Just before the Easter break in 2014/15, the main theatrical event of our academic year took place. The Practical Essays are the final performance pieces by our third year students and, in years past, we would normally see around twenty performances presented over one weekend. This year was a little different in a couple of ways: we had a record number of students (37) putting on a record number of performances (29) and, for the first time ever, we saw group collaborations being assessed as opposed to just individual presentations.
As with Performing the Past, everything was staged between the Banham Theatre and Studio 1… one show immediately following another. It was a very busy weekend, not to mention the incredibly busy seven-week production period that led up to it. I like to think of the Practical Essays as a mini theatre festival that represents the culmination of our student’s practical work at Leeds. It offers them the chance to work as “critical practitioners” in the creation of a theatrical statement that explores an issue, a debate, or a question of particular importance to them. It can be stressful, but it’s also great fun – and my favourite time of the year.
It would take up way too much space to show you an image from each show, so there’s a video below that might give you a quick insight in to what went on.