Communications, Drama and Film – Practice Blog
Celebrating the breadth and variety of practical work in the department
Communications, Drama and Film – Practice Blog
Celebrating the breadth and variety of practical work in the department
Posted by jgprimro
6 December 2024It is always wonderful to hear from our MA Theatre Practice alumni who are arts practitioners, educators and researchers around the globe.
In the last weeks, we received some brilliant messages and information about their recent activities:
Millie Sale (MATP 2023-2024) performed in Kelvin Wong’s cross-cultural, intermedial and environmentally sustainable piece Unsilent Mode in September 2024. Details: https://www.unsilentmode.com/
In November 2024, Millie also assisted Giorgia Ciampi in her latest performance The Spiral as part of the inaugural RECLAIM FESTIVAL for women and by women, curated by the Northcott Theatre in Exeter.
More on the festival: https://exeternorthcott.co.uk/get-creative/reclaim-festival/
Mingyou Cai (MATP 2022-2023) has now started his Ph.D. at the University of Malaya, with the topic of Exploring the Adaptation of Traditional Asian Performance into Contemporary Performance.
He shared with us: “This will relate to many creative methods that we have worked together in Exeter, and I am exciting to applying the skills in this new adventure.”
Yuting Cao (MATP 20222-2023) has set up her own theatre & music company, first leading a physical theatre workshop on Meyerhold in the summer. In October 2024, she created a full performance, followed by a workshop, at the invitation of Longcheng Creativity Community (LCC).
The 40-minute piece, Echo of Love, premiered at Longcheng Creativity Community, Shenzhen City, Guangdong Province. Yuting Cao was the writer and director of the piece. Fellow MATP graduate Shiwei Sonia Li (MATP 2022-2023) was the movement director, and the music was composed by Qinhua Chen. Shiwei also worked with Yuting on the Meyerhold workshop in the spring.
Yuting shared: “I used the elements of Meyerhold’s biomechanics combined with modern piano music to tell the audience the story of the symbiosis between humans and AI. The story structure is divided into the innocence of childhood, the rebellion of adolescence, the love of youth, the crisis of middle age and the departure of old age.”
Jing Peng (MATP 2020-2021) has written several plays based on own experience and some social problems/phenomena, and participated in Chinese drama arts festivals with these original plays. For example, Jing participated in the carnival competition of the China Wuzhen Drama Festival (physical theater “Frame 2023”) and the Shenzhen Bay Area Youth Drama Competition (screenplay creation “Existence”).
Minjun Liao (MATP 2019-2020) has now passed the test and assessment and qualified as a professional actor, employed by the Yunnan Provincial Theatre, which is the only professional drama troupe in Yunnan Province of China. Minjun wrote: “I hope I can continue to work as an actor and director in the future, and have the opportunity to rehearse works and exchange them in the UK.”
Qingyang Wang (MATP 2019-2020) directed and performed in the latest iteration of her piece Journey of Whispering Dreams at Etcetera Theatre, London in May. Further, she successfully produced Max Percy + Friends’ piece Baklâ (Best Show Winner – Asian Arts Awards. Offie Nomination. ★★★★/★ star reception.) The piece toured to Exeter Phoenix, where the current MATP cohort were luck enough to catch it, after an invited seminar where Qingyang talked to us about her creative journey after the MA, her two pieces, and her work as an intercultural producer and maker.
More on the piece: https://exeterphoenix.org.uk/events/bakla/
More on Qingyang: https://clwangqy.wixsite.com/qingyangcreativehome
Qingyang shared: “It was so nice returning to the campus of the University of Exeter and visiting the all-familiar UoE Drama… Smiles, greetings, chats, reminders… Very glad to bring such a great show to the audience in Exeter – that space created by a live energy to be remembered.”
Carina Miles (MATP 2019-2020) is currently pursuing a Ph.D. at Exeter, Drama. Extending previous applied theatre practice and expertise, Carina is now developing a new project. She shared: “My research is now in the field of care aesthetics where I am exploring acts of care both in theatre and applied theatre as an art form. I am currently about to embark on my second practical project where I will be delivering a series of workshops with students at The University of Exeter to explore performance practice techniques and sensory experiences with objects and how they enable us to understand and embody care.
I recently attended The Care Festival at The Whitworth Gallery in Manchester and it was an inspiring and deeply moving experience—one that filled me with joy, heartache, and pride. It was simply lovely to be surrounded by people who so authentically and wholeheartedly care. It also enabled me to reflect on how I have come to where I am now and my time studying the MA in Theatre Practice and how we engaged, practiced and learnt many acts of care between us when we were working together. I miss you all and hope you too are being cared for, wherever you are in a world that means that care can be complex and hard to come by sometimes. I still think of you and hope you are well, and I still care ❤”
In terms of graduates from some years ago, it is beautiful to witness their ever-evolving trajectories:
Giorgia Ciampi (MATP 2012-2013) completed her Ph.D. thesis with no corrections at Exeter, Drama, where she also frequently teaches kalaripayattu for the MA Theatre Practice. Apart from directing and performing in The Spiral at the RECLAIM FESTIVAL in November 2024, Giorgia participated in IPAC’s “Chœur sans chef” in April 2024. A sample of her research can be found here: https://doi.org/10.1080/19443927.2016.1217267
Savvas Stroumpos’s (MATP 2003-2004) production of The Seagull in Athens received the Best Performance Award by the Greek Society of Theatre and Performance Critics in 2023 and had a successful second year of performances in 2024. Further, Savvas acted in the role of Agamemnon at the Greek National Theatre’s production of The Oresteia, directed by world-leading director Theodoros Terzopoulos. The production premiered in Epidaurus, toured Greece and was invited at the historical Teatro Olimpico in Italy.
More on Savvas’s company: https://simeiomiden.gr/point-zero-2020/
Andrei Biziorek (MATP 2003-2004), while continuing a wide-ranging career as director, actor trainer and facilitator, has now founded and directs the Demidov Studio London. You can find more on the studio and its upcoming courses here: https://www.demidovstudiolondon.com/demidov-studio-london/#dsl
It is inspiring, too, to see how many graduates went into Ph.D. research and/or took up lectureships all over the world, including:
- Anirudh Nair, Drama School Mumbai: https://dramaschoolmumbai.in/faculty/
- Lori Lee Wallace, Roger Williams University: https://www.rwu.edu/academics/schools-and-colleges/fshae/faculty/lori-lee-wallace
- Alissa Clarke, De Montford University: https://www.dmu.ac.uk/about-dmu/academic-staff/art-design-humanities/alissa-clarke/alissa-clarke.aspx
- Christina Chatzivasileiou, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki: https://www.thea.auth.gr/en/staff/christina-chatzivasileiou/
- Sol Garre, Real Escuela Superior de Arte Dramático de Madrid: https://solgarre.com/
- Bernadette Cronin, University College Cork: https://research.ucc.ie/profiles/A027/B.Cronin@UCC.ie
Our warmest wishes to all MATP alumni!
We think of you — your creative journeys, educational care and insightful thinking & you are always welcome to come back and visit us in the studio,
Prof Konstantinos Thomaidis
MA Theatre Practice Director