St Mary’s Graduate Organises Fringe Festival

St Mary’s University, Twickenham BA Technical Theatre graduate Luis Chaves Lopes has organised a fringe festival in his hometown of Chelmsford.

This comes after Luis was hospitalised with Covid-19 with some time in intensive care during his final year of study. Despite this, he graduated with first-class honours and has put together four days of theatre, film, music, poetry and much more, with funding from Arts Council England, scheduled for May 2022.

There will be a pilot day on the 27^th of November that will replicate the full festival, and in addition to the performances, there will be a photography and video competition, and a writer’s review programme for 15 – 18-year-olds.

The line-up for the pilot day includes Magician Mat Ricardo, The Repeat Beat Poet, comedy-drama Tiger Lady performed by Drama St Mary’s alumni company Dead Rabbits, music from Joe Anderton, a screening of the multi-award-winning-film Blue Hollywood with director and lead actor Francesco Gabrielle, St Mary’s Lead Lecturer in Screen Acting, and a Talk from Associate Professor at St Mary’s, Kim Salmons.

Head of Drama at St Mary’s Mark Griffin said, “Luis story is remarkable. We were very frightened for him when we heard he’d gone into intensive care and so relieved when he was discharged. He is a force majeure, however, and his final semester at St Mary’s demonstrated his desire to look forward and give back.

The festival looks magnificent and is not just a testimony to his organisational and project managing skills but also his generosity and sense of civic pride in creating, as it does, opportunities for artists to perform and produce work in his hometown of Chelmsford. He’s inspirational and we’re delighted to see all his endeavours pay off."

Find more information including details of the full line-up on the festival website.