A life full of drama
Words: Greer McNally Photography: Angela Moore
Ankita Menon (Medicine, Second Year) has rediscovered her dramatic side... and a love of teddies.
I’ve become really involved in drama since I started at Imperial – so the Union Concert Hall, and the memories I’ve made there, are an important part of my life. In fact, the people I’ve met in Medics Drama are like a second family to me. I gave all that stuff up in Year 9 to concentrate on studying at school, so having the opportunity to try it now is brilliant.
The only problem is that I do find it hard sometimes to say no when people ask me to help out! I was on my hospital placement last term and still ended up stage-directing a musical – Beauty and the Beast. I don’t drink coffee and discovered that exhaustion can manifest in some very strange ways. I had heart palpitations and weird bouts of dizziness. Nowadays, my number one recommendation is to make sure you get more than four hours of sleep every night.
I wouldn’t have missed it, though, it’s been very eventful, like the time a shoulder carry nearly resulted in the pair ending up in the band pit. Last term we put on a crazy crossover of Alice in Wonderland and Doctor Who. It was called The Doctor in Wonderland and I played a mechanical flower called Pansy. I won’t give too much away about my costume, but there was a lot of green.
The directors have worked so hard to make it very easy for us to fit it around our schedules, and I’m using the experience to help out in other areas. TeddyBear hospital is a perfect example – it sounded like a leisurely activity when I first heard about it, but actually we spend our Wednesday afternoons teaching six-year-olds about their health – about health emergencies, how to eat healthily, and how to keep clean.
The people I’ve met at Medics Drama are like a second family to me"
The skills and experience I’ve picked up on and around the stage have been invaluable. We focus our attention on the kids’ teddies – that way they feel more relaxed talking about stuff. We do have a large, hot and sweaty teddy bear costume that I wore once. The whole time the head was falling off slowly, but I couldn’t let it go altogether – the kids would have been horrified. I was leaning back to balance it on top of my head.
It’s brilliant hanging out with people I cherish so much, and really enjoyable meeting new people as well. We rehearse in room R1 in the Reynolds Building, but I’ll be back in the Union Concert Hall for the show. I can’t wait. Will I still be acting in five years? I don’t know. But I’m loving every minute of it right now.