Drama Society: Workshop and Events Officer

Helloo. I'm Jai, second-year History student & member of this year's Drama committee. I'd love to be your workshop & events officer next year!

Theatre is a hugely important (when a show's on, the most important...) part of my life. I have acted in, directed and written several shows as a drama scholar, National Youth Theatre, National Youth Music Theatre and Drama Soc member. Experiences like directing for New Writing Fest & BAME showcase, acting in King Charles and Symposium and writing for FemFilm, have confirmed for me the importance & joy of theatre. The friends I've made and experiences I've had with Drama Soc have been some of my best and I'd love the chance to enable more people to get involved.

As W&E officer, I'd like to make more use of our London base to both organise and attend more workshops, talks and networking events with industry professionals, creatives and youth groups. I would also organise more informal workshops on topics like auditioning and directing to help members gain confidence and develop skills helpful for Drama Soc productions and opportunities beyond. I'd also organise workshop series for longer-term development of specific skills or acting/directing methods. I hope my passion, theatre experience and engagement in the London theatre-scene would enable me to achieve these aims. I also have practical experience with SU events like the London conference, Ball & workshops as Drama Soc Social Sec & European Horizons' President. 

Thank you!!

I am very much a people-person, so Workshop and Events Officer would be a great role for me. Working with other students to enhance their skills where I can – and finding other relevant workshop leaders – would be very rewarding to me. My acting ability is to a high standard, having trained with the National Youth Theatre. I acted in the ensemble of the term 1 Blooms show King Charles III and as Loki in the New Writing Festival's The Binding of Loki. I also appeared in several productions at the theatre in my home town. In addition, I have a solid understanding of writing and directing. I'm currently writing a psychological fantasy novel, and I was a co-director back at secondary school.

I have good organisational and people skills, so I would work well with the rest of the committee, and I would be great at coordinating with third parties.

I will take this role very seriously, as I know how important theatre is to so many people: it has massively helped my confidence, empathy and social-skills, and I know I am not the only one. Therefore I will work hard to create fun and fulfilling opportunities for students to take part in UCL's drama society and learn more about the craft and themselves.

For me, I started acting when I was 7 years old purely to build my confidence as a kid, but what I found instead was a network of wonderful people and an outlet to simply play! I've been lucky enough to work within the industry myself and so as workshops and events officer I want to create opportunities for members to play and learn through different mediums of drama. I would reach out to industry professionals, as have done in the past, while extending out to contacts who have made along the way to bring training to members of UCL Drama Soc!

Since being the workshop officer from last term, I’ve created regular Monday workshops in different forms of drama and want to continue with focus of voice, movement, audition technique, industry knowledge, directing and devising. As well as welcoming more industry professionals as guests. I also want to create a regular survey in order gain feedback from workshops and to understand what members would like to see to get the most out of the workshops.