The Bloomsbury Studio – a new UCL performance space

UCL students and staff now have a brand new, flexible performance space in which to explore new ideas and take risks – with the only limit being their imaginations.

That’s how Simon Cane, Director of UCL Public & Cultural Engagement (PACE), framed the Bloomsbury Studio at its official launch on 17 June.

He described his PACE team as “the air moving between things” and “a unique offer in higher education” in the way that they bring together teaching, performance and museums at UCL.

As a result, the team is perfectly placed to manage the programme of the studio, which seats 60–80 people, and they will be looking particularly for performance and activity that puts the spotlight on UCL research.

Speaking at the launch event, President & Provost Professor Michael Arthur praised the Bloomsbury Theatre as “an integral part of our being and the student experience” and a venue at which he had seen dance, opera and musical theatre productions that were “spectacularly professional”.

So he was very pleased that the Transforming UCL programme had provided an opportunity to improve the Bloomsbury Theatre through the creation of an additional studio space – describing it as “a tremendous development for us” and “an opportunity to work with students to generate a vibrant cultural life”.

The studio will also provide a permanent home for popular events run by the Public Engagement Unit such as Science Showoff and Bright Club.

And as a Bright Club stalwart, Professor Sophie Scott (UCL Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience) was the perfect choice to speak next about the benefits of being involved with public engagement activity.

Describing herself as someone who has “always been a massive show-off”, she admitted that when she first heard about Bright Club, she thought it was “the single worst thing I’d ever heard of”. However, a colleague egged her on to take part and, immediately after her first Bright Club, she said to herself: “I’ve absolutely got to do this again”.

She went on to explain how it had helped her not only to improve as a speaker – leading to radio appearances and talks at TED conferences – but also as a scientist in the way that interacting with the public had prompted her to ask different questions.

Professor Scott also mentioned how she encouraged the younger researchers in her team and we saw how this could bear fruit in the form of a short set by linguistics PhD student Nick Neeson, who gave us a witty, engaging introduction to his specialism, phonology – the study of sound patterns in speech.

The final speaker of the evening was comedian and presenter of Radio 4’s The Infinite Monkey Cage, Robin Ince.

Remarking on how he had been coming to the Bloomsbury Theatre for nearly 30 years and performing at it for 10, he hailed it as a place that had enabled him to combine “the ridiculous and the experimental”, while exuding “a fantastic sense of people working together”.

In particular, he said, it had given him the chance to work with UCL scientists such as Jon Butterworth and Andrea Sella while incorporating everything from bongo playing to tap dancing and wave particle dualities – often in the same evening.

As an example of just how eclectic the studio’s programme is likely to be, the launch event was rounded off by a performance from ukulele cabaret group, Martini Encounter.

Watch a slideshow of the event: