A LIFE CHANGING TELEPHONE BOX It’s often said that your time at University is the best three years of your life, and even though every year that follows is a gift, I look back at my time in Durham as the most defining, happy and important. I loved Durham and I loved Collingwood. The friends I made there and the opportunities I encountered, live with me to this day. And in fact, all the opportunities I’ve had since graduation in 1995, can be put down to an old red telephone box, just outside the English Department on Elvet Riverside. It’s not there anymore, but it was very important, because I made a call from it that changed my life completely.
Alex Macqueen (English Literature, Collingwood, 1992-95) on pursuing a profession you love, despite getting banished from The National Youth Theatre.
Now for this to make any sense, I need to give you some background. Anyone who wants to become an actor needs an agent. It is the agent that holds access to the projects, the casting directors and the producers that allow you to get work. And to get an agent, the traditional route is to go to drama school, perform in the end of year showcase and hope to get signed up that evening.
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But it’s very expensive, so I tried an alternative route and attempted to join the National Youth Theatre (NYT). It’s a fantastic springboard and has launched many a star, so if you’re lucky enough to get in, it’s a massive opportunity. And luckily for me, after a number of attempts, I got in. Brilliant. But then I got the sack. Less brilliant. Here’s how. Just before I started Durham in 1992, I was offered a part in the NYT summer show, playing opposite Orlando Bloom and Chiwetel Ejiofor. We were doing Julius Caesar and I’d been offered a small part called Marullus - a small part but nevertheless, a part. Now when I say it was a small part, it was so small, that my entire contribution was over and done, four minutes into the first scene. I had nothing more to do. So I got bored. And one evening, standing back stage, I was beside the props table and could see the various items: the knife to kill Julius Caesar, the scroll for Marcus Brutus, a dish full of blood capsules and, crucially, a large brown leather folder.