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ET26.8 May Week Preview · The Downing Arts Podcast

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Welcome to the downing arts podcast.
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Here with me today is third year English student Jude Hughes,
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who's fresh from finishing his finals. Wow, that was a tongue twister.
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How are you doing, Jude? I'm doing great. The weather is
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very Irish in sympathy with me, lots of rain. So that's the best
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way to finish exams. So now you've finished, I guess you can
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look forward to your very exciting project which is a play that you've written.
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Yeah. So my play is called Giving Out. It's running
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this week at the Corpus Playroom from what started yesterday, Wednesday,
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and it's running till Saturday. And it's going to be coming
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to London over the summer, coming to Camden for a few days as
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part of the Camden frames, which is a really exciting opportunity. Fantastic.
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And how did this all come about? I mean it's, it's very,
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if I may say, it's very Irish subject matter, the play. So,
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yeah, I mean, how did you sort of get the idea and make the whole
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thing happen? So it actually started off here at Dining as part of the Festival
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of New Writing. I saw that that was coming up in when I was second
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year and that was like a really good opportunity. So I thought, oh, I must
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try and write something for this. And my. I hadn't
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like read or seen many plays. Like I wasn't a big theater person, but one
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of the plays I had been to and really enjoyed was a Martin
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McDonald play. It's called the Beauty Queen of the Naming and it's sadly similar.
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I guess it's about like a relationship between a mother and a daughter which is
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quite crotchety because the mother is quite old and she kind of wants her daughter
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to stay in the house and look after her. And the daughter doesn't want that.
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She wants to go off and be free. So that kind of dynamic of this
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kind of relationship, which is about care, but also isn't really. It's a lot more
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tense and there's a lot of power play in that. I thought that was quite
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fun and something to play a little bit with.
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Yeah. And so how long did it take you to write the whole thing?
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So it started off as a short play and the process for that
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was that I, I honestly I was. It was the first time I'd written in
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my own accent and dialect. So one of the things I actually did want to
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do is like look at different kind of Irish idioms, like turns
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of phrase that we would have back home. Kind of think, how could I include
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these? So I actually kind of worked dialogue from That a little bit. And then
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as that progressed and I started to kind of see the characters,
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like, the themes kept coming up. I mean, we have so many phrases for
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arguing, like, you know, bickering, gurning, whingeing,
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giving out. That's where the title came from. And we have so
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many great insults. So I thought that would be a really great way to explore
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Irish dialect through the form of an argument, because Irish people are really great
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at that. Yeah. Wow. Okay.
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Well, so I know the play is one continuous scene,
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and as you say, this is your first time writing, but how.
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How did you do that? I mean, how. How do you sort of spin it
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out without any breaks, as it were? I find it almost
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natural for the way I write because I didn't, like, set. I think, like,
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oh, I'm going to write an uninterrupted scene. But as I was writing it,
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it just. I feel like conversations do, like, spiral on.
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And I found. I found when I write, almost like closing things off is
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actually the most difficult part. I find it easy to just like, I find it
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really easy in this. Just that the characters just keep spinning around and around each
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other. It feels like a more natural flow. But, yeah, for.
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In terms of crafting a longer, uninterrupted scene, like, you have to
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consider, like, pauses and silences and the conversation
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repeating itself as well, because that's how people speak to each other,
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bringing things up for the past. Like, oh, you haven't, you know, you haven't made
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me that cup of tea yet. Or did you close that window? I told you
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to. That's kind of how conversation works. So I guess it
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was also a fun exploration of that aspect of interaction.
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You say you workshopped it in the Festival of New Writing. How was
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that? I mean, you know, was it. Presumably, it was useful if it's now developed.
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Yeah, it was really, really helpful. So as part of the festival, you get script
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editing help with Steve Bennett. That was really, really helpful.
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He helped to kind of draw some of what I was trying to say with
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the Player. And he also. He gave me some really useful kind of reference points
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and, like, themes and kind of other works to consider.
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He always has this TV show, Stato and Song,
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which I haven't seen, but I know a lot of. Oh, you haven't seen it?
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Oh, wow, okay. No, I haven't seen it. But, yeah, he describes it like that.
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So, yeah, that was actually. That was fun. It's always fun to hear when you've
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accidentally done something. Like, it was the same when he compared it to a
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little bit, which, I mean, obviously it was really high praise and nice compliment.
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But, yeah, that was. That was interesting as well, because I'd never read any of
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this. So then once I started to read it a bit more afterwards, as I
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was developing as a longer one, it was fun to see the kind of connections.
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So how did you get it to be performed at the Corpus Playroom?
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Presumably you had to submit an application and. Yeah, it was a whole
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process. It was quite a detailed process, actually. A lot of questions and like,
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interview. There was an interview in front of like a. A big panel as well.
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It wasn't even just people, it was quite a big panel. And yeah, you.
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You really. Part of what was different was like at the festival, you. You kind
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of. It's a nice kind of entry point and you're just like a creative aspect,
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like the. The plot or the, you know, the characters, that kind of thing.
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But once you bring it to Corpus, you have to really think about, like,
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the audience, the reception, how you're going to market it and things
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like that. So you're moving into, like a more kind of practical mode of
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theatre making. So, I mean, you know, you're in the middle
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of the run of performances and you're going to the Camden Fringe. So again,
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was that something you had to apply for or did someone spot what was going
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on? So, basically, cuadc, the student
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committee, the adc, they offer these opportunities for plays
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to go to Fringe. So, for example, there's like a musical
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going to Camden as well. So I applied for this London
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run and luckily I got it. So,
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yeah, that was another process as well, applying first of all to CIDC again,
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having like a panel kind of interview about it, and considering a
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whole lot of things. For example, why is the show suited to a friend's venue?
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Specifically, things like that. And then as well, a whole process of applying
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to Camden and considering, like, what kind of venue would be best.
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And we really. It was. That was a long process because it actually was surprisingly
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a lot to consider. And is it the same team going? Oh, yeah,
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yeah, yeah. Same. Same everyone. Same. Well, same me, obviously.
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Same assistant director, same cast, same producer. Yeah, I guess that
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must. Must help, you know, if you. If you're used to working still. Well,
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that all sounds really exciting. So what about the. The actual content
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of the play? I mean, you know, you've talked about being Irish
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and you're clearly very proud to be Irish and you've talked about Irish insults and
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things like that, but, yeah, what is it Sort of about the actual
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content of the play, which perhaps makes it Irish, or it's
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a very dark subject matter. So basically the play is about a man
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who's dying of aids, and it's
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just a single conversation between him and his boyfriend and
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caregiver who's looking after him as he dies.
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So, I mean, all Irish literature on plays are a little bit obsessed
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with that, if you could say. It's kind of a recurring theme. And in this
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particular play, I guess it wasn't something that I was necessarily conscious
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of. I was like, in this, like so many other archivals that are also written
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about that, it's just kind of a big thing in Irish culture, I guess.
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And in this particular play, the kind of main tension comes from the
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fact the. Liam, the guy who's dying, he wants to go
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out into the world, he wants to leave the flower, but he's so sick that
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he can't anymore. So Mafi has to kind of keep him contained and
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constantly kind of provide reasons or try and downplay
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or try and make that more comfortable.
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I mean, you say there's argument involved. Yeah, I guess a
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continuous argument. Because. Yeah, I didn't want it to
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be like a kind of perfect narrative, like a perfect kind of angelic dying
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person or like a carer who's like a martyr. Like, I wanted it to be
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a bit more complex than that and show the. Even as someone
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is maybe dying or going through these kind of difficult stages,
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they're not always perfect. They can. They still are quite human and they
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still kind of bicker and like, joke and make fun of people or
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argue and can be, like, annoying and frustrating and upsetting.
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I suppose there's a complexity of, as you say, you know, someone who is caring
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for and about somebody, but also perhaps finding
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them annoying or frustrating or. Yeah, no, it just. Yes, just difficult
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situation, isn't it? So. Wow. Well, yeah, thanks for coming
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and chatting today and I hope the rest of the run goes well and
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all the best for the fringe. Thank you. It was great talk to you today.
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My next guest this week is Lily Ellis. Welcome, Lily. Hi,
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Louisa. Hi. It's great to have you back again. It's really nice to see you.
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It's lovely to see you, too. So you graduated this
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time last year and. Yeah. What was your degree?
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I studied education with English, drama and the arts and. Yeah. I can't
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believe it's been a year already. Yeah. What have you been doing this
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year? Well, I'm just coming to the end of the a
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year contract, working as a graduate assistant in a school.
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So I work in the performing arts department in a grammar school in Kent
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which has just involved doing loads and loads of different things. So I've
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helped with school shows, done a lot of admin. I also work in boarding
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as well. So, yeah, a very well fitting first job
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after my education and drama studies. Wow.
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And is it something that you saw yourself doing after graduation
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or was it something that just kind of fell into your lap? It very much
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fell into my lap. I was planning to sort of make a bit of a
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gap year after graduating,
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but this job came up and it's very well fitting
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to what I'm interested in. And so, yeah, I couldn't not apply.
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Really. Brilliant. And I mean, has your degree,
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dare I ask, has your degree been useful? I would say it has. It's very
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interesting because I studied education, like the education tripod
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is very academic and you learn about teaching and you learn about
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education policy and practices. So it's interesting then
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going into a school and seeing the policies that I've studied in
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effect and sort of the slightly less pretentious, more real life version of
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things I've read about so many times. Yeah,
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it's interesting. Wow. And you say you've been doing loads of different things.
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So I mean, has that been academic stuff as well as performing stuff or
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have you been coaching or doing any actual performing yourself?
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I just do whatever's needed. So, like,
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I will help with the sort of academic side of the performing arts department
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a bit. I will help with the music ensembles and organization
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for sort of concerts and things. And then I
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assistant directed the school musical, which was fun. They did Matilda
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Junior, which is etched into my long term memory. I could
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probably perform the whole thing on my own.
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And then I'm also doing. I'm directing
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like a year seven and eight play. So we're doing A Midsummer Night's Dream and
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it feels like I'm bringing a bit of Cambridge tradition actually,
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because we're doing it in a garden. So it's
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very sort of May week vibes. Oh,
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but is it going to rain? Oh, don't. I can't think about it.
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Seven and eight? No, not much for plan B, but.
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Oh, well. Were you part of the. What was it Much Ado About Nothing play
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when it. When it just absolutely poured down? That was in my first year.
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Yeah, we had to go under the gazebo thing for the maple.
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Yeah, yeah. Cool. So teachers,
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I guess have a reputation for being super busy. Has it been
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the same? Yeah. During term time it's very intense and especially because
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quite uniquely even though it's a grammar school it also has boarding
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and I live in so I've been.
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I work evenings and weekends and it's very, very full
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on but then I get school holidays so I can't complain too
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much I guess it's a different sort of intensity
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to Cambridge Would you say that's the case? Yeah,
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I mean it's part of it is just the world of work Right. Where in
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Cambridge there's the luxury of if you pick the right degree your
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busyness is aligned with what you are passionate about Whereas
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when you're working a full time job there are always going to be very boring
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bits. So I think there's that and then there's also the fact that where
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Cambridge is a very sort of solo busyness in a
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way where a lot of your studies you're managing your time and it's
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you who like deals with the consequences if you don't
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plan things well. Whereas now there are many, many children
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who deal who are sort of like dependent
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and contingent on things in various ways. So I guess it is quite,
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quite different in that way. Are you going to stay in teaching? I mean is
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that. I know people do education degrees for all sorts of different reasons but
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is teaching something that you're really interested in? I am interested
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in education. I would say that I'm more interested
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currently in the theatre area of things and I'm more likely to kind of
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pursue a less formal education, a less formal
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side of education through that, through performing
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arts stuff and also continuing with theatre directing things I could see myself coming
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back to teaching when I'm a bit older but
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honestly there's also the fact that I feel like a
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kid in some ways like I would
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want to have a bit more life experience I think if I were to
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settle into a teaching career. So in amongst all this intensity of
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living in and teaching all hours and so on have you managed to do
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anything else like outside the job? Well I've
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been very lucky in that I've managed to actually fit in some creative
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projects around work most notably
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in my Easter holidays in my Easter break we did
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a run of show that we took to the Edinburgh Fringe
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last year at the Riverside Studios in Hammersmith which
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is kind of my. The closest I've gotten so far to.
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I mean I guess it's. I struggle with where to place things on the sort
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of semi professional like amateur semi professional professional scale but
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the most professional I've done so far which is a play I
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directed called Managed Approach, which is a verbatim play written by
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a fellow education student from my year group who also graduated.
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That sounds very innovative. So is it a comedy
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or a serious play? There are funny bits.
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It's verbatim theatre and it's about the UK's first legalized
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red light district. So overall it's quite serious subject
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matter, but I would say that there are some definite light moments. Yeah.
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So do you prefer directing to acting yourself? Yeah,
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I mean, I think I feel very lucky with uni
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to have had the chance to sort of have that realization because
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I don't know how many other situations I could have been in in
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which I'd have had so many opportunities to direct.
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But yeah, in first year, sort of beginning of second year,
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I quickly realized that I much prefer not
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being on the stage and also being
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in charge. Yeah, that's brilliant.
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No, I enjoy, I enjoy the creative freedom of directing and I enjoy
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the choice and being able to set a tone for, for the room
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and for the production and lots and lots of things.
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But yeah, that is my theater passion, I guess.
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So next year, I mean, you say you've got a one year contract. What's.
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I mean, what's on the cards for next year? It's a bit up in the
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air, to be honest. The main aim for next year is
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to try and get a bit more experience in rehearsal rooms because
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the thing about the while, it's amazing to have the school holidays,
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term time is very rigid and so I haven't had the freedom to do as
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much like freelancing and shadowing stuff as I would like to.
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So that's. Yeah, that's the aim. Gosh. And how do you
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go about that? I mean, I suppose you've got lots of contacts now. Well,
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I have some and I think how you go about that is
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just utilizing them. It's very, it's quite, it's quite tricky
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and opaque really the path to doing theater
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production stuff and you just have to keep asking people and keep trying to get
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into rooms and see what's going on. But no, definitely not a clear cut
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path. Quite tricky, but I'm gonna give it a go. Yeah,
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well, best of luck with it. Well, it's been lovely to just quickly catch up
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with you and yeah, good luck with everything and yeah,
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hope to see you in college again soon. Thank you. Thank you so much for
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This week in college. Everything takes off again with the Merry Wives of
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Windsor happening in the Easter Lodge Garden today and tomorrow at 5pm and Saturday
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at 4pm tonight at 5:30pm in the chapel,
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the choir give a short concert of favourite music from the whole year. Tickets are
18:17
free. Details in the show notes. On Saturday there's another short concert in
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the chapel, this time of organ music performed by organ scholar Matthew Chunway and yours
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truly. Entrance again is free. Details in the show notes. The Music
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Society are holding their May Week concert and garden party in the Masters Lodge tomorrow.
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That's Friday at 2pm all are very welcome and the exhibition
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10 Good Years continues in the Huong Gallery.
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Outside college. You can catch Jude's play giving out at the Corpus
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Playroom tonight, tomorrow and Saturday at 9:30pm Again,
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details in the show Notes. Next week is the Mayweek special episode
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featuring a very special guest. Don't forget to tune in. Thanks for listening.