Kate Budgen

Theatre is my passion and my years at QEHS allowed such rich opportunity for me to explore my theatrical potential.  I completed my A Levels in 1999 with a firm desire to go on to find my niche in the world of theatre!  I took a year out before university and with five other QEHS leavers, set up a theatre company (unfortunately called UNOUS...You Know Us!) and during that year we produced Lonestar, Laundry and Bourbon by James McLure and The Office Party by John Godber at the Queens Hall Arts Centre in Hexham.  We all went our seperate ways after that and I completed a BA Hons in English Literature at Newcastle University.  I joined the theatre society, which taught me more than my degree ever could. After acting in a few productions, I wanted to satisfy an urge in me to direct, so I agreed to direct Dido and Aeneas as part of the Newcastle Early Music Festival.  After that, I knew that I had found my niche!  I went on to direct a piece of new writing at the Edinburgh Festival and a play based on a Noel Coward short story at University.

I graduated in 2004, where a fellow graduate and I made plans to set up our own new writing theatre company.  We were both passionate about providing opportunity for new young writers and performers so we began with a monologue evening called When In Rome..., which showcased ten talented young writers and actors at the People’s Theatre in Heaton.  It is our aim to go on to create a touring company who works collaboratively with new writers to create theatre that has evolved out of a mutual need.  We have recently commissioned one of these new writers to write a play that we hope to workshop with a small ensemble, then premiere at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2007, before taking it on tour.

Meanwhile, I applied to a MFA in Theatre Directing at Birkbeck College in London, which is a new course created alongside the National Council for Drama Training that arose out of the need for more director training in the UK.  I got a place and am now one of nine young directors on a two year intensive practical course.  We work constantly with current professionals as each term is devoted to a different strand of the director’s role; from spending a term at a London Drama School, to working with designers at Motley Design School, working with an author at the National Theatre Studio and finally spending six months in a UK theatre where we eventually direct our own studio production. 
So, the future looks extremely exciting, for my own personal development as a director and for our plans for a new writing theatre company.  Who knows, UNOUS may even be part of the future...but only with a different name!