, the Thespians, was very sophisticated and Linda was able to be part of a very professional standard of theatre. As a result she was part of many productions and received two awards at the end of her year, the main one being for her part in a one act play by Brian Friel called Winners. Linda was also a dedicated member of the Invention Team, a theatre-in-education project which took interactive theatre into schools, and a religious theatre group for church settings all of which broadened her own experience in acting and writing for different settings, as well as working within the community.
After returning to the UK to undertake her A levels back at secondary school, which was very painful after having been working alongside 18-22 year old students in an adult environment, Linda went to university in Wales, but took an interview to be part of an exchange programme with the US which she was successful with.
She was pleased to return to the US which she found an energetic and stimulating culture, and joined UCSD, the University of California, San Diego in La Jolla California for the year of 1986-87. There she studied theatre full time, learning such aspects as acting for the camera, and taking many writing classes with professional writers. Later she became a paid memember of staff of the La Jolla Playhouse, working in the marketting department and with Front of House. This brought her into contact with such people as Dorothy Maguire who had been one of the original Playhouse founders along with Mel Ferrer and Gregory Peck, as well as other professional writers. Linda also performed in several plays including as a character actor in the stage version of Charles Dicken’s Tale of Two Cities where she was also dramaturg (responsible for the authenticity of the script).
Linda also joined an Aigonagi karate class and enjoyed gaining her third (blue) belt, but failed to find a similar ethical club on her return to the UK so sadly dropped this.
Linda was in the honours roll every term at UCSD and had a gpa (grade point average) of 3.7, resulting in being awarded a 2.i Bachelor of Arts degree in Drama from Wales and California.
Linda has an enduring relationship with the US and has been back to visit friends and undertake other projects with her sons, including one in 2005 where her younger son, Elliot, interned with an old friend in a Hollywood studio to produce a film short with CGI filmed outside Las Vegas.