Independent practice and research (IPAR)

How (not) to get Hepatitis B

The freedom of being able to create a show about anything that I wanted, whilst daunting, was also incredibly exciting. I struggled to set my heart on something I felt was important enough to me to be worth making a show about, whilst also feeling the pressure of needing to make it something that an audience would want to see. Sex education has always been a hot topic, there is so much intergenerational discussions surrounding what should and should not be discussed with children and young people. Within the process I allowed myself to truly reflect on my own personal experiences within this territory and the impact that those things have had on who I am and the decisions that I have made thus far. Allowing myself to delve into the researching element of a performance like this was an experience that I had not had before. With so much more time available to me than I was used to, I was able to gain a very thorough understanding of certain areas of sexual education. Whether I go on to continue this piece of work or not this research and this opportunity will always be incredibly beneficial to me. It developed my passion for championing effective, educational, and inclusive sex education which is something that I will absolutely continue to be passionate about regardless of where I end up.

Coal not Dole

Alongside my own IPAR, I also had the privilege of being involved in Jake Ord’s show ‘Coal not Dole’ based on the 1984 coal miners strike. Not only was I a performer within this show but I was also able to take the opportunity to act as dramaturg, many of the scenes started as improvisations around a certain theme or aim and were then scripted based on the improvisations. It was really interesting to be given the opportunity to step back and watch a scene unfold whilst considering the ways in which it could be improved. It was very empowering to be in a position where people were asking for and respecting the opinions that I gave. Being able to offer advice to Jake, the director and fellow character in the show, and see it tried out in front of me was a very odd but very interesting experience. I became far more confident in my own ideas and my ability to visualise things. Not only did the people around me value my input but I learnt to value my own input. Performing the final show left me with a sense of achievement that I hadn’t felt previously, I felt so attached to the material not only because it is part of the history of where I grew up but because I felt so much more attached to the work. I felt that I had given more and gained more than I had from a performance before.

Contemporary performance practice (CPP)

Screaming duck theatre

Our final third-year module is CPP, within this module we are required to form a theatre company and develop a show around a topic of our choosing. Though we have weekly meetings with our tutor we are responsible for motivating ourselves to create the material and design the show. It’s been eye-opening to fully experience what working within a theatre company is like, learning how to work with each other and encapsulate everyone’s needs and different working styles within our process. Working with people I would not necessarily choose to work with and finding a shared experience within the group has been an amazing experience, there is a bond within our group that I have never found anywhere else. And, through that value and respect for each other, we have been able to create really honest and meaningful material that we are all able to feel proud of. We have identified the importance of equality within our material and, among other things, our group contract reflects that. We have policies in place to make sure that everyone is doing equal amounts of work and that no one is talked over or left behind. We set out with the aim to make people happy with the material that we make and have managed to find our own happiness along the way.