sustained theatre

In her role, Pauline contacts young people and gets them together to develop and be a part of a theatre production while encouraging them to do the various jobs that require a production to run.

One of the new projects that she will be working on is the forthcoming Shakespeare Festival at Tara called 'Shakespeare Remix', where in her role as Youth Coordinator she will be working with youth company to develop a production of 'Othello'.

Arriving in Britain at the age of 16 years old from Uganda, she has gone on to develop her skills in theatre since graduating from Roehampton University in July 2009. 'I had never studied theatre or drama until I went to university. In fact, theatre and drama is undermined in my country as it is seen as a waste of education and time, or money to be honest. But I've always loved to be a performer and am glad that my family have supported me all the way through.'

Taking a pivotal role at Tara she is being mentored by the company and has been a key part of the developments on theatre projects such as 'Sailing to Britain', an Arts and Heritage project for young people in London and 'Animals Lawsuit', a play she adapted and performed in.

She also produced the recent Arts Beat production of 'Ali Baba'. 'Being a producer is one of the hardest jobs I've ever done in theatre so far. People don't realise how important that role is, but without one the show cannot necessarily go on. As producer, you have to make sure that everyone involved knows what is expected of them and that they are working well with everyone else.'

Pauline spoke about her work on Arts Beat;

'Its quite a unique opportunity, working with young people who have no idea of what theatre is about and may not have had a chance to see and experience theatre. Its about demystifying the West End theatre experience for them, and letting them into theatre. Its also about them learning from the inside, seeing what goes into a production and how it is pulled together. Whether its the technical side of delivery to viewing, its basically how theatre can be presented.

On the 'Sailing to Britain' project, we took the young people from Greenwich to go and see the young people in Wandsworth performing at Tara studio and the first thing they noticed when they got to the venue was the space. Their idea of theatre was a large auditorium with big stage and with that they thought the performance would be like one from primary school. But after seeing the performance in that space, and knowing how long it had taken (just five days) to produce, they were quite impressed and ready for the challenge.''

Pauline’s own work is informed by a connection with fringe theatre, an experience she likes to explore on a regular basis.“ Fringe theatre creates a presence in which I see a lot more focus on the culture and society that I live in. A lot of young people can see the connection with themselves and this shapes their perspectives on what they can deliver in theatre themselves. I think that fringe allows people to address issues or morals of our multicultural society without glamourizing it too much or fitting into the stereotype of theatre as a whole.”

Busy working as a freelancer, Pauline is developing new theatre ideas all the time; "One thing I have learned and like about fringe is the relationship between the performers and the audience. I like that fringe allows you to get the audience involved, which I think keeps them engaged. I hope to go and study a post graduate in playwriting to further my skills. But for the skills I have right now, I am grateful to Tara who are like my theatre family and have supported and still push me to achieve the best in theatre.

Thanks to Pauline Nakirya for the conversation!