Actor Liam Green has a walk-on stage role today and the chances are he’ll make a drama out of it. Dressed for the part in academic gown and black mortarboard, Liam (21) receives his BA Hons Drama at today’s graduation ceremony at the Millennium Forum.
He promises to enter into the spirit of the occasion by treading the boards at the right pace, bowing when he gets his certificate and smiling for the cameras. But the Magee campus student won’t be able to resist turning it into a piece of theatre. Maybe not today but definitely sometime in the future.
From Andersonstown, Belfast, his interest at Magee has been ‘autobiographical performance’, which for him was a one-person staged performance in which the actor acts out aspects of his life’s stories while also closely interacting with the audience.
“For me, it was all about the study of self and identity, how one ‘acts’ and is perceived even in the most mundane day-to-day situations. For my final year work project, I presented – along with extensive research -- what I hope was an innovative performance. I devised and based it on aspects of my life and experiences both before and after arriving at Magee, drawing on the ideas of myself as well as other practitioners.
“These experiences are passed now and I’m looking forward to putting together a new autobiographical performance that will encompass particular episodes over the next few years. I try to mix humour and optimism in them, or at least reflect a feeling of hope even in the pessimistic episodes.”
“The Drama course at Magee is without a doubt the best in the country. It is such a contemporary course and the lecturers are fantastic. They don’t spoon-feed you but they help you to help yourself. There’s a lot of work involved in a Drama degree and, for those who stick it out, there is no-one that doesn’t enjoy it.”
