Meet the Marlowe Society Committee, 2022-2023
The Marlowe Society is run by an executive consisting of students and one Fellow. This committee is elected in Lent term, and is responsible for the artistic direction of the society – they select shows, liaise with individual productions and organise the society’s workshops.
President: Thea Melton
Third year, Downing College, studying Human, Social and Political Sciences
President: Cassia
Third year, Sidney Sussex, studying English
Chair: Tim Crib
Fellow Emeritus, Churchill College
Treasurer:Gina Stock
Second year, Downing College, studying History
Workshops Officer: Emily Moss First year, Murray Edwards College, studying Modern and Medieval Languages
What's your favourite piece of theatre you've ever seen?
Impossible to choose, so this is why I pick three: Matilda the Musical, Ivo van Hove’s Hedda Gabler, and Stephen Daldry’s Skylight
What sound or noise do you love?
Birdsong (classic).
What profession would you not like to do?
Anything where I have to sit in an office all day, every day.
New Writing Officer: Jasper Cresdee-Hyde
First Year, St John's College, studying Human, Social and Political Sciences
What do you consider the most overrated virtue?
This is incredibly specific but I really, really hate overbearing niceties - it's almost always a front for something else
What profession would you not like to do ?
I'd be a really awful Maths teacher
What is your most treasured possession?
How do I choose? I think if I stripped everything back, it would have to be this broken old toy I still have from childhood; I sometimes use it (him?) to visualise stories, and it's (he's...?) a reminder of where I came from.
Communications Officer: Cadence Ware
Second Year, Selwyn College, studying English
Favourite word?
Flamingo. An excellent word for an excellent bird.
What is your most treasured possession?
Sentimentally, a framed copy of the first play I wrote and directed, signed by all the cast. It gets wrapped in many layers of bubble wrap every time I come home from university! Realistically, my laptop because almost everything I've ever written is on there.
What sound or noise do you love?
Water in motion. Waves, streams, baths filling up...I'd happily listen to it all day
Secretary: Ziqi Yan
First year, Trinity College, studying English
Favourite word?
I like saying 'flair'.
Favourite piece of theatre?
My favourite is probably Danny Boyle's 'Frankenstein'. He made a most iconic decision when he told Benedict Cumberbatch and Jonny Lee Miller to alternate between starring as Victor and the Creature. The switch was a viscerally beautiful way of asking what it is that makes us human.
Showcase Officer: Beth Kelly
Second Year, Clare College, studying English
What is your favourite piece of theatre you've seen?
Richard Greenberg's The Dazzle at Found III in 2014; it was the first "proper" piece of theatre I'd ever seen and it opened my eyes to the idea that theatre could be - and is - more than musicals and pantomimes. In fact, I loved it so much that I put it on in Cambridge last term (never underestimate my determination to include other people in my relentless quest to relive various nostalgic episodes from my own past).
What is your least favourite word?
I have an irrational hatred for the word fluid - it makes me feel a bit sick.
What is your greatest achievement?
My greatest achievement is undoubtedly either passing GCSE Maths after actually weeping in the exam hall or passing my driving test. One of these things has been far more useful to me in later life than the other.
Workshops Officer: Mojola Akinyemi
First Year, Jesus College, studying English
What do you consider the most overrated virtue?
‘Shun excess in eating and drinking’ – a chivalric virtue from the 8th century that I had to google. Not in this pandemic.
What do you consider your greatest achievement?
I’m going to be optimistic and say I haven’t hit my peak yet.
What's your favourite piece of theatre you've ever seen?
RSC Romeo and Juliet in summer 2018. The greatness of it all gave me a nosebleed.
BME Shakespeare Officer: Satya Amin
First year, Jesus College, studying Law
What is your favourite word?
‘Kal’ – It’s a Hindi word; I’ve always found it very poetic that the we use the same word for ‘yesterday’ and ‘tomorrow.’
What is your most treasured possession?
When I was in primary school, my grandfather gave me a leather diary which I filled up with scrawled memoirs. It’s always fun flipping through it!
What sound or noise do you love?
In Bangalore, whenever a filter coffee stand is serving the drink, they pour the coffee from one little brass serving tumbler into another from a height of about a foot. The sound of that pouring and frothing is just beautiful.