Paula

"Having always been around the world of performance, with training in stage management and film production, and a career in arts administration and video production, I began to develop my own creative practice as a spoken word artist. 

It was after four years of producing and touring my own solo work that I felt a desire to broaden my practice and find different approaches to creating. I also wanted to explore use of scenographic elements and to be less reliant on text. 

I wanted a programme where I could learn by doing, and learn as much from my cohort as from the professional tutors present. The MA in Performance Making at Goldsmiths has been exactly that. It is a unique programme that is as international as it is interdisciplinary (that is to say very). In one intensive year it brings together a vibrant community of artists of varied talents and disciplines, unified by their shared passion for expressing themselves performatively. 

At the start of the programme I was very honoured to receive a bursary from the London-based writer's development agency Spread The Word in support of my writing. I was selected as one of six writers who they felt were stretching the boundaries of what spoken word is. After the last year I definitely feel like my work fits more squarely under this umbrella term of ‘performance’."