MA - Applied Theatre: Drama in Educational, Community and Social Contexts

I chose Goldsmiths because I wanted to steer clear of the mainstream, and engage with people that don’t frequently have their stories told. Living and studying in the South East really helped me to achieve this ambition.

Prior to Goldsmiths, I was working in conflict resolution with a trade union in New Zealand. However, ever since I discovered the possibilities of theatre a tool for individual and community development, I knew I wanted to return to studying, grounding my practice in robust theory and reflection.

In April 2016, I was lucky enough to travel to Malawi, funded by a Goldsmiths Spring Encounters Grant. This gave me a chance to engage with a diverse cross-section of Malawian society. We worked with young people and prison inmates, and built professional relationships with our colleagues at Solomonic Peacocks Theatre. I'm hoping to return and continue to promote social change. Already Solomonic and I have been discussing a possible collaboration for the New Zealand Festival.

The course provided opportunities to engage with diverse groups of people, practitioners and pertinent social issues. I hope to apply the knowledge and experience I gained at Goldsmiths, by returning to New Zealand and strengthening the Government’s refugee resettlement programme.

After spending my undergraduate years at a small liberal arts college in the American Midwest, Goldsmiths' MA in Applied Theatre was a life-changing decision for me. This program grounded my art praxis in community-engaged ethics and sharpened my scholarly abilities so that when I began a PhD, I felt confident and well-prepared. The close-knit cohort made this a supportive place to learn and grow as an artist, and the vibrant, political community of Goldsmiths inspired me to think locally and globally about my impact.

My dissertation has become a living document that continues to grow and influence my current work. I felt empowered to explore Practice-as-Research methodologies as a means of developing my study as a stage performance one that I think embodies the bold, provocative nature of my experience at Goldsmiths.

I am a recipient of the Ohio State University's "Global Arts and Humanities: Discovery" grant, which has allowed me to develop a solo performance based on my dissertation research about mixed-race women in America. My play, entitled "The Blood, the Earth, and the Water", draws from archival and psychogeographic research that was conducted throughout the Southern United States. This performance will serve as a critical aspect of my PhD dissertation which focuses on cultural trauma, erasure, and the representation of the "tragic mulatta" stereotype in American literature, history, and performance.

Studying Applied Theatre at Goldsmiths meant that when I returned to the USA, my resume stood out from the crowds of others looking for full-time work in higher education.

Goldsmiths taught me the importance of collaborative and active learning, and I enthusiastically bring this into my work. Creating a safe space in each room for every student while encouraging exploration of pre-conceived ideas about theatre and holding individual voices with equal weight is only something I could've learned from the Faculty and my fellows at Goldsmiths.

Additionally, Goldsmiths provided tools to be an agent of change in difficult and divisive times, to free myself from the importance of product-based work, to embrace process, and approach each new theatrical venture with passion, awareness and consideration.

The MA Performance Making taught me to think conceptually, question my creative choices and develop a performance that subverts the audience's expectations. My fellow students were from across the globe and had varying interests; ranging from scripted theatre, dance, film and performance art. This diversity made for wildly interesting interdisciplinary collaborations.

Shortly after graduating, I was appointed as Lecturer in Theatre and Performance at Regent's University London. I have been involved in practice-based research in Martial Acting where I explored how an actor embodies presence through the use of Zulu and Maori dance forms. I have also developed methods of teaching acting for motion and performance capture, using puppetry techniques. Currently, I am developing a performance piece called '00:00 (Zero Hour)' that encapsulates what had inspired me at Goldsmiths - a performance that has a strong scenographic influence is metaphoric and transformative.

In 2018 and the summer of 2019, I have been working with Regent's University Alumni and current students on a devised piece entitled '00:00 (Zero Hour)'. The work was first performed at the 'From the Forest Festival' (2018) and is currently undergoing a period of research and development. This research applies my thinking around metaphor, transformation and scenography in performance. From this work, I also designed and wrote three new Regent's University university modules for the BA (Hons) Acting for Stage & Screen.

The Performance Making programme was very hands-on, which meant I had to learn about physical performance, endurance, collaborative processes, leadership, lighting and stage design, video editing, and more. These skills have enabled me to execute my visions and dreams. Set in a multicultural part of London, I felt more at home that I would have in a more central and less diverse neighbourhood/environment. For the one year I spent at Goldsmiths, I was not only a student, but I was also living and breathing art and performance in and outside of university life. Some of the people I met at Goldsmiths are now my best friends.

My journey since moving to London, and since graduating from Goldsmiths, has been wild to say the least. It was through sheer stubbornness and determination that I am where I am today. I nearly gave up so many times. I was born in New Jersey, USA, to asylum-seeking parents who fled the Lebanese Civil War. In 1993, as soon as the war ended, my mother decided to move my sister and myself to Lebanon. Her decision would alter the rest of my life. Growing up in my ancestral land, I lived a reality that I otherwise would have been too privileged to understand. Yet it felt small, homogenous, reeling with post-war trauma, and stifling. Various life circumstances - some too personal to discuss - made me angry and suffocated. I chose London on the basis that I knew it was a melting pot of cultures, languages, art forms, theatre, and music, but it was far enough from both Lebanon and New Jersey that it might allow me to find my own voice through the confusion and internalised ideas of 'displacement'.

During my time at Goldsmiths, I met many young people from all over the world. Few had a life story similar to mine, but all were on their own journey of discovery. In itself, this felt like a community: belonging nowhere else, we belonged together'.