Things you should know about Maria Ferguson and Essex Girl

MARIA FERGUSON_ESSEX GIRL397

How did you get started in theatre/performing?

I always wanted to be a performer, ever since I was little. I’d go to dance classes multiple times a week and to a performing arts school at the weekend. I was in all my school plays and then went to East 15 Acting school to train as an actor, but when I left I became more interested in writing and performing my own work, which started as poetry. I joined the Roundhouse Poetry Collective in 2011 and started gigging at spoken word nights and festivals around the country. It wasn’t until 2015 that I started applying my skills as a poet back to theatre and started writing longer pieces, eventually becoming my two one-woman shows, Fat Girls Don’t Dance and Essex Girl.

If you had a superpower, what would it be? 

It’s between invisibility and teleportation…I love in Sabrina the Teenage Witch how she can click her fingers and be somewhere else. Anything to avoid the Central Line.

Is there a topic or subject you’d love to tackle in future? 

I’ve touched on gender and class in Essex Girl but these are themes that fascinate me and would love to explore further, especially in our current political climate.

Do you have any advice for aspiring artists? 

Make the work you want to make.

It was inspired by…my experiences of growing up in Essex and the stereotype attached to where I’m from. And the dictionary definition of Essex Girl. Yes, it’s in the dictionary.

Audiences can expect…a funny and engaging piece of theatre with a dark twist. And lots ok WKD.

The show is important because… it highlights the pressures being put on young girls, and how they are treated because of their class, gender and appearance.

What are you most looking forward to about bringing the show to BAC? I started writing the show at BAC and did my very first scratch there almost 2 years ago. It’s come such a long way in that time and I’m so excited to be bringing it home.

Is there anyone in particular you’d love to come and see it?

Essex Girls!

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