On the verge of a natural disaster, a prison guard is called into work and discovers a newcomer to the team – an Artificial Intelligence named Sally. When the city is evacuated, what happens to the prisoners?
The final 24 candidates for The Mars Mission Programme have been observed for a month by the public in a reality TV show designed to choose the final four. The public have voted and the candidates are about to be sent off to Mars with no hope of return… as soon as the final confirmation is granted.
Have you ever loved a show so much that you wished you could kidnap all the actors, keep them in your basement and get them to perform it again for you? No? Just Rupert?
Lola, Eleanor Rigby, Brown Sugar, Roxanne, and Monica – you may know their names, you may even remember singing them in the shower or at a party. What you probably don’t know is their stories. Neither do they, but they’re trying to figure it out.
‘Celebrating their final year as Europeans, island monkeys Becca and Louise got invited to the 2018 European Capital of Culture in Malta. Lads on tour…Sh!t Theatre went to drink rum with Brits abroad but found mystery and murder in the fight to be European. Here it is, another excuse for the multi award-winning Sh!t Theatre to get drunk on stage. ‘
‘From an Essex-based, sad, weird kid to a less sad, trans, lesbian loudmouth. She’s grown up, gotten hurt and she’s still here and ready to share in her debut hour. Winner of the Best Comedy Show Award at the Brewery Fringe Festival.’
Criticism and Insight
Bechdel Theatre: BT talk gender and representation on stage and list shows that pass the Bechdel Test.
Join us for a FREE Noughts & Crosses (Malorie Blackman) panel event that asks questions like: ‘What wider questions does this production raise about drama and power? How is drama power for you?’. Join Esther Richardson (Director of Noughts & Crosses) and cast members, Drama academics and students from Queen Mary University of London to discuss and explore the powers of Drama. Book here
The panel includes: Heather Agyepong (Sephie, Noughts and Crosses), Esther Richardson (director, Noughts and Crosses), Gail Babb (QMUL and Goldsmiths lecturer and theatre producer, Talawa), Avaes Mohammed (poet, playwright, performer), Dee Ndlovu (QMUL Drama student and theatre maker).
Join us for inspiring mini talks in the park at this free festival which has top street food, stalls and free activities.
Our line up talking about studying and working in the creative industries includes comedian Ahir Shah (BBC3, Live at the Apollo), writer Ayisha Malik, Masterchef winner Natalie Coleman and more pictured above. RSVP here
Is your English teacher always telling you to refer to
literary and historical context but you’re unsure what this looks like in
practice? Have you heard that there are theoretical and philosophical
approaches to texts but aren’t confident using them yourself? Do you wish you
knew more about the Gothic genre and how this could link to more contemporary
genres, such as Science Fiction?
Three outstanding academics, from Queen Mary’s School of
English and Drama, are here to help.
An expert in the body and technology in contemporary
culture, Zara Dinnen, a specialist in the Gothic across the nineteenth century,
Sam Halliday, and an expert in Romanticism with interests in theory and
philosophy, Shahidha Bari, will be unpicking issues around context, theory,
genre and ‘Frankenstein’. They will share their expertise on context, theory
and genre, to unpack how the text could have been received then and how readers
receive it now. They will discuss different frameworks that can be used to
interpret this seminal text, and demonstrate to you what it looks like to apply
those frameworks in practice.
You will leave this event with a better sense of how to
use literary and historical context to develop your analysis of this text; and
you will leave knowing what it would be like to study English at Queen Mary,
where diversity of ideas is at the heart of what we do.
It promises to be the type of lively and engaging
discussion our School of English and Drama is known for!
Queen Mary has just subscribed to online support service Big White Wall. It’s available for students and staff 24/7 and there are trained professionals on the platform who can help.
If you have a mental health condition, it is important that you register with a doctor so you can access the necessary support and medicine you may need. In order to ensure that you access all the support you need during your studies, please also make an appointment (preferably before the start of your studies) with the Mental Health Coordinator to discuss what can be put in place for you. Email dds@qmul.ac.uk or call 020 7882 2756.
If you’re in crisis or just need to know where to go next please come and talk to trained Mental Health First Aiders. In the School of English and Drama there are lots of us including Rupert Dannreuther and Suzi Lewis in the School office.
The Crown Jewels Festival is two days of exciting new performance
by final year Drama students at QMUL. Over the last five months, the
artists have been leading their own independent and group practice based
research projects. Their hard work in the studio has investigated a wide range
of topics from explorations of body and identity politics, to pushing the
form of durational performance, to using soap in performance and much, much more.
Come and join us at Chats Palace on 16th and 17th May to see some new
performance!
Follow us on social media! We will release a link to book tickets
for the festival soon. Admission is free, but book to reserve a space!
Pictured above: Our MA Live Art cohort and staff took over the Victoria and Albert Museum on for V&A Friday Late on Friday 26 April. Photo credit: Hydar Dewachi.
We’re launching a programme of 10 unmissable workshops to help you develop your skills to work in the creative and cultural industries. The creative skills project formerly known as DIY HIGH SCHOOL is back for 2019 as DIY LIFE SKILLS.
DIY LIFE SKILLS gives our Queen Mary University of London students and our community vital extra practical skills for working in the creative and cultural industries. These include making videos, photography, tax, CVs, public speaking, social media for work and WordPress/blogging. The workshops are free for our students and our local community.See the programme
May Listings
Identify: A research network for neurodivergent students – second meeting Fri 3 May | Room 2.18, ArtsTwo, QMUL, Mile End
Identify is a postgraduate study group that will meet regularly to build a research cohort within SED. Participants identify as having Specific Learning Difficulties (SpLD), including dyslexia, dyspraxia and other neurodivergent ways of being that impact our study patterns, academic activities, and research outputs.
Their second meeting will be held on Friday 3rd May from 4-6pm in room 2.18, Arts Two. All are welcome. If anyone requires directions or wants to get in touch for more information, they’re welcome to email John Dunn on j.l.o.dunn@qmul.ac.uk.
Queen Mary Centre for Religion and Literature in English Seminar Wed 8 May, 1pm | Room 2.17, ArtsTwo, QMUL – Mile End
Mimi Ensley (University of Notre Dame, London Global Gateway) will speak on ‘Meeting Lydgate’s Ghost’.
Drama Futures Wed 8 May, 4.30pm | Theatre Peckham
If you are considering studying drama make sure to book a spot on this. Email c.palmer@qmul.ac.uk
Dr Duckie Sat 11 May, 6.30pm | Royal Vauxhall Tavern
‘Introducing Dr Duckie – aka our very own Ben Walters (Drama department) – in a public explanation ünt examination of his just completed PhD with Queen Mary University of London on Duckie in the Community
It’s about the neo-liberal wobble, the technology of queer fun, and doing family differently.
Aimed at community theatre workers and grass roots performance activists – and random interested punters – it unpacks methods of performance, cabaret and event culture interventions for so-called ‘marginalised’ communities”.
This free talk will explore the history of tea and the performance of its consumption at the Georgian tea-table. Markman Ellis (English department) will examine tea as a commodity, an event and an idea by looking at poems, essays, satires and paintings from the early 1700s. These highlight the event of tea-drinking, its context in the global trade of the East India Company and its construction among high-status women.
All are welcome to attend this insightful lecture on the connections between
Victorian and Modernist authors and writers and queer/feminist reformulations
of gender.
Queen Mary University of London presents Show and Tell a podcast recording of
10 inspiring mini talks from current students and special guests on studying
and working in the creative industries. Discover the insider secrets to working
in the arts, humanities and social sciences and hear young people with
something to say from one of London’s most inclusive universities.
Show and Tell has been running for 2 years at Queen Mary with over 35 speakers
from TV producers, award-winning writers, researchers and journalists inspiring
over 300 people to enter these industries.
At this event, Amy De’Ath and Nisha Ramayya will discuss their current research, sharing a combination of critical writing and poetry. They will consider the overlaps in their work via the concept of reproduction in feminist poetics. Book tickets
The Live Art Development Agency and the Drama Department at Queen Mary University of London present a day of discussions around kickstarting and maintaining a Live Art practice and an opportunity to find out more about the exciting new MA Live Art programme.
In a special addition to its regular programme, the London-Paris Romanticism Seminar has partnered with the Fordham Romanticism Group (New York) and the Royal Institution of Great Britain to hold a half-day symposium on the theme Romanticism at the Royal Institution.
Shahidha Bari (English department) hosted the launch of Queen Mary University of London’s Strategy 2030 at Victoria and Albert Museum on 3 May 2019. See the strategy
Jen Harvie (Drama department) appeared on two BBC broadcast discussions at BBC Free Thinking Festival which you can listen to on iPlayer:
‘The
Emotions of Now’, Sage Gateshead, 29 March 2019, BBC Radio 3, 8 April
2019, 22:00 Listen here
‘The
Actors’ Guide to the Emotions’, St Mary’s Church, Gateshead, 31 March
2019. BBC Radio 3, 7 April 2019, 18:45 Listen here
Gabriel Krauze (English graduate) has got a book deal with
Fourth Estate for a “breath-taking” debut work of autofiction about London
gang-life. Read more
Gem Stokes (English student) is our very first student of the month.
Read our interview with her here.
This is the first in the series where you can meet our students. First up is Gemma who describes herself as…
A 6 foot queer infatuated with gigs, films and literature.
Tell us about your time at QMUL. What have been your highlights?
My first year at Queen Mary has been a whirlwind. I wish my highlights were something cool like a crazy night out or a hilarious experience, but my fondest memories I’ve made are the times spent drinking tea, deep chats in the middle of the night or nerdy conversations about literature with the friends I’ve made here.
How has your course at Queen Mary helped you to progress into the world outside? What’s next?
Focusing on the study of English has made me fall back in love with literature and I’ve felt myself progress more into the literary sphere. In the last year I’ve invested more time in my journalism, writing articles (and finally being brave enough to actually share them). This will likely aid me in developing my future, as I aim to become a foreign news correspondent or music journalist.
Aside from course content what have been your favourite elements of the experience of studying here as a whole?
Coming from a small town to a big city, I’m enjoying the huge LGBTQ+ community here and the inclusive environment that Queen Mary provides.
Tell us about your life outside Queen Mary including any projects, ambitions or jobs you’ve had.
In London, I work as a nanny and back in Kent, as a customer adviser in the food service industry. Although I do not aspire to continue these positions forever, I’m grateful for the opportunities I’ve had. I’ve possessed an interest in journalism for as long as I remember, and currently write monthly articles for a local newsletter, but aspire to progress further in this field and search for new opportunities in this field.
What could be improved to enhance future students’ experience at Queen Mary?
I feel Queen Mary as a university is very active in aiding students’ issues, but I’ve been wanting to campaign about trigger warnings for a while: lectures often bring up triggering/upsetting subject material which I myself am often unprepared for. I wondered if it would be beneficial to other students, as well as myself, to release a general list of common triggers mentioned in each specific lecture to allow students to prepare more adequately whilst dealing with trauma.
Queen Mary students going through a tough time can now access free online support with Big White Wall. Whether you’re struggling to sleep, feeling low, stressed or unable to cope, Big White Wall can help you get support, take control and feel better.
You will have access to a 24/7 online community and professional support
from trained counsellors. Big White Wall provides a safe space online to
get things off your chest, explore your feelings, get creative and learn how to
self-manage your mental health and wellbeing.
Big White Wall is totally anonymous, so no one will know you’ve chosen to use it
unless you tell them!
93% of members feel better as a result of
using the service, and nearly 90% use Big White Wall as an out-of-hours
support.
To join Big White Wall, simply go to www.bigwhitewall.com
and sign up under Queen Mary University of London with your university e-mail
address.
Our MA Live Art student Şenay Camgöz will screen her 6 minute film, ‘Introducing HALA’ at the V&A tomorrow, Thursday 25 April 2019 at 8.30pm following a talk about art school with QMUL’s Dr Dominic Johnson and Dr Martin O’Brien.
The event is free and is part of the museum’s V&A Friday Late series.
Develop your skills to work in the creative and cultural industries with this series of free workshops at Queen Mary University of London. The creative skills project formerly known as DIY HIGH SCHOOL is back for 2019 as DIY LIFE SKILLS.
DIY LIFE SKILLS gives our Queen Mary University of London students and our community vital extra practical skills for working in the creative and cultural industries. These include making videos, photography, tax, CVs, public speaking, social media for work and WordPress/blogging.
DIY LIFE SKILLS is supported by Humanities and Social Sciences at Queen Mary University of London. The workshops are free for our students and our local community.
A picture is said to be worth a 1000 words and this is more true than ever in the age of social media. Join us for an afternoon of photography with DSLR cameras for intermediates. The workshop will include a showcase of Holly Revell’s work and top tips for better performance photography.
#3: VLOG LIKE YOU MEAN IT: Video Production 101
POSTPONED UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE – PLEASE STAY TUNED FOR MORE DETAILS
Work with professional videographers to plan, film and edit a short film in one day with pros from Signature Pictures. The intermediate workshop will look at more advanced editing techniques and film production.
WordPress is a professional platform for creating websites and blogs, forget clunky paid for services like Wix and get familiar with customising your site.
Social media = jobs & opportunities. Ignore it at your cost. This session will cover moving away from using social for well, ‘social’ purposes and look to how these channels can be used to network and make important career connections.
Perfect your key marketing document: work in small groups to improve your CV with the help of Caroline Lisser and her years of challenging students to tailor their CVs for success.
The most boring subjects imaginable live and in 3D. But seriously, tax can be complicated so come and get this guide for beginners to the world of work.
If you have any questions or need help booking please email sed-web@qmul.ac.uk
We are currently accepting late applications for our suite of undergraduate English, Drama and joint courses. Here’s some key points about the application process for 2019:
You can still apply to study English and Drama with us in 2019
The main UCAS deadline has passed but you can still apply to our courses through UCAS.
Our undergraduate Outstanding Potential Award scheme is now closed. Congratulations if you were given the Outstanding Potential Award or other offer with us.
Don’t worry if not or you are worried about your grades we would love to hear from you on results day if you have any questions about your offer.
Our Offer holder Days have now all taken place for 2019 entry.
Missed an Offer Holder Day?
Campus Tours: To get a general tour of the Mile End campus. Book online. Let us know when you’re coming via email: sed-web@qmul.ac.uk and we’ll try to arrange someone from English and Drama to talk to you.
Questions: If you have any questions about your offer or applying please email: sed-admissions@qmul.ac.uk
Results Day and Clearing
A-level results day is Thursday 15 August 2019 and this is when the main clearing and confirmation process begins.
On Wednesday the 27th of March I was part of a
team of nine London-based drama practitioners and students armed with silent
disco headphones, laminated sheets of paper, paper plates, colouring pens and
some ipods who found themselves in an office conference room in Bristol with an
audience of around thirty office workers.
The team represented The Verbatim Formula (TVF), a collaborative participatory arts project founded by Maggie Inchley (Queen Mary University’s Senior Lecturer in Performance) and Sylvan Baker (lecturer at Royal Central School of Speech and Drama). Aiming to ‘make listening visible’, TVF specialises in sharing the stories of young people in (social) care and care leavers, including those in Higher Education.
TVF utilise the method of Headphone Verbatim in which to carry the life experiences and testimonies of young care-experienced people to a variety of audiences, most notably to the authorities that have the power to shape the care and education systems.
On this occasion, TVF were visiting the Office for Students (OfS), a newly formed body responsible for the regulation of Education across England. To put it simply, they are the Ofsted of Universities.
Headphone Verbatim requires a performer to listen to an audio recording of a testimony through headphones while saying what they hear out loud as accurately as possible. It’s a technique that requires focused attention but for those listening to the performer, the experience is very impactful; the performer becomes a vessel through which the idiosyncrasies of the original speaker add an authenticity to the speech.
The technique allows the voice of the care experienced to retain its potency and personality without their physical presence making them a fetish-ised object for the audience. When utilised in business and corporate contexts, this technique can serve to transform young people from numbers into people, hopefully reigniting the urgency and intensity of TVF’s ultimate aim; to improve the lives of the care-experienced.
The event took place during the office workers’ lunch break.
In the space of one hour the TVF team introduced themselves by explaining what
belonging means to them (an important theme from university related
testimonies), encouraged the workers to reflect on their own experiences of
belonging and not belonging (which they wrote down on paper plates) , explained
the aims of TVF, performed over ten testimonies using Headphone Verbatim, and
then allowed the office participants to join the facilitators in a Verbatim
Chorus in which they too got to attempt Headphone Verbatim.
As a third year student it’s great to have been part of this process. Getting to be part of the testimony collection process and to perform with TVF’s amazing team has taught me so much. I’ve wanted to experience the powerful potential of participatory theatre since I started my degree but when I first informed Maggie that I was interested in getting involved with her project I didn’t imagine getting stuck in to something so deeply important so quickly. If this project has taught me anything it’s that: a) Great experiences are only a chat with your lecturer away and b) well intentioned projects like TVF really do have the power to affect change. The expressions of concentration and empathy on the faces of our audience proved just how powerful listening can be.
Queen Mary Theatre Company are looking for new actors and backstage crew for this year’s Edinburgh Fringe trip! The four pieces of new writing cover a wide expanse of contemporary topics, from the first humans on Mars and Artificial Intelligence, to girls in rock songs and … kidnapping? To find out more and how you can audition/get involved, head to our website.
unDisturbed 5-6 April | Royal Albert Hall, South Kensington
BA (Hons) Drama student and Royal Albert Hall Young Producer Francesca Kamil is helping to present new unDISTURBED events series.
Francesca says: ‘Saturday is a celebration of resisting with a collective of fierce Drag Queens with down syndrome, female drum and bass beatbox power from Kimmy Beatbox, Steamdown who jump off the sonic springboard of Afrofuturism, grime and future soul, all fused together with the fearless spontaneity of jazz AMONG OTHER SURPRISES AND DELIGHTS.’
Join our very own performance provocateurs Daniel Oliver, Lois Weaver and Martin O’Brien for a festival of performances and conversations around health, care and social justice.
Catch a preview of Emily’s new show described as: ‘Part stand-up, part music performance and part emotional unraveling, ‘Dumped’ is about surviving through song.’
Queer-feminist Ecocriticism in Live Art & Visual Cultures is a one-day international conference that brings together artists, theorists and activists to cover topics ranging from non-human ethics to ecosexuality.
Image credit: Nadja Verena Marcin, Ophelia (Still 3), 2017. Photo: Marque DeWinter. Courtesy the artist & 532 Gallery Thomas Jaeckel.
If you’re interested in making theatre, social activism and exploring radical new ideas then this taster is for you. You’ll experience both practical and theoretical workshops, led by our academics and hear about the career prospects of Queen Mary Drama graduates.
Identify is a postgraduate study group that will meet regularly to build a research cohort within English and Drama. The group identify as having Specific Learning Difficulties (SpLD), including dyslexia, dyspraxia and other neurodivergent ways of being that impact our study patterns, academic activities, and research outputs.
Their second meeting will be held on Friday 3rd May from 4-6pm in room 2.18, Arts Two. All are welcome. If anyone requires directions or wants to get in touch for more information, they’re welcome to email John Dunn on j.l.o.dunn@qmul.ac.uk.
News
Nadia Atia (English) and Ruby Tuke (English) both won Education Awards for Postgraduate Teaching Champion and Assessment and Feedback Champion respectively. Many other staff members were nominated and shortlisted across multiple categories. Find out more about some of the shortlisted candidates here. Read Nadia’s latest published piece Death and Mourning in Contemporary Iraqi Texts.
Jerry Brotton (English) takes to BBC Radio 3 to go in search of the ancient and very beautiful idea that places music at the centre of our universe: the Harmony of the Spheres. Listen here
Maggie Inchley and the Verbatim Formula team including Clarice Montero (Drama student) have presented to government twice recently on real experiences of the care system to the Minister for Children and the testimonies of current students to the Office for Students.
Network: The QMUL Centre for the Creative and Cultural Economy Get a spring update from the creative industries hub here.
Martin O’Brien (Drama) is featured on a BBC Sounds special called Ouch: Disability Talk: The Artist Who Believes He’s A Zombie Listen here
Nadia Valman (English)’s Brick Lane Traces event projected the history of the East London hotspot at key sites. Pictured above: Roshanara, thought to be the first Bengali woman in Brick Lane in the 1950s, projected on the now derelict Seven Stars pub in Brick Lane, where she liked to hang out. Photograph by Raju Vaidyanathan. From the collaboration with projection artist Karen Crosby.
Lois Weaver (Drama) wins Lois wins The Hawking Award for Developed Understanding of Public Engagement.
This tower of imperialism has let in lil’ old me and others in, and over the last 6 months we’ve set up some events which are really different to their usual programming. These events are called unDISTURBED and taste like fine wine.
The events are all things on Stillness (Fri 5th April) and all things Resistance (Sat 6th April), with a sexy and career helping panel on working with resistance called Making Waves which is only £5. The panel includes a really special drama facilitator working on the front lines in prisons, as well as Gal-dem and Azeema magazine founders and a music therapist.
Rakaya Esime Fetuga
The Friday has an earth ritual in one room from performance collective IntimateAnimals, with ambient music in the other space. Saturday is a celebration of resisting with a collective of fierce Drag Queens with down syndrome, female drum and bass beatbox power from Kimmy Beatbox, Steamdown who jump off the sonic springboard of Afrofuturism, grime and future soul, all fused together with the fearless spontaneity of jazz AMONG OTHER SURPRISES AND DELIGHTS.
Come! It’ll be a lot of fun, buy tickets now and enjoy redefining this space.
(Royal Albert Hall is beautiful and if you’re not from London and have never been it is a MUST-SEE)
