Category: Events

Performance, Possession & Automation Conversations

Performance, Possession & Automation – a collaborative research project led by Nick Ridout and Orlagh Woods, in collaboration with Joe Kelleher, Fiona Templeton and Simon Vincenzi – invites you to three online conversations.

Automation & Cultural Production

17 July, 6-8pm (BST)

Online

Seb Franklin and Annie McClanahan join Nick Ridout for a conversation about automation and cultural production.


Instead of imagining a future in which our lives are managed for us by robots or AI, it may be time to think instead about how automation is already deeply embedded in our everyday lives. Automation is not replacing human beings, but it may be changing how we work and act, and how we think and feel about ourselves and other people. 


Click here, to book your place and for further information.

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/automation-cultural-production-tickets-111014990826

Possession & Performance

24 July, 6-8 pm (BST)

Online

Paul C. Johnson and Rebecca Schneider join Nick Ridout for a conversation about possession and performance. 


What if possession is a totally modern idea? Could it be a way for people who live modern lives in a supposedly secular culture to describe modes of being that don’t fit with their ideas of what it is to be yourself? How does performance help us think about possession? Are performance and possession both ways of becoming an automated or programmed self? 

Click here, to book your place and for further information.

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/possession-performance-tickets-111141593498

Possession & Subjectivity

31 July, 6-8 pm (BST)

Online

Kyla Wazana Tompkins and Roberto Strongman join Nick Ridout for a conversation about possession and subjectivity.

Might possession and other experiences in which people seem to lose control of themselves – like intoxication or narcosis – expand our understanding of what it means to be a subject, beyond the bounded subjectivity assumed and promoted in so-called ‘Enlightenment’ thought? Do subjects always and everywhere have to fit neatly into bodies?

Click here to book your place and for further information.

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/possession-subjectivity-tickets-112942568262

Performance, Possession & Automation is a research project exploring automation and possession as two ways of thinking about what happens to human subjects who act in ways that they do not themselves fully control. How can making and thinking about performance contribute to thinking about these ideas?

This project is supported through the Collaborations Fund of the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences and The Centre for Public Engagement, Queen Mary University of London in partnership with Fierce Festival and Hampstead Theatre.

Anərkē Shakespeare and Queen Mary’s Centre for Global Shakespeares presents Shakespeare’s Macbeth in Stratford-upon-Avon and London

Anərkē Shakespeare’s candlelit production of Macbeth premieres at The Holy Trinity Church, Stratford-upon-Avon, Shakespeare’s burial place, and then tours to London for a very limited run at St Leonard’s Church, Shoreditch, the burial site of Shakespeare’s main actor, Richard Burbage.

Anərkē Shakespeare is an innovative theatre company that combines scholarship and creative practice inspired by the working conditions in which Shakespeare conceived his plays. Shakespeare’s “myriad minded” texts are brought to life by a diverse, gender-blind, actor-led ensemble, in an intensively short rehearsal period, without a director.

Stratford-upon-Avon Run

  • Show Details:
  • Stratford location: Church of the Holy Trinity, Old Town, Stratford-upon-Avon CV37 6BG
  • Date: 7th, 9th, 10, 11th March 2020
  • Time: 7:00pm
  • Price: £10
  • Duration: 100 mins

Tickets at the door or online at: https://www.stratford-upon-avon.org/

London Run

  • London location: St Leonard’s Church, 119 Shoreditch High Street, Hackney, London E1 6JN
  • Date: 13th – 14th March 2020
  • Time: Friday 13th March 2:00pm, Saturday 14th March 2:00pm and 7:30pm
  • Price: £12
  • Duration: 100 mins
  • Tickets at the door or online at: https://www.ticketsource.co.uk/macbeth

Praise for Anərkē Shakespeare;

“The best Shakespeare performance that I have seen for years!!” – audience response

“The lack of fuss about mimetic casting … cleared the way for the play to shine radiantly through.” – Professor Michael Dobson, Shakespeare Institute

“The production made questions of ethnicity completely irrelevant … benefited hugely from the experience and authority of its multiracial cast.” – Professor Tony Howard, University of Warwick

“A feast of fine acting, and a revelatory X-ray of the structure of the play.“ – Professor Richard Wilson, Kingston University

Contact details for Anərkē Shakespeare:

Four Eye-Opening Careers Events in February 2020

Please note for all links you need to be logged in to Target Connect.

More info here

Routes into Teaching – Tuesday 11th February, 18:00-20:00

Keen to explore a career in teaching but unsure of the route to take? Join us for an exciting panel featuring multiple teaching providers. This event will give you the opportunity to hear from recent graduates, recruitment staff and senior staff who will tell you about their training programs, recruitment processes, the types of opportunities available and what it’s like to work for them. There will be an opportunity for informal networking and Q&A with the representatives.
Confirmed providers include:
Ark Teacher Training
Department of Education – Train to Teach
Burnt Mill Academy Trust
St Mary’s University
Teach First
The Thinking Schools Academy Trust

Book here

Looking for an LGBT+ friendly employer – Wednesday 12th February, 16:00-18:00

Looking for an LGBT+ friendly employer, not sure where to begin? Join us as part of the Students’ Union LGBT+ History Month and ahead of the Pride Careers Fair to find out the key aspects to look for when searching for the right employer to begin your career journey. Hear from a panel who will give invaluable advice and talk about their personal experiences.

Topics will include:

How to identify a supportive employer
How to come out at work and the benefits
How to build a network
What LGBT+ students have to offer

We’ll be hearing from:

Triona Desmond – lesbian co-parent and Senior Chartered Trade Mark Attorney at Pinsent Masons LLP. 
Sal Morton (he/they) – a queer artsperson and senior researcher and content writer for career guide Chambers Student.
Daniel Nasr – diversity & inclusion specialist for the charity and international development sectors, currently leading on Unicef’s inclusion strategy in the U.K.
Dr Lipi Begum– senior fashion and sustainability lecturer and researcher for the University of the Arts London.
Kenneth Pritchard – gay public affairs and strategic communications professional for the Post Office.

Timings for the event will be as follows:
16:00-17:00 Panel conversation
17:00-17:30 Audience Q&A
17:30-18:00 Chit chat

Book here or just turn up on the day

Media Summit – Wednesday 19th February, 17:00-19:00

Interested in the Media sector? Journalism? Publishing? Theatre? Radio? Join us to explore a variety of industries and roles. Learn why these roles are realistic to pursue and how to secure a position in your chosen sector. You will hear from professionals who will talk about their personal experience of the sector and give you top tips along the way! Come prepared with some questions and be ready to do some valuable networking.

Confirmed representatives include (with more to follow!):

Senior Editorial Manager, Penguin Random House

Radio presenter at the BBC
Head of Content for Riviera Maritime Media
Head of Strategy and Planning at Liberty Communications
Theatre Manager at Ambassador Theatre Group

Book here

Why Big Business is Interested in Humanities Students! – Thursday 20th February, 16:00-17:15

PriceWaterhouse Coopers (PwC) is a global professional services firm operating in 157 countries and employing 276,000 staff in 100s of different roles advising businesses on  areas including audit, tax, legal, consultancy, climate change, human resources, risk, deals and many more.  They are really interested in employing graduates studying Humanities and in fact already do employ a number of QM Humanities alumni.

Ashley O’Connell, a recruiter at PwC, is coming to talk about why a global business such as PwC is interested in you, what skills do you have that are valuable to a business like theirs, what kind of opportunities exist, why these are good roles for Humanities students, what they look for in students, what kind of activities they value that you get involved in and how Humanities students can do well in recruitment.

Ashley is flying over from the Channel Islands and will talk about opportunities in both London and the Channel Islands including, graduate jobs, summer internships and insight programmes.  N.B. There are still vacancies for 2020 graduates to start in the Channel Islands this summer.

If you are curious as to what you have to offer a big business operating in any sector, this is a great chance to understand how to market your degree in a way that makes you relevant and to get top tips and insights from a business recruiter.  

Book here

London’s Theatre of the East Exhibition and November Events at Dr Johnson’s House featuring our students, Jerry Brotton and Pen Woods

Our very own Jerry Brotton has been working with Dr Johnson’s House as they present a series of events including a round table discussion about the exhibition and a dramatic reading of Irene by our Drama students.

read more and book tickets for ticketed events

London’s Theatre of the East – Meet the Artists

Saturday 9 November from 2 – 5pm

Visit for free to see our upcoming exhibition, London’s Theatre of the East and get a chance to meet the artists whose work is on display at the House. Explore all four floors of Dr Johnson’s House and discuss with our artists their varying responses to the theme of London’s links to the Middle East and North Africa over the past 500 years. You can read more about our exhibition here.

There’s no need to book, just turn up on the day!

Ottoman Empire map end of section: Roundtable Discussion

Thursday 14 November 7pm (Doors open at 6.30pm)

Join us for a roundtable discussion between the artists featured in our upcoming exhibition, London’s Theatre of the East, organised in collaboration with The Arab British Centre. Playwright Hannah Khalil, novelist Saeida Rouass, documentary photographer Lena Naassana and textile designer Nour Hage will join Dr Jerry Brotton, author of This Orient Isle, and the Donald Hyde Curator of Dr Johnson’s House for a discussion on how each artist approached and responded to the theme of the historical connections of the Middle East and North Africa with London, via the lens of Dr Johnson’s 1749 play, Irene, set during the fall of Constantinople in 1453.

Tickets £12 – includes a complimentary glass of wine

London’s Theatre of the East – Late night opening

Tuesday 19 November 6pm – 8pm (last entry at 7.30pm)

A rare opportunity to explore the Dr Johnson’s House at twilight and see all four floors of the museum, plus our upcoming exhibition for free.

You’ll also have a chance to meet the artists featured in London’s Theatre of the East in an informal setting and to discuss their exhibits with them, which are their responses to Johnson’s 1749 play Irene and their research into the connections between the Middle East, North Africa and London.

There’s no need to book, just turn up on the night!

Irene at Dr Johnson’s House

Thursday 21 November 7pm (Doors open at 6.30)

When Irene premiered at the Theatre Royal in Drury Lane in February 1749 it ran for a respectable but underwhelming nine nights. Johnson regarded it as a failure, as did James Boswell, who claimed his friend ‘had not the faculty of producing the impressions of tragedy’. But the time has come to revisit Johnson’s neglected play – join us in the home he was living in while Irene was originally staged for the first public performance of Johnson’s play in 270 years!

This dramatic reading of Irene will be performed by the students from the English and Drama department of Queen Mary University London, under the direction of Dr Penelope Woods, Lecturer in Drama, with the advice of Professor Lois Potter, author of The Life of William Shakespeare, A Critical Biography,and Professor Emerita, University of Delaware.

Tickets £12 – includes a complimentary glass of wine

Unmissable English and Drama events in Semester 1 19/20

We have ground-breaking events galore in our first semester of the 2019/20 year. Please do join us for collaborations with Southall Black Sisters, The Guardian and many more in-house events.

Don’t forget to follow our research seminars English Postgraduate Research Seminar, QUORUM Drama Seminar and Queen Mary Centre for Eighteenth Century Studies for more events.

follow us on instagram for reminders

Monday 21 October

PANEL DISCUSSION: The Postcolonial Novel of Ideas


Jeanne-Marie Jackson-Awotwi (Johns Hopkins) & Rashmi Varma (Warwick)
Chair: Andrew van der Vlies (QMUL) present a panel discussion on ‘The Postcolonial Novel of Ideas’.

See more events in this series

Wednesday 23 October

Shattering the Glass Ceiling

Come and hear from leading Guardian journalists about the intersections of race, class and gender and how they impact careers in the media.

Thursday 31 October

Halloween Party with Daniel Oliver – BOOK Launch and Lo-fi Relaxed Rong Table Discussion

The event will include: discounted copies of the book, a chance to discuss its core topics (neurodiversity, awkwardness, audience participation) using Daniel’s clunkily conceived Rong Table format and due to the date, fully non-commital/over-committed Halloween dress code will be optional.

book a free ticket

Friday 8 November

Reimagining Britain: Curating, Performing, Publishing, Reading

This one-day symposium will host a series of discussions about the current climate for artistic and cultural production in Britain. The four thematic strands are on English literature (in particular school and university curricula design), publishing, curating and performing. The event brings together experts and practitioners who will share their experience of how these areas of the arts may or may not be changing, especially given ongoing agendas around inclusivity, diversity and ‘decolonising’.

Speakers include: Aditi Anand, Charlie Brinkhurst-Cuff, Natasha Bucknor, Elizabeth Cooper, Corinne Fowler, Rachael Gilmour, Nadia Yahya Hafedh, Anthony Joseph, Danuta Kean, Madhu Krishnan, Sharmaine Lovegrove, Malachi McIntosh, Rachael Minott and Jeremy Poynting.

Discover more events in the Wasafiri 35 series here

book a free ticket

Tuesday 12 November

The Sexual Cultures Research Group at QMUL: Saleem Haddad

Saleem Haddad was born in Kuwait City to an Iraqi-German mother and a Palestinian-Lebanese father. His first novel, Guapa, published in 2016, was awarded a Stonewall Honour and won the 2017 Polari First Book Prize. His short stories have been published in a number of anthologies, including most recently in the Palestinian science fiction anthology “Palestine +100”. Haddad was also selected as one of the top 100 Global Thinkers of 2016 by Foreign Policy Magazine. His directorial debut, Marco, premiered in March 2019 and was nominated for the Iris Prize for Best British Short. He is currently based in Lisbon.

Saleem will be in conversation with Nadia Atia (QMUL). There will be an opportunity to buy copies of Guapa, which Saleem is happy to sign on the day.

Tickets are free, but booking is essential.

book a free ticket

Saturday 16 November

East Side Story

East meets west in this high octane dance-off with two titans from the dance world, IMD and Bolly Flex. This show fuses hip hop and Bollywood in four acts, The Greatest Bollywood Showman, The Real Avengers of the UK, The History of Hip Hop and Romeo and Juliet Remixed! Check out glittering examples of cinema’s great dance moves with breath-taking agility and dynamism at Queen Mary’s Great Hall. These tributes and stories use acrobatics and physical theatre and provide the perfect homecoming for both IMD’s Omar Ansah-Awuah and Bolly Flex’s Naz Choudhury to return to their east London roots. Special guest appearances will help ignite this energetic dance spectacular as a reminder that commonalities and differences between cultures can be celebrated in the most exhilarating ways!

book tickets

Saturday 30 November

Turning the Page: Book Launch with Southall Black Sisters

A literary conversation between two groups of BAME women – published writers responding creatively to the stories of the SBS support group.

Launching an anthology of writings, Turning the Page, by the SBS Survivors’ Group

Southall Black Sisters ends its 40th anniversary year with a unique evening, crowning a year- long series of events to celebrate its survival and reflect on its history. The anthology represents an intimate engagement, a two-way literary conversation, between established writers and emotionally vulnerable women who have found relief in writing about their troubled lives.

The survivors’ group at Southall Black Sisters have spent six months writing their stories in the company of Rahila Gupta.

Jackie Kay, Moniza Alvi, Meena Kandasamy, Miss Yankey and Rahila Gupta have written new work in response to the stories written by the SBS women. Their new work will be published in the book and they will read from this and other work alongside the SBS women. Imtiaz Dharker will also be performing at this event.

Be uplifted! Break your hearts and recommit yourself to the cause during the 16 days of activism against violence against women.

get £10 student tickets

Did we miss any events? Leave a comment below…

School of English and Drama Takeover at the Edinburgh Fringe 2019

Lots of our students, alumni and staff use the Edinburgh Fringe to showcase and critique new performance work.

Queen Mary Theatre Company

This year QMTC have four shows heading up to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. Here’s the blurb for all of the shows…

Auto-Nation by Cindy Kim

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?

If I Die On Mars by Clarice Montero

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.

At This Stage by Megan Young

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?

Rock’n’Roll Girls by Rachel Jermy and Ellie Calnan

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.

Alumni at the Fringe

Just These Please

Georgie Jones is part of this highly acclaimed sketch troupe who are performing their new show ‘Suitable’ at the fringe.

The Cat’s The Thing

Marissa Landy is taking her comedy based on the reality of living with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder to the Space @ Surgeon’s Hall.

I, Am Dram

Hannah Maxwell channels her inner am dram in her new show at the fringe.

Sh!t Theatre Drink Rum with Expats

‘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. ‘

Kayla MacQuarrie: Traumatised

‘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.

Check out their list of shows

The Sick of the Fringe: Lewis Church will be covering shows which deal with health at the fringe. Follow @TSOTF for the latest.

To Do List: Rupert Dannreuther from the admin team is a blogger with a mission to bring the offbeat underdogs to the fore at this year’s fringe.

Check out their 50 Unmissable shows list

Did we miss a show? Leave a comment…

4 Unmissable Summer Events in the School of English and Drama

We’re not going anywhere this summer.

Join us for a London staycation full of sizzling summer events in the School of English and Drama at Queen Mary University of London.

Power at Play: responding to Pilot Theatre’s production of Noughts & Crosses (22 May, QMUL):

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).

Show and Tell at All Points East (28 May, Free Festival in Victoria Park, Mile End):

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

Open Days (21-22 June, QMUL)

Never been to our campus? Get a feel for the place and get tours and more information from our support departments. Book here

Gothic, Sci-Fi or Fable: Reading Frankenstein then and now – English A-Level Debate (27 June, QMUL)

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!

MA Live Art student Şenay Camgöz to present her film HALA at the V&A

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. 

Find out more about the event

Martin O’Brien, Dominic Johnson, Shahidha Bari and our MA Live Art students live at V&A Friday Late on Friday 26 April 2019

The next Victoria and Albert Museum free Friday Late event is around the idea of the art school and raises the question: ‘Do they still have the space to break rules and challenge the status quo? ‘

Our staff will join the Live Art Development Agency to host an event talking about what it is to teach radical art practice.

Taking our MA Live Art Martin O’Brien, Dominic Johnson and guests will discuss the way in which the programme runs and provides an alternative arts education.

Plus our very own Shahidha Bari will be part of a panel discussing decolonising art schools and education led by AZEEMA.

See below for details of the event.

see more about v&A’s friday late

Events infomation

Live Art and Education

Learning Centre, Seminar Room 5

19.30

In this conversation, Martin O’Brien, Dominic Johnsonand the Live Art Development Agencydiscuss Live Art within academic institutions and what it means to teach a radical arts practice. They focus on the way in which the MA Live Art at Queen Mary UniversityofLondon and the Live Art Development Agencyteach Live Art, opening up wider questions around educationand experimental arts practices.

AZEEMA: Anti-Art School: on decolonisation and identity

The Raphael Cartoons

20.15

Discuss decolonising art schools and education in this panel talk led by AZEEMA. Joining them to explore themes of identity, inclusivity and personal experiences are Shahidha Bari, Danah Abdulla, Jannat Hussein and Shades of Noir. @azeemamag azeemamag.com

Action Lab

Learning Centre, Seminar Room 5

From 20.30

Please note, these performances contain nudity and sensitive material

Join the QMUL/LADA MA Live Art students as they perform actions in response to the spaces and collections at the V&A. Experience an exhibition of separate durational performances, sharing a space with one anothe

download the full programme

DIY LIFE SKILLS 2019 – Grow your creative skills with free workshops

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.

Sadly you missed

#1: MAKE POSTERS THAT POP: Graphics for CV, Instagram & Websites using Photoshop + Indesign

Monday 20 May 2019

11-3pm – Intermediate

3-6pm – Beginners

Take your poster out of word and create stunning visuals for social media headers and print posters.

BOOK NOW

#2: TAKE GREAT PIX: Digital Photography 101 – DSLR with Holly Revell

Wednesday 22 May 2019

2-5pm: Intermediate DSLR

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.

#4: DON’T USE WIX: Make a self-hosted WordPress website

Wednesday 22 May 2019

RR2

9am-2pm

WordPress is a professional platform for creating websites and blogs, forget clunky paid for services like Wix and get familiar with customising your site.

#5: INSTAWERK: Social Media & Online Networking

Wednesday 29 May 2019 / 6-8pm

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.

#7: SHOW YOUR SKILLS: Portfolios, Showreels and Video CV

Wednesday 12 June 2019 / 4-6pm

Stand out from the crowd with a video CV or online portfolio.

BOOK NOW

#6: CAROLINE THE CV WIZARD: CV Clinic

Wednesday 5 June 2019 / 4-6pm

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.

#8: CONFIDENCE BOOSTER: Presentations, Verbal Communication

Monday 17 June 2019 / 6-8pm

Hate speaking in public? Build your confidence with this interactive workshop aiming to enhance your communication competence.

#9: 1-2-1 CAREER PLANNING MEETINGS

Tuesday 25-Wednesday 26 June 2019 / Various appointment times

Book a 1-2-1 appointment to get a bespoke plan for your needs.

#10: GETTING PAID/TAX: How to freelance, get paid and pay tax (And avoid fines!)

Wednesday 3 July 2019 / 4-6pm

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

Daniel Oliver, Lois Weaver and Martin O’Brien to appear at The Sick of the Fringe 2019

Our Drama staff are hitting The Sick of the Fringe festvial this weekend with their performance and conversations on topics around arts and health.

The Sick of the Fringe | Wellcome Collection | 5-7 April 2019

Read more about their appearances below…

Frauke Requardt and Daniel Oliver Dadders – 6 Apr

Performance

An interactive performance for 5 people at a time. Audience-participants are invited to join Daniel and Frauke in a series of awkwardly intimate and strange actions, rituals, dances, games, and other dysfunctional activities brought back in time from a post-neurodivergent revolution family fun-time future. 

Daniel is dyspraxic and is too slow. Frauke has ADHD and is too quick. They are married and have kids. This interactive performance is rooted in their experiences of their bodies as neurodivergent lovers, parents, and weirdo performance makers. It is a space in which clunky experiences of bodies and actions can be discussed, explored and ultimately celebrated through ritualisation and play. 

Frauke Requardt and Daniel Oliver The Rong Table –6 Apr

Discussion

Frauke and Daniel invite audiences to explore these themes through conversation events that use Daniel’s ‘Rong Table‘ set-up. ‘Rong Tables’ are events for exploring and discussing the key themes of the performance. They are a development of Lois Weaver’s ‘Long Tables’, in which the audiences are invited to take part in a discussion by leaving their audience seats, and sitting at a large table. Daniel has been regularly using this format to discuss neurodiversity and art over the past three years. . Recently he has been experimenting with adding different elements and bending the rules in order to create a space that is more accessible, diverse and engaging for a broad range of neurodivergent audiences. This means the table is no longer the only place to talk, getting rid of the audience/participant divide, allowing for smaller, more discreet conversations to happen around the space, and for more ways of expressing thoughts to be offered.

For Dadderrs, the Rong Table is something modelled on a chaotic family dinner time rather than a more formal grown-up dinner party. Alongside den-building, and playing with dressing-up, there would also be the opportunity to make objects out of Lego – a prop used in Dadderrs – to explore and express ideas related to the themes of the performance.

Lois Weaver The Situation Room  – 6 Apr

Performance

The Situation Room is a format for public discussion created by Lois Weaver that combines theatricality and informal conversation and encourages us to think about the interdependencies of anxiety and desire. It’s inspired by the War Room in Stanley Kubrick’s 1964 film, Dr. Strangelove, or, How I Learnt To Stop Worrying And Love The Bomb where a group of people sit around a circle of tables and hold a discussion that is moderated by a ‘President’ and monitored by ‘General’ who reminds us we are ‘running out of time.’

In The Situation Room, members of the audience will be invited to form a Council determined by loosely held affinities: a Council of Elders, an Intergenerational Council, a Council of Queers or Intersectional Feminists; a Council of Agnostics or A-politicals. They are invited to the table to share what is worrying them, from the personal to the geopolitical; to discuss, listen, and then reach a consensus on a single topic of conversation- the ‘Situation’, and finally to consider their desires, ambitions and fantasies as playful and creative solutions to the issue at hand.

Martin O’Brien – Who Cries Wins

Discussion

This discussion event questions if there is an increase in artists identifying closely, and leading with, their own histories of trauma and/or painful autobiography. To what extent is this true, and if true, what may have instigated this?

As festivals, live platforms and opportunities begin to focus on the support of these current questions and seeking out artists’ trauma, we pose the question now: what is the tense line between raising visibility and exploitation. Additionally, another consideration: Is there such a thing as competitive trauma?

This is a public discussion hosted and facilitated by performance artist and scholar Martin O’Brien, with contributions from artists in the Care & Destruction programme.

Get tickets for ‘unDISTURBED’ at Royal Albert Hall co-produced by Drama student Francesca Kamil

We caught up with BA (Hons) Drama student Francesca Kamil and Royal Albert Hall Young Producer to talk about their new unDISTURBED events series.

get more information and book tickets

Here’s what she told us…

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)

Summer School 2019: Apply now for our ‘London Performance: Past and Present’ & ‘Global Shakespeare’ Courses

The QMUL Summer School offers you the opportunity to discover what it’s like to study at a top British university, while living in one of the coolest parts of London.

FIND OUT MORE

Global Shakespeare

22 July – 9 August 2019

How and why are Shakespeare’s plays performed, filmed, read and taught from China to Chile, from Singapore to South Africa? What makes Shakespeare a “global” force?  Shakespeare’s plays display the vast panoply of human desires and emotions: from passionate love to bewildering fear, from unswerving loyalty to basest envy, from the noblest instances of self-sacrifice to the desire to inflict unspeakable pain. His depictions of these emotions are often shocking in their vividness, yet always recognisable as fundamental facets of human experience. This course will look at Shakespeare’s afterlives in different parts of the world, and include hands-on workshops in which we will try out different possible ways of interpreting “global” plays like Antony and Cleopatra.

apply now

London Performance Past and Present

22 July – 9 August 2019

This module draws on London’s rich theatre and performance history, and the wide-ranging opportunities the city offers to engage with historical and contemporary theatre and performance. It explores how historical, social, cultural and architectural contexts produce meaning through theatre and performance. It introduces you to a range of ways of analysing plays and performances in relation to the conditions in which they were created.  We will cover a range of historical periods and genres including, for example,  Shakespeare and his contemporaries, eighteenth and nineteenth-century theatre, contemporary theatre, and performance beyond the literary play text (e.g. Live Art and performance art, club and pub performance, performance in galleries, sound walks). The module includes regular field trips to performances and other relevant locations.

apply now

STUDENT STRESS BUSTER FAIR – Tuesday 26 March 2019 in ArtsOne

Brexit may be dividing our country but next week ArtsOne schools are uniting for a STUDENT STRESS BUSTER FAIR.

All students are welcome but particularly third years.

Tuesday 26 March 2019 – ArtsOne Foyer – 11am-2pm – Free, no booking required

  • School of Politics and International Relations, School of English and Drama and the School of Languages, Linguistics and Film will be hosting an Arts One Student Stress Buster fair on Tuesday, 26th March from 11am-2pm in the foyer of Arts One.
  • Come and meet staff and get information on QMUL support services, mental and emotional health, careers counselling and well being activities.
  • Talk to staff about  concerns you may have about exams or dissertations and give us your views and ideas on how QMUL can improve support for students.
  • Freebies include fruit/donuts/anti-stress balls and mini plants.

No need to book, just pop by our information stand.

Drama Graduate Emily Howarth presents her new show Dumped in 2019

We’re excited to share news about Emily Howarth who graduated from our BA Drama programme in 2016.

Her new show dumped has just dropped some dates for 2019:

About the show

‘A one woman, musical, comedy shit-storm about the first time your heart gets smashed into a million tiny pieces, and the songs that make you feel less alone with your crazy, crazy break-up feelings. Part stand-up, part music performance and part emotional unraveling, ‘Dumped’ is about surviving through song.’

Emily says:

‘This show unpacks the beautiful, pathetic and empowering break-up song genre, highlighting the good, bad and the most pitiful. The concept centres around tapping into the experience of rejection through the close dissection of break-up songs. I interweave music analysis and anecdotal material with live song covers accompanied by my badass electric ukulele.’

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