Homerton student Lauren Akinluyi doesn’t shy away from the limelight. Despite pursuing a BA in English, the stage is where she is most likely to be found. Growing up as a theatre kid, studying at Cambridge has allowed her acting career to blossom, as she now takes on the role of Olivia in Michael Oakley’s vision of Twelfth Night.
In her penultimate year at Cambridge and undertaking the challenge of not one, but two dissertations, Lauren almost didn’t audition for the role. However, a friend seeing her potential to play Olivia prompted her to approach Oakley: “I thought, it couldn’t hurt to give him my CV and let him see a bit of my work because once I graduate, I could run into him again.”
The turning point, resulting in her decision to pursue acting once she graduates, was touring the US with the Cambridge American Stage Tour’s (CAST) Macbeth.
“Getting cast in such a large-scale production, which was very competitive to get into, made me feel like I had the potential to develop this skill and turn it into a career.”
After the audition and recalls with Oakley, the part was hers and with it came the strict schedule and long hours. For Lauren, however, this intensity is “what makes [Cambridge plays] so addictive”. Staying in Homerton over the Christmas break and rehearsing most days from 10am–5pm was no small feat. "I started doing extra work during term to compensate for the time taken up by rehearsals,” she says, pairing this with early mornings and late nights.
“The level of creativity is so high,” she says when reflecting on working with a professional crew and director. The process allowed her to delve deeper into her character than ever before, feeling like “a dream come true”.
At the first tech run on Monday, performing to the over 660 seats in The Arts Theatre - almost three times the size of her last performance in ADC Theatre’s A Streetcar Named Desire - this feeling was only made stronger.
Lauren shared her ritual of choosing a perfume to embody the characters she plays. For Olivia, she has been wearing “a strong and powerful scent which reminds me of her confidence and assertive behaviour” in the lead up to the show.
She looks forward to trying her hand at acting in film and squeezing one more play in next term, joking that she might be addicted to performing.
“When I look back at my time at Homerton, I rarely think about how much fun I had writing essays, I always think about the plays I did every term and the friends I made from it, and the things I learned from watching other people act and direct.”
She urges students to take advantage of the plethora of opportunities: "Even if you can't find something that works for you, there's the opportunity for you to make something.”
‘Twelfth Night’ is showing at The Arts Theatre from Wednesday 21 January until Saturday 24 January.
By Aaliyah Otubanjio
