Celebrating Autumn Term 2021
As we embark on 2022 and the start of a new term, we’re taking a moment to look back and celebrate some of our students’ many achievements during the 2021 Autumn term.
Whilst this round up forms just a selection of activity, these highlights demonstrate some of the fantastic work that took place throughout the autumn.
Alongside productions and filming, festivals, virtual performances, exhibitions and showings, Central students: undertook a range of professional, industry placements; supported staff research with the Imperial Healthcare NHS Trust; won awards for their work on the International Online Theatre Festival; supported Central’s outreach activities around the country; worked to make a difference in a variety of community settings from healthcare to schools; organised events through their participation with the Central Students’ Union; and took part in collaborative workshops, events and networking as a part of the StART Entrepreneurship Project including the StART Enterprise Slam and the KickStART Creative Lab.
Whether they were developing their practice, creating new work or sharing their expertise with participants in the wider community, we are delighted to celebrate our students’ many successes and look forward to what they’ll achieve in 2022.
Productions and Virtual Performance Video
In September, students from Central’s MA Music Theatre course filmed their production of The Bridge, which will be released in early 2022. Details will be available on Central’s website closer to the time.
Then, between 2 – 4 November, Central’s MA Musical Theatre cohort, together with a Creative and Production Team made up of BA (Hons) Theatre Practice students, presented the world premiere of new musical Garbo & Me in Central’s Embassy Theatre. Written by Joanne Sydney Lessner and Joshua Rosenblum, Garbo & Me traces the elusive film icon Greta Garbo as she conquers the studio system, negotiates the tabloid minefield, and juggles a string of lovers, both male and female, while struggling to protect her cherished privacy. The production was available to view on Central’s YouTube channel between 24 November – 8 December and is currently available to watch on Vimeo.
From 16 – 18 November, BA (Hons) Acting Musical Theatre and BA (Hons) Theatre Practice students, together with MFA Scenography and MFA Movement: Directing and Teaching, presented their production of Alice in Central’s Courtyard Theatre. Written and directed by Carl Prekopp, with live music composed and performed by the cast, this new play offers an imaginative vision of Alice which will take the audience on a magical ride through Wonderland.
Following its run at Central, Alice transferred to the Leicester Curve for a run from 25 – 26 November where staff and students also facilitated workshops for young people in the local Leicester area. The production was available to view on Central’s YouTube channel between 7 – 21 December.
Between 23 – 25 November, BA (Hons) Acting CDT and BA (Hons) Theatre Practice students presented The Castle in Central’s Webber Douglas Studio. Based on Franz Kafka’s final masterpiece and adapted by Director Russell Bolam and the company, The Castle speaks to our era of Me Too, Brexit and the migrant crisis. A searching, riotous voyage into what it is to be with or without power, in a land where it is a fight to be accepted. The production is available to view on Central’s YouTube channel between 13 – 27 January.
Also from 23 – 24 November, BA (Hons) Acting and BA (Hons) Theatre Practice students presented The Frontline in Central’s Embassy Theatre. Ché Walker’s 2008 Globe hit packs a lively punch: it’s one o’clock on Saturday night outside a London tube station; a riptide of the lost, the found and the confused collide in a riot of music, hash and hotdogs, selling dreams and seeking comfort from the harsh realities of living on the margins. The production is available to view on Central’s YouTube channel between 7 – 21 January.
Then, from 1 – 3 December, BA (Hons) Acting CDT and BA (Hons) Theatre Practice students presented A Disturbance in Mirrors in Central’s Webber Douglas Studio. Written by Estrella Alonso-Gonzalez-Sinde and Sarah Woodmansey from the BA (Hons) Writing for Performance course and devised by the company, the production takes inspiration from the life and works of Sylvia Plath and is available to view on Central’s YouTube channel between 13 – 27 January.
Between 8 – 11 December, Central’s MA Acting Contemporary students, with support from BA (Hons) Theatre Practice students, presented Light Shining in Buckinghamshire in Central’s Courtyard Theatre. The play explores the ‘levelling’, ecstatic and anarchic ideals surging throughout the English Civil war, and their ultimate betrayal. It will soon be available to view online.
And from 15 – 18 December, MA Acting Classical students, with support from MA Actor Teaching & Coaching, presented In Hell (after Gorky) in Central’s Embassy Theatre. This contemporary translation/adaptation of Gorky’s shocking and radical play, first directed by Stanislavsky for the Moscow Art Theatre in 1902, has been devised collaboratively by the actors and creative team as a response to the play in the context of our own troubled times. It will soon be available to view online.
Festivals
In September, Central’s MA/MFA Advanced Theatre Practice students presented their Form(at) Festival, Form(at) Festival 2021: Performance for the Present, at the Camden People’s Theatre and online. This is the second year that MA/MFA Advanced Theatre Practice has collaborated with the Camden People’s Theatre on the Form(at) Festival. Influenced by the COVID-19 pandemic and responding to an ever-changing environment, these intrepid students explored new performance forms and reimagined their encounters with the audience.
Also in September, Central’s Research students presented the Collisions Festival 2021: Regeneration and Liberation at Central and online, with both in person performances, presentations, workshops, and installations as well as streamed content, showcasing how current practice-research students across several institutions are making digital practice.
Showings and Exhibitions
From 6 – 9 September, Central’s MA/ MFA Scenography students presented their MA/ MFA Scenography Exhibition online and onsite at Central. Virtual and physical, live and mediated, the works are concerned with relations at a time when our relational habits have been disrupted. What have we lost, gained, and learnt? How can we be together again? Or, how do we want to be together? And what are the opportunities and dangers at stake now? View the catalogue online now.
Between 5 – 7 October, Central’s MA Acting for Screen students presented their Premiere of Four Short Films to an industry audience at The Courthouse Hotel and online. Screenings were held of films Protest, First Dance, Lost Cause and All Our Weapons.
On 22 October, second year BA (Hons) Theatre Practice Lighting Design, Design for Performance, Production Lighting and Stage Management students presented their Embassy Shorts, a short series of performances exploring the Embassy Theatre.
On 27 October, Central’s MA Acting Classical and MA Acting Contemporary students presented their industry Showcase in Central’s Webber Douglas Studio. This was followed, on 26 November, by their Online Showcase on YouTube, providing a chance to celebrate their achievements in front of an audience of their family, friends, and members of the wider industry. The showcase is available to view on Central’s YouTube channel.
Between 4 – 5 November, MA Writing for Stage and Broadcast Media students presented Unmasked, two nights of exciting new work presented in Central’s New Studio. Seven scenes and short pieces, performed by members of the Central community, showcased these new works in progress from the class of 2022.
Also in November, second year BA (Hons) Contemporary Performance Practice – Drama, Applied Theatre and Education students, together with second and third year Stage Management students, presented An Office (directed by Jack McMahon) and The Stopover (directed by Vanessa Macauley and Joe Parslow). Both were designed by Lizzy Leech and were devised by the students.
Then, on 29 November, students from Central’s BA (Hons) Theatre Practice courses, including Scenic Painting for Stage and Screen, Set Construction for Stage and Screen, Prop Making, Production Lighting and Lighting Design exhibited their work as a part of the School’s annual Revolve project. The project, a collaborative interpretation on the theme Abandoned Places, resulted in three installations which revolved on the Embassy Theatre stage.
On 30 November and 1 December, BA (Hons) Contemporary Performance Practice – Drama, Applied Theatre and Education and Writing for Performance students presented two evenings of play readings.
From 1 – 2 December, BA (Hons) Contemporary Performance Practice – Performance Arts and BA (Hons) Theatre & Production Management students presented Dismantle. A multimedia performance in two parts in Central’s Embassy Theatre. Through their exploration of light, sound, space, bodies and non-human materials, the cohorts devised five short pieces designed for hybrid showings in two parts to see how violent but also gentle the process of dismantling can be.
And on 7 December, BA (Hons) Contemporary Performance Practice students on the Drama, Applied Theatre and Education and the Writing for Performance courses presented a digital premiere of a selection of their pieces: https://NOW. Digital performance making online has seen an acceleration during the pandemic, with many artists thinking through how to make a connection with an audience in digital spaces, cultivating community and sharing performance through different digital mediums. For https://NOW, students were challenged to make their own 4-minute digital performance objects along the theme of ‘something about now’. This digital premiere was the result of their work.
Congratulations to the Central students involved in these and many other activities throughout the Autumn 2021 term. Please continue to check the Events section of the Central website for information about activities that are currently happening as well as further information about how you can take part.