Laura : "I remember sitting in that huge room at the end of my first week (...) thinking – this is my place, this is where I should be."

Tell us a bit about yourself!

I’m originally from London, but my love of theatre and theatre-making has led me to many different places. My first degree in Acting was at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama in Glasgow, now the Royal Conservatoire Scotland, where I spent three happy years. Working as an actor in my 20s I realised that what I loved was devised theatre-making. I had always dreamed of studying at the École Internationale de Théâtre Jacques Lecoq and with the help of an Entente Cordiale scholarship, I spent two life-changing years there (2005-2007).

What decided you to study in France in the first place?

I was already making and staging theatre in my 20s, but I felt that I didn’t have to tools to do so in the way that I wanted to. There are a lot of celebrated theatre-makers in the UK who have studied at Lecoq – so I had a sense of the kind of style of work I would learn there. My degree in Acting was very classical – there is a particular kind of theatre-making that Lecoq specializes in that interested me and I felt I needed that specific training.

Can you share a special memory from your time in France with us?

I have so many happy memories of studying at Lecoq. It is an amazing building – a huge space that has a disparate history, everything from being a boxing ring to a film studio. You can see pictures of it here: http://www.ecole-jacqueslecoq.com/?lang=en. At the end of each week, the students present short pieces of theatre that they have created responding to a theme; and the teachers give extremely frank feedback. I remember sitting in that huge room at the end of my first week with all the other first-year students (about 60-70 people) listening to the feedback, feeling so happy and thinking – this is my place, this is where I should be.

What did you learn from your mobility in France / Did you keep any habits from your time there?

Now, more than 15 years later, my life is still defined by the time I spent in Paris at Lecoq. I now live and work in Singapore where I am Vice Dean of the Theatre department at the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts. I also create my work with my theatre collective, Autopoetics. You can find out more about us here: https://autopoetics.com Two out of the three members of my collective are Lecoq trained, and we both teach Lecoq pedagogy at the educational institutes where we work in.

How did studying in France change who you are as a person and impact your career?

Both my teaching, research, and theatre-making are defined by the time I spent at Lecoq. I keep revisiting the ideas and techniques I discovered there and re-discover them both in my work and the work of my Southeast Asian students. As I pass these ideas and techniques on, I start to see the influence of that style of theatre-making in their work, which is very exciting to me.

Why would you recommend studying in France to somebody else?

My two years in France and at Lecoq changed my life and my career trajectory. It is a very special school and the experience of being in Paris; studying with people from all over the world; in that beautiful, cultural city is something I would highly recommend.