Minotaur Column #1 Become the Colour Blue

I first fell in love with theatre after playing a robot cat. And boom! – my personal statement was done. No, I jest. . . I did play a cat, I just couldn’t make my body flow like a feline.

I reckon I could predict your following response from that… an actor embodying an animal in theatre? How original! People may tease us members in Minotaur Theatre Company for our stereotypical stories of becoming chameleons. “You are now blue. Become the colour blue. Be the blue!”. It all sounds too familiar right? Well, it’s true, I have been asked to be blue… and green and orange, and sometimes red for that matter.

I was once asked in a workshop to be the colour purple, and froze. My tutor said ‘excellent interpretation!’. In truth, I had no idea how to portray ‘purple’ and stood there in stationary bewilderment. My friend, in a more extreme case was asked to be a handbag skating on ice in her audition for Central School of Speech and Drama. My brain wracked for about thirty seconds until she showed me. It’s possible. Apparently.

By now, you’re probably thinking – seriously? Is this an actual degree? Well, yes. It is. And it’s a bloomin’ good one. The proportion of these exercises are in fact small, yet they are so worthwhile. Think about it. Could you step up in front of everyone and embody a wolf? Or the colour maroon? Can you let yourself go? To be able to present a subject to a large amount of people with complete focus, conviction and flair is a very powerful thing. The skills we learn from this course – excellent communication, discipline, mixed with our own creativeness, is something drama students will be able to use in every walk of life.

Students in UEA’s latest production ‘Rhinoceros’

As Vice President of Minotaur Theatre Company, I get to work with some fantastic individuals and see some truly outstanding shows. There are people who are definitely red and people who are more sea blue, like, I imagine, in any course. The only difference is that we have to work together, intensely, to produce the best shows we can. And on that note, for those who missed Minotaur’s last production of the year, ‘Rhinoceros’, it was a fantastic satire about people turning into rhinoceroses. ‘Actors embodying animals in theatre?’ I hear you pose again.

Well the real question in theatre is – how do you make it original?

(Thumbnail courtesy of Theatre Nisha)