Back in 1979 I was a fresh-faced (well a bit spotty) 18 year
old making the long car journey in my Mini from Cumbria to Norwich to begin my
Drama degree course at UEA. I’d really fouled up my A levels so was very
grateful to UEA for ‘seeing the potential’ behind the poor grades (wouldn’t
happen today – warning note to all our students – study hard!)
We were to be the first intake ever at UEA on the Drama
degree course so the whole thing was new to everyone and we’d been invited to
arrive a couple of days early for a project.
On arrival we met our tutors, and were introduced to a brand
new, purpose built studio space which was to be our home for the next three
years. We were given the theme ‘The Minotaur’ and no other guidance and asked
to produce something over the next two days.
Well, we did – it was a fantastic way to get to know
everyone and we bonded very quickly and very closely as a group. The project
also made sure we tested out the new facilities and got rid of any nerves. I honestly
can’t remember exactly what we did with the theme, but we reckoned it was
pretty good. But the experience was invaluable and we suggested to the faculty
that from then on, every Drama intake should do the same project.
We formed our own theatre group, Minotaur Student Theatre
Company, to put on self-funded shows as a result which worked very well –
averaging a couple of productions a term and always making money.
And I heard yesterday that one of Best’s long-standing
students, Michael Bird, was going up to UEA to begin his Drama degree course –
and that he’d been asked to go up early to take part in a project – called ‘Minotaur’.
I was at once proud, thrilled for Michael and overcome with
a wave of nostalgia – and fair amount of jealousy! It’s great to see our
ex-students really take flight and Michael has so much to look forward to.
So on the subject of ex-students, we have a 15 year
anniversary coming up soon and soon there will be news of a Best alumni project
to track our ex-students down. No-one is safe...
No comments:
Post a Comment