Image: Three Box Theatre/Facebook

Three Box Theatre: “Creating spaces, forging pathways”

Over the last year we have been faced with some very real examples of the racism that lurks not so far beneath the surface on our university campus- and I do mean racism, not indifference, not ignorance, out and out discrimination. From racial slurs inscribed across bananas, to racialized fake names on our sign-up sheets, life did more than just imitate our art. And so our theatrical collaboration, which started as ‘Mind The Gap’, a collaboration by Hope Barker, Hassan Hussein, Brendan Quigley and myself, though for all intents and purposes a failure, was more illuminating, infuriating and invigorating than any piece of theatre we could have hoped to produce that term.

As a black woman going into the world of theatre, I have been discouraged and frustrated as many time as I have been inspired, if not more. When you walk into a room and see all white faces, when you go to the RSC and see not one person of colour on stage or in the audience, when you are told, at 8 years old, that you will never play Juliet because of your skin colour, attempting to belong to a world that clearly believes it is better off without you can send you home to your bed at night wondering why on earth you ever thought this space could be for you.

As a black woman going into the world of theatre, I have been discouraged and frustrated as many time as I have been inspired, if not more.

But that’s exactly what Three Box Theatre want to do this year; create spaces, forge pathways and make the theatrical arena one that everybody can fight in. I was so inspired by Amaka Ejizu’s Where My Girls At last year- it was the most rewarding and exciting piece of theatre to be a part of and taught me more about myself than I knew there was to learn. It was well received, but not widely received and the surprising lack of support from those who are ordinarily in the front row of every other piece of theatre that Warwick produces, taught me that we as a campus and as a community, have so far to go in making minorities feel like the stage is as much as a space for them to own as it is for anyone else.

Our plan for the year is this: create a community where ideas can be shared and developed into a devising process. Our topic: the refugee crisis in a post-brexit Britain. We, along with Josie Davies’ (English and Theatre, 4th year) FEAT theatre company, will start auditions next week for a theatrical double bill; two shows, each about an hour long, performed one after the other- one directed by Hope the other by Josie Davies. The two pieces are, however, to be highly collaborative, with both casts sharing rehearsals and research; what we’re hoping to end up with are two interpretations of the same information.

We want to make the theatrical arena one which everyone can fight in. 

Like ‘Three Box Theatre’ on Facebook for details on auditions, performances and socials – and keep watching this space.

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