Yes, we did it again! We are very pleased to announce that Stevie Thomas, who graduated from the Bucks New Uni Performing Arts course this summer, has been long listed for the National Student Drama Festival. The NSDF is a fiercely competitive event, and it is a real honour that one of our students is considered for it again!
Stevie has been selected with his dissertation piece 1001010, which confronts the nature of performing gender and the restrictions of the gender binary. Coupling verbatim text with elements of physical theatre, the piece explores non-binary and fluid approaches to gender and sees the queer performer question their own identity through the expression of others.
Stevie began performing from a young age at his grandmother's dance school on the Isles of Scilly and has surrounded himself with the arts ever since. becoming an apt Tap and Modern dancer and later enjoying physical theatre during his studies at Bucks New University.
He describes himself as progressive feminist and is an active member of the LGBT+ community.
He is currently setting up a new theatre company and has started writing a script, so watch this space.
Well done Stevie, we are very proud and wish you the best of good luck for the selection process!
Friday, 1 December 2017
Sunday, 11 June 2017
THE RESISTORS - join us for our end of year showcase!
The academic year is coming to an end, all assessments are
done, and we are starting to look forward to some deserved holiday times. But
first we are excited to announce the line up of this year’s end of year
showcase!
This year’s evening is called The Resistors and once again presents a selection of this year’s
dissertation pieces; utilising multimedia, film, physical theatre and comedy,
the evening offers thought-provoking perspectives on a range of personal and
public subjects.
To book tickets, please go to the Courtyard Theatre webpage: www.thecourtyard.org.uk
This year's performances are presented by:
Rayanne Byrne – Instruct
About Rayanne:
Rayanne is a 21 year old
performer from Manchester. She has studied Acting at Tameside Centre of
Performing Arts before commencing and now successfully completing her
Performing Arts (Film, TV and Stage) degree at Bucks New University. For
Rayanne, her passion for acting started she was cast as Oliver Twist in her
primary school production. Ever since, she's been drawn to performing as much
as she can and hopes to build a solid career as an actor on stage all around
the country!
About the piece:
Enter. Sit.
Watch.
Instruct will carry you through the
perspective of
the lived relationship with Rayanne’s own body and mind. As tensions and
disputes between the two entities grow, the human body becomes their
battleground. Inspired by Rene Descartes’ 17th Century philosophy of Cartesian
Dualism, Instruct explores the both
the collaboration and divide of the physical and mental realm.
Lucca Colonna - My Body
About Lucca:
Lucca, 21, from Lincolnshire has always
had an interest in physical theatre and movement based performance; Since
attending the Performing Arts (Film, TV and Stage) course at Bucks New
University, this interest has grown and continues to do so as she finds her
feet within her own style of physical performance. In the future she not
only wishes to continue developing her own personal style of performance she
also wishes to work with young people within the performing arts
industry!
About the piece:
My Body was made by Lucca as a very personal investigation into her own
physicality and the use of movement as a form of theatrical expression. Lucca
invites you to come on an experience and join her in the exploration of her
body, working out if her body pleases you or if her body pleases herself.
Rob D. Cosh - Remember Her
About Rob:
Rob, from Somerset, began
an interest in acting when involving himself with YouTube and working within
the YouTube community. He went to study Performing Arts at Somerset College and
continued at Bucks New University. He was one of the first to enter the YouTube
UK Partnership Program, and has worked in the past with some of the most
popular UK YouTubers, but has stepped away to develop his cinematographic
abilities. He enjoys travelling, and with an obsessive passion for film making,
Rob wishes to eventually pursue a career in film and TV, however still loves to
perform on stage.
About the piece:
Alzheimer’s
Disease: A form of Dementia that is known for being an unforgiving disease,
causing the sufferer to forget the memories of their past and the people they
love. Ken, an elderly man residing in a care home, talks to his carer about his
wife and the memories that he has created with her. However, the struggle to
remember his past reveals a harsh truth. Although he may forget some memories,
he is happy to remember her.
Katelyn Collins - Student
to Adult…wait…where’s the manual?
About Katelyn:
Katelyn grew up in
Faversham, Kent. She started performing when she was 11. But it was when
she got the lead in the school musical during her GCSE's, she decided that she
wanted to perform for a living. During her time at university,
Katelyn has gained an interest in multimedia performance, as well as continuing
her love for devised and written performance. Katelyn’s other main passion is
music. She has played the Bass Guitar since she was 13. Last Christmas she got
the opportunity to play at her church’s carol concert. In the future, she hopes
to write/devise and perform as part of a Christian Theatre Company.
About the piece:
This comical
autobiographical performance stems from my fear of stepping into the adult
world and how unprepared I feel for it. Did you know that doors have their own
furniture? No, I didn’t either. Join me as I look back at the moments and
people who have helped shape me, as I prepare my unborn nephew for this crazy
world we live in!
Jade Williams - Tainted
Blood
Jade
Williams, 21, was born and raised in North London. Jade has always been
interested in Performing Arts and has studied acting at Middleweek Newton
Academy before joining the Performing Arts (Film, TV & Stage) degree at
Bucks New University. She will soon to be appearing in BBC’s Dr Foster.
About the piece:
Tainted Blood is a one women performance based on
contaminated blood, a NHS tragedy that resulted in thousand of patients losing
their lives. The piece is focused on facts and stories from a contaminate and
their family.
Stevie Thomas – 1001010
Stevie began performing from a young age with his grandmother’s dance
school on the Isles of Scilly. He has actively surrounded himself with the arts
ever since, studying performance at Penwith College and later Buckinghamshire
New University. He is an apt Tap and Modern dancer and enjoys physical theatre;
Stevie also practices circus arts, including Poi and the Cyr Wheel, and is in
the process of establishing a touring company. Stevie is also a progressive
feminist and an active member of the LGBT+ community and hopes to establish a
theatre company that concentrates on encouraging progressive discussion.
About the piece:
1001010 confronts the nature of performing gender and the restrictions of the
gender binary. Coupling verbatim text with elements of physical theatre, the
piece explores non-binary and fluid approaches to gender and sees the queer
performer question their own identity through the expression of others.
Friday, 17 March 2017
The Thing That Came From Over There comes over here…
Huge thanks to Gonzo Moose for a
wonderful performance of The Thing That
Came From Over There on Wednesday night at the Wycombe Town Hall. The show was a
tightly-packed delight involving a glorious range of eccentric characters, arctic
exploration, alien attack and lots and lots of joyful stupidity. It had us
laughing heartily from start to finish.
The cast stayed behind for a
Q&A after the show, taking questions from Bucks Performing Arts students
and other members of the audience. We learnt about the inspiration behind the
many characters, the combination of devising, writing and rehearsing that goes
into creating this type of show, and also how you set about rehearsing a scene
that involves changing hats every three seconds.
The company returns to High
Wycombe in May 2017 to run a workshop for Bucks New University Performing Arts
students.
If you want to follow their work, read more here: http://www.gonzomoose.co.uk
Thursday, 16 March 2017
The Movement Alphabet
We were very pleased to be able to invite Jan Lee and Tim Murray-Browne to introduce our Performing Arts students to their latest work Movement Alphabet.Movement Alphabet is an artwork combining interactive technology with a one-to-one performance, challenging the disembodiment of our digital lives.
Immersed in a separate and intimate space, a performer leads individuals through having their 'movement portrait' taken. Outside, viewers can watch as a 3D imaging system renders movements into a visual portrait through a process akin to a calligraphy of the whole body.
As our students are working across Film, TV and Stage and are currently devising their own intermedial performance works, this was a great opportunity to introduce them to new and exciting ways of combining technology with performance, whilst also giving them insight into interactivity and immersive environments.
Jan and Tim created such a cosy and relaxed atmosphere n DS2, students remained in the visitors area for the whole duration of the installation, ceiling out on bean bags whilst watching each other's 'portrait' being taken.
The two artists also gave a talk about their works, shedding light on the the many and varied collaborative processes they have experienced as artists, individually and together. This rang a bell particularly in the ears of those first year students who just collaborated with animation students on some Motion Capture experiments, and understand the excitement but also the possible difficulties and compromises that collaborations can entail.
Jan Lee is a performance artist working at the intersection of dance, music and theatre. She has collaborated with a wide range of artists who work in sound design, dance theatre, neuroscience, digital interactive technology, poets, actors and musicians.

Tim Murray-Browne is an artist working with code and interactive technology. His work includes interactive installations of bespoke musical instruments, immersive audiovisual dance performances and sonic sculptures that reveal themselves as the listener moves through space.
They created Movement Alphabet in response to a sense of disembodiment in our digital lives. How can we express our identities online beyond selfies and status updates? The experience Jan and Tim offer is an invitation to consider the personality of the moving body, the lifetime of experiences, choices and habits entwined into our every physical gestures.
Movement Alphabet has previously been shown at the Victoria &Albert Museum, Watermans Arts Centre, G.A.S. Station and Tate Modern, all in London.
And now at Bucks New University in High Wycombe . . . Thank you very much, Jan and Tim for joining us!
Tim Murray-Browne is an artist working with code and interactive technology. His work includes interactive installations of bespoke musical instruments, immersive audiovisual dance performances and sonic sculptures that reveal themselves as the listener moves through space.
They created Movement Alphabet in response to a sense of disembodiment in our digital lives. How can we express our identities online beyond selfies and status updates? The experience Jan and Tim offer is an invitation to consider the personality of the moving body, the lifetime of experiences, choices and habits entwined into our every physical gestures.
Movement Alphabet has previously been shown at the Victoria &Albert Museum, Watermans Arts Centre, G.A.S. Station and Tate Modern, all in London.
And now at Bucks New University in High Wycombe . . . Thank you very much, Jan and Tim for joining us!
Friday, 17 February 2017
It's that time of the year again!
Yes, here we are: Our final year students
are shortly presenting their Advanced Productions performances. We are proud to
once again being able to introduce a diverse selection of exciting work, with
each performance shown at the Town Hall in High Wycombe and in a regional theatre
near you.
First off is Theatre
Memoire who have bagged the rights to stage Complicite’s renowned play Mnemonic,
with its intricately woven narrative. Mnemonic challenges the subjectivity of
memory and the ability to comprehend identity through the physical traces left
behind.
You can catch Theatre Memoire at the Wycombe Town Hall on
Tuesday, 21 February at 7.30pm, or at Maidenhead Norden Farm Centre for the
Arts on Wednesday 8 March.
Find out more about Theatre Memoire here: https://www.facebook.com/TheatreMemoire/
Watch Black Comedy in
Wycombe Town Hall on Monday 27 February at 7.30pm, or in Hemel Hampstead Old
Town Hall on Tuesday, 7 March at 8pm.
Find out more about Blown A Fuse Productions here:
Forgotten Dreams
Theatre Company is presenting us a brand new devised theatre piece called Queen of the Skies. This visually
arresting piece uses multimedia and physical theatre to explore the life and
legacy of Amelia Earhart, the first woman to attempt to fly around the world.
Forgotten Dreams Theatre Company are performing at the
Wycombe Town Hall on Tuesday 28 February
at 7.30pm or at the Clapham Omnibus in London on Tuesday 14 March at 7.30pm.
Find out more about Forgotten Dreams Theatre Company here: https://www.facebook.com/FCTC17/
Get Out Theatre is
taking us on a journey through an exciting and dark realm: they are staging
Alistair McDowell’s play Pomona, which
centres around one girl’s search for her missing sister and promises to leave
you disturbed and on the edge of your seat.
You can catch it at the Wycombe Town Hall on Wednesday 1
March and at The Undercroft in Peterborough on the 8 March at 7.30pm.
Find out more about Get Out Theatre here: https://www.facebook.com/getouttheatre/
We hope you can join us for one or more of these exciting
productions!
See you there!
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