Applied Theatre and Social Change MA postgraduate personal statement example

Personal statement example

Every Tuesday a fourteen-year-old called Jordan comes to the youth drama club I run at our local community centre, sits on the radiator and refuses to stand up. For the first month I treated this as a problem to solve. Then, during an improvisation about a bus stop, he called out a line from the radiator that made the whole group laugh, and I realised he had been taking part all along. He simply needed a position from which he could watch before committing. I rebuilt the session plan so that every exercise had a role for an observer who could step in. Within a few weeks three other quieter members were using it too. That small adjustment is the kind of thinking I want to develop rigorously through postgraduate study in applied theatre.

I graduated with a 2:1 in English and Drama. My final-year practical project was a devised piece made with a reminiscence group that met in a branch library. Over eight sessions, six older residents shared memories of working in the town's former textile mills, and two fellow students and I shaped these into a twenty-minute performance in the library itself. The most useful thing I learned was about ownership. Early drafts sounded like our words placed in their mouths. When one participant, a retired weaver, rewrote a scene so that it was about her lunch break rather than the mill closure, it became far more truthful and far less sentimental. My accompanying essay drew on Augusto Boal's Theatre of the Oppressed, particularly his idea of the spectator becoming a 'spect-actor'. I also examined the tension between that ambition and the practical reality of a short project led by students who would then leave. I am still thinking about that tension, and I would like to study questions of ethics, consent and what happens after a project ends in much greater depth.

Since graduating I have worked as a front-of-house supervisor at a regional theatre. The job is mostly rotas, ticket queries and making sure ushers know the evacuation routes. It has also taught me a lot about who does and does not feel comfortable in a theatre building. I helped the access team trial relaxed performances, briefing staff on keeping house lights partly up and leaving doors open. I watched families arrive who told me they had never come before because they worried about being asked to leave. It made me more aware that participation begins well before anyone steps into a workshop.

The youth club began as a volunteer slot two years ago and I now plan and lead it, with support from the centre manager. Running it has made me practical. I budget for biscuits and gaffer tape, adapt plans when half the group is at a football match, and keep a session log that I review each month. It has also shown me the limits of my current knowledge. I can keep a room engaged, but I want a stronger grounding in evaluation and safeguarding. I also want to understand how practitioners argue for the value of this work without overstating what a few weeks of drama can change.

Outside theatre, I play netball for a local league team. Being one of seven people who each have strictly limited zones on court has, oddly, made me better at thinking about structure and freedom in workshops.

I am looking for a course that combines practice with critical reflection, and that will push me to question my own assumptions as a facilitator. I bring steady experience of working with young people and older adults, comfort with the unglamorous logistics of community work, and a genuine curiosity about why some rooms open up and others stay closed. I want to keep learning how to make space for the Jordans on the radiator.