Introducing: Elizabeth Uter

Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much

Helen Keller

‘Liz’ is a professional actor of many years, training at drama school and now teaching in the arts. The workshops help her to keep up with her training and her practice current. She has a great creative flair that spans across multiple mediums, making ‘Red Hat Opera’ workshop the perfect outlet.

When did you start the workshops?

November 2017, I’ve only missed 1 or 2 sessions.

Is acting your main forte?

Actor/writer/performance poet. I also produce for theatre, short films, and teach acting and poetry.

What keeps you coming back?

I think it’s important as a professional that you keep a pulse with your training. I love Guy’s improvisational basis, and I love the group. You don’t often get to work with people you are simpatico with, and they’re just wonderful people. The creativeness is quite spontaneous sometimes and I love that I’m constantly learning something new. My practice is expanding as it’s introducing different methods and is very stimulating.

What is it that you enjoy the most?

The people. I love the people. I love working with other performers. It’s not about whether they’re professional, because a lot of the time you don’t get that. But its a freshness they bring. Everybody has life, life experience, and creativity in the arts is about what you gain from life, reflecting on the true reality. 

This is unfair to the other aspects because I love that we compose music and choreograph. I’ve never done either before, so that was exciting. I compose poetry so I understand written composition. But in this case it’s about composing our own music. Guy just has a fresh outlook that constantly challenges your practice in a creative way. 

Has it inspired your creative works?

Definitely. Nearly every week Guy is introducing something a bit new. I’m constantly working on things, so sometimes I inject a bit of the creativity that’s come from that, or have new questions to ask. So I start to see my work in a fresher way because I’m now asking questions I may not have before the sessions.

Has it helped in your general life too?

Absolutely. It’s such a relief to be able to have this outlet, especially on a Sunday, so you start the week on a creative high. And you’ve worked with people who are really open and amenable so that sets you off on a good footing for the week. That you are open and amenable, but also able to stand back when you don’t meet people who are necessarily so open and helpful. It also offers you a more creative way of dealing with them. 

What are your highlights of the workshop?

Always meeting new people is just a boom and it could be somebody who is a chef, or in the legal profession. Seeing how they let their creativity go and seeing people and myself progressing as the days, weeks, years go by, is just a boom.

I particularly loved the performance that we did, the environmental one. The use of fishing for sound, I absolutely adore that exercise. The way we were so creative in our choices for the piece. I’ve done opera, but trying to do an aria was a challenge and I loved that. 

Because it’s such a special project, you want to really consider it and what it’s done for your personal growth. Everyone should have a Guy experience. Again, It just sets you up for the week ahead.

Dream Trails from The Eye. By Elizabeth Uter

Flight feathered in silence becomes bubbles of

b r e a t h i n g ,

deep in the listening

s l o w n e s s ,

entwining with the long

f r e e n e s s .

There are light sparks of laughter, too, glowing in the bright bride’s face of rainbows. Sun circles and spins with the sky,
which travels beside scuttering butterflies.

Here and there, ants forage for grubs soaked in loam, humble bumbles are lightly being bees and eating
buds that are sipping the green liquids from the earth’s core, and on the shores, the delicate toes of calming seas
are seeping in foam, wave after wave without end.

And the week is

d r i f t i n g

in the wake of stars shaped like far-flung worlds of wild, whirring air.

Birds are skirting the edges of trails,
tails bobbing, beaks throbbing with seeds until the lilting moon drips silver dust, then they are

s l u m b e r i n g

and

s l u r r i n g

their words before sleep.

Ghostlike, they

m u m b l e

with humming mouthes and tumbling tongues, fast, on their perch and whilst they are lolling,

l o n g i n g

for the quick strike of midnight when time is dizzy and double-speed,
in their minds, they may snack
from dawn until dusk on a feast of light and marshmallow syrups, floating down their throats.

The winged ones, flightless now, are ready, heads turned around, bills tucked to backs, feathery downs – blankets – their beds,
with one leg pulled up to their well-fed chests, They test sleep’s waters by tasting its dreams