THEY’RE used to working on large-scale shows as a group, devising, composing and developing pieces together, but next week East 15’s third-year physical theatre students are going solo.

Go Solo sees each student on the course work to produce a five-minute solo piece to showcase their talents, and they’ll perform their innovative work.

“The students have very specific training,” says director Andre Pink, who’s been helping the students on their pieces.

“They do everything from circus to puppetry and clowning, they’re trained as actors, but there are all these other parts of training that make them really special performers, and they have complete freedom to create whatever they want to.

“We’ve got 19 actors, so there’s a huge variety of styles – some pieces are kind of funny, others are more provocative or tackling big issues, like education or animal treatment, it’s like a kaleidoscope of emotions and images from humour to very touching pieces.

“We have one girl who’s doing a piece that’s an homage to Mary Poppins, it’s really funny.

“We have a Swiss actress who’s doing a piece on euthanasia in Switzerland – it’s a bit satirical, a funny piece about death holidays, ‘come to Switzerland for a quick and painless death’.

“There is a piece that’s a modern take on fairytales, one actress looking at different versions of Goldilocks, Snow White and Sleeping Beauty and a very satirical one about education and how dyslexic people are treated – and there is a piece about Essex women, a bit of a documentary piece about what do Essex women have that makes them special.”