News

Welcome to Wyvern

Welcome to new students and members of staff at the University of Essex. Wyvern is your newsletter and we are keen to include news and features which reflect your interests.

Last term we surveyed readers' views about Wyvern, and have made some changes for the new academic year in response to your requests. Top of the list was more departmental news - so this year we will be carrying a series of departmental features, starting in this issue with the spotlight on Philosophy.

You also wanted more national Higher Education news, and we will be including a brief column in every issue, as well as more in-depth analysis of important topics such as funding. More human interest and more about students was also requested, and we are talking to departments to try to increase the flow of stories.

Student contributors wanted

We are keen to recruit student contributors to Wyvern, ideally having a contact in every department. While we can't guarantee to include everything, it will help make Wyvern livelier and more topical if you are telling us what's going on out there, whether academic achievements, community projects or unusual hobbies.

We are also looking for students to review productions at the Lakeside Theatre on campus - in return for a pair of free tickets!

Contact the Wyvern office on 01206 872807 or e-mail wyvern@essex.ac.uk.

Stars celebrate 40 years of E15

More than 350 staff and students, past and present gathered for a reunion to celebrate 40 years of East 15 Acting School.

The school was born from Joan Littlewoods famed Theatre Workshop. Created by Margaret Walker, the founding principle of the school was the preservation of the unique approach to theatre which the Theatre Workshop came to represent. The Littlewood approach combined Stanislavki, Brecht and Laban and resulted in pioneering productions such as Oh What a Lovely War.

A picnic was held in the grounds of the school and welcomed back alumni from the past four decades who have gone on to follow a variety of careers within the world of show business. Amongst those who attended were soap star Margi Campi, who plays Jessie Shadwick in Brookside and Bruvers theatre company founder Michael Mould, Robert Cambrinus who can be seen in the forthcoming new BBC series Red Cap and Vinta Morgan who is opening in 125th Street at the Apollo Theatre.

The picnic also raised almost £1,000 which will go towards a student bursary.

Also in the printed October edition of Wyvern:

• HE Today
• Major boost for research park
• Edwardians online