A Celebration of Autumn Term 2020

Drama, Applied Theatre and Education and Theatre Practice students present their Experimental Text Project; Photo by Cam Harle

As we embark on 2021 and the start of a new term, we’re taking a moment to look back and celebrate the achievements of our community during the 2020 Autumn term. 

Whether they were adapting their practice onsite to create new work and keep themselves safe and COVID-compliant, or teaching, learning and collaborating remotely, the work of Central’s students and staff carried – and carries – on in innovative ways, and despite the challenges. 

Whilst this round up forms just a selection of activity, these highlights demonstrate the dedication, commitment and skill of our student and staff community.   

Alongside filmed productions, streamed festivals, virtual performances, exhibitions and showings, Central students: ran events through the Student’s Union to support Central’s Learning Skills Programme as they marked ‘Black History interruptions week’; launched a podcast with the National Theatre’s Black Plays Archive; undertook a range of virtual and, where possible, in person placements; supported staff research with the Imperial Healthcare NHS Trust; took part in countless outreach activities including the ongoing e-mentoring of students from City and Islington College, Woodhouse College, City of Westminster College and Generation Arts as a part of a new Black and Global Majority mentoring programme with the Brightside Trust; and won awards including Best Emerging Actor, Director, Screenwriter at the 2020 International Vincenzo Crocitti Awards (2nd year Drama, Applied Theatre and Education student Alberto Fenderico) and the TaPRA Postgraduate Essay Prize (Phd candidate Clio Unger) amongst countless other achievements. 

Productions and Virtual Performance Video

With live audiences still an impossibility and social distancing rules a necessity, our creative and production teams worked hard to innovate the delivery of productions.  Rehearsing and then filming in COVID - secure ways, our productions were released to audiences as virtual performance videos.  In spite of the challenges, this new form of delivery allowed for longer run times and increased audience numbers. 

The Limit and Catch Me

_{Central’s MA Music Theatre 2020 cohort presented two new musicals, The Limit and Catch Me.  Both new UK musicals, these productions were by four acclaimed young writers, Freya Smith and Jack Williams (The Limit) and Christian Czornyj and Arnoud Breitbarth (Catch Me), with direction from Ellie Coote and Adam Lenson.  The four multi-camera filmed productions were rehearsed and filmed in a covid-safe environment, then streamed out to audiences via YouTube.  The writers were fully involved in the production process - establishing a new way of creating and presenting full-scale theatre in a time where it seemed impossible, through multicam and digital distribution.  Learn more about the production journey in ‘Making New Musical Theatre in a pandemic’, written by Adam Lenson.}

_{Dusa, Fish, Stas and Vi}

_{BA (Hons) Acting working alongside BA (Hons) Theatre Practice students virtually presented Pam Gem’s Dusa, Fish, Stas and Vi.  First produced in the ‘70s and updated in the ‘90s, Dusa, Fish, Stas and Vi is a classic feminist piece exploring the issues facing four women and their relationships with their husbands and lovers. Their survival is due to their extraordinary friendship and their tolerance of each other’s foibles. The path is rocky and not all of them come through in this passionate and very funny play.}

_{Love and Information} 

_{BA (Hons) Acting Musical Theatre working alongside BA (Hons) Theatre Practice students presented Caryl Churchill’s acclaimed Love and Information. “He’s got a secret.  She can’t get signal.  He can’t remember.  She can’t forget.  The information is making them uncomfortable.  More than a hundred characters try to make sense of the world as we know it.  Somewhere, in the middle, could there be love?”} 

_{Sticks and Stones}

_{BA (Hons) Acting CDT working alongside BA (Hons) Theatre Practice students presented Sticks and Stones, written by Central alumnus and playwright Vinay Patel. Patel’s Sticks and Stones is a comic look at our relationship with words and offence. It is a modern parody of the Everyman parable, ‘The Office meets Medieval Morality Play’.} 

_{Chigger Foot Boys}

_{BA (Hons) Acting working alongside BA (Hons) Theatre Practice students presented a virtual performance video of Patricia Cumper MBE’s Chigger Foot Boys. Set in a rum bar by Kingston Harbour in 1914, the play focuses on the heroism and intellectual and emotional lives of its characters, while exploring the political and social realities of the first World War contributed to widespread disillusionment and eventually the end of the British Empire.}  

_Baltimore

_{BA (Hons) Acting CDT working alongside BA (Hons) Theatre Practice students presented a virtual performance video viewing of Kristen Greenidge’s Baltimore, a bracing and urgent look at race, culture and identity.  Brilliantly dissecting how these issues play at the emergence of adulthood, nobody – White, Black, Asian, Latina or otherwise – escapes without first looking thoroughly at themselves and coming to terms with their position in a fast-changing world.} 

_{A Doll’s House}

_{BA (Hons) Acting working along BA (Hons) Theatre Practice students presented Honorary Fellow Tanika Gupta’s adaptation of Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll’s House, with the setting of the classic pay transposed to India in 1879.  This new version takes a fresh look at the play, shining a light on British colonial history and race relations, as well as gender politics and class.} 

_{The Censor, or how to put on a political play without being fined or arrested}

_{MA Acting Contemporary premiered The Censor, or how to put on a political play without being fined or arrested on 9 December.  The world premiere, commissioned by Central and written by Hannah Khalil, explores why theatre is important, even if there is no audience.  It is available to view on YouTube and Vimeo until 28 February, 2021.}   

_Hamlet

_{Throughout the autumn, MA Acting Classical rehearsed and filmed their production of Hamlet, which will premiere as a virtual performance video later this year.  Please continue to check our What’s On pages and follow us on social media for further information.} 

Festivals

Central festivals allow for a range of collaboration to take place, amongst cohorts and across courses.  In the Autumn 2020 term, Central’s students and staff used creative delivery methods to take their festivals digital.

Form(at) Festival

_{MA/MFA Advanced Theatre Practice students, presented the inaugural Form(at) Festival, a festival of ‘performance for the not-too-distant future’.  The first edition of Form(at), the Festival celebrated the exciting and innovative work made during the Covid-19 pandemic, whilst the cohort were all in various stages of lockdown. Challenged by these unpredictable circumstances they worked remotely and often across huge time differences, exploring new performance forms and moving into uncharted territories of practice.}

_{2020 COLLISIONS Festival}

_{Central’s research degree students and creative fellows presented the 2020 COLLISIONS Festival online.  COLLISIONS 2020 engaged with what it means to be researching with, through, in and by practice, and then shared this engagement with a wider academic and public audience.  The online festival featured a retrospective of digitally-documented presentations from past COLLISIONS as well as a showcase of how current practice-research are making digital practice.} 

_Triptych

_{BA (Hons) Contemporary Performance Practice - Performance Arts 2022 and BA (Hons) Theatre Practice – Technical and Production Management 2021 students presented Triptych, a three-day, three-part festival exploring volatility and performing with materials. The live-streamed performances explored our relation to environments, destruction, spirituality, community, technology, and identity.} 

Showings and Exhibitions

Celebrations of student work, displayed online or in person, for public, invited and private audiences.

#WeMakeEvents

_{On Wednesday 30 September, Central students lit the School’s buildings red in support of the Global Action Day for the ongoing #WeMakeEvents Campaign. Led by 2nd and 3rd year BA (Hons) Theatre Practice - Lighting Design and Production Lighting students Oliver Partridge, Daniel Parrott and Luca Serra, Central was illuminated to show support for #WeMakeEvents, a coordinated action to raise awareness of the events sector, which urgently needs more support to survive the Covid-19 crisis.  With support from Central staff and working alongside industry partner Static Light Company, students lit all the corridors of the West Block building as well as the School’s main entrance on Eton Avenue red in a show of solidarity and support for the campaign.} 

_{Experimental Text Project}

_{BA (Hons) Contemporary Performance Practice - Drama, Applied Theatre and Education students working alongside BA (Hons) Theatre Practice presented their Experimental Text Project, a season of performances that disrupted rehearsal hierarchies and experimented with form and design-led processes.  The project was a collaboration with directors Emily Aboud, Anna Himali Howard, Ben Buratta and company High Rise.} 

Digital Screenings: Writing, Film, Performance

_{2nd and 3rd year BA (Hons) Contemporary Performance Practice - Writing for Performance and Drama, Applied Theatre and Education students presented a special programme of digital screenings featuring their work, Digital Screenings: Writing, Film, Performance.  The special programme included Writing Night: Something About Now, a series of rehearsed readings and filmed pieces by 2nd year students on the Writing for Performance and Drama, Applied Theatre and Education courses; 3rd Year Writing for Performance and DATE: Digital Showcase, a collection of rehearsed readings and digital solo performance pieces created by 3rd year playwrights on the Writing for Performance course; and Digital Storytelling: Film 2020, a series of short films by 2nd year Drama, Applied Theatre and Education students.}

Premieres of Four Short Films

_{Central streamed MA Acting for Screen’s Premieres of Four Short Films, a selection of short films performed by the MA Acting for Screen Class of 2020 which included Newlands, The Collective, The Flood, and Supper Club for Saviours.}   

Congratulations to the Central students involved in these and many other activities throughout the Autumn 2020 term.  Please continue to check the ‘What’s On’ section of our website for information about activities that are currently happening and for further information about how you can take part.