Meet our graduates: Elisabeth Gunawan
MA Theatre Lab, 2020
Before coming to RADA, I was like a lot of people my age, a little bit lost and searching for my life in art. I was performing and training and at the same time spending 9am-5pm at a corporate job. It was only when I got into the MA Theatre Lab that I refocused and embarked truly on my craft.
This course gave me the biggest challenges I've ever faced — mentally and physically. In all its unexpectedness, it gave me the tools and experiences I needed to perform and truly encounter an audience, and to make the kind of exciting theatre I always wanted.
Even in spite of the pandemic, the grit of the course leadership under Ian Morgan turned it into an invaluable learning experience. MA Theatre Lab was the place where the seeds for my works for years to come was born.
The piece that started as our drag project, and then became our class manifesto piece, was a story very dear to my heart called Unforgettable Girl. The piece was nurtured first at RADA with our teachers, and eventually won the OffFest 2022 award.
I now work with different physical theatre companies, including the David Glass Ensemble, Flabbergast Theatre and Ad Infinitum. I am also creative producing and performing my own projects under the label of my artisti collective Saksi Bisou. I am still lost, but in the best way.
