Jack Palmer

Since graduating from our BA (Hons) Drama and Film, Jack has presented a number of shows for Hospital Radio Lynn and worked with Peterborough’s Key Theatre on various productions - including a one-man show that he is now taking to Edinburgh Fringe Festival.

Tell us a bit about your one-man show, and how you got involved with Edinburgh Fringe?

So the show is called The People in Our Lives, and it’s basically a story about love having a plan for us all. It's set in a pub called The Golden Ball because obviously the best place you can set anything is in a pub - and my character is called Jason, who is the landlord of The Golden Ball.

The show takes place the morning after a raucous hen party in the pub, with Jason talking to the audience about how he found himself running a pub. He also talks about his long-running love story with his childhood sweetheart Rose, the death of his dad, his mum's outrageous behaviour as well as a close relationship with his brother so there's lots of different strands, but the main one is Jason and Rose reuniting after seven years, and how their reunion brings back all these feelings that Jason had for Rose all those years ago.

I performed a very early version of the show at the Key Theatre in Peterborough. They run these events called Key Nights where local artists can test their ideas and shows in different forms and receive feedback from the audience so I took it there in 2024 and received some amazing feedback and then after taking some time to develop it, I researched and secured a venue in Edinburgh earlier this year, I made posters, I got an original soundtrack and a small group of voice actors and now it’s dawning on me that I’m actually going to be doing it.

Whilst I’m very nervous about it, I'm also very excited and proud to be taking the show to the Edinburgh Fringe because it’s the biggest thing I've ever done in drama, really.

What else have you been up to since graduating?

I've continued to work with Hospital Radio Lynn - that started as work experience in 2018 while I was still at college. I did that until COVID happened, when everything shut down, then started it again once everything opened up again.

I've done various events with them - Her Late Majesty the Queen's Platinum Jubilee, the King's Coronation, the 75th anniversary of the NHS, the 50th anniversary of Hospital Radio Lynn. I've done Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, New Year's Eve and all the other bank holidays over the last couple of years.

It's all recorded ahead of time, but I’ve done two live shows as well - a Summer Bank Holiday special of my friend Wayne’s show Totally Naughties and we did Christmas Eve last year too, which was amazing fun. Christmas is my favourite time of the year at the radio. I write and present all of my shows and I even get to choose the music, which is lovely.

I also directed and acted in a Caryl Churchill play, Love and Information, at Peterborough Key Theatre, which I loved because the whole play was like an anthology of different scenes so you could effectively play a different character in every scene, which was amazing to do as a young actor and as I had studied another Churchill play, Cloud Nine, during my Studio Performance module with Sue Wilson during the first year of my degree, it was lovely to work on another of Churchill’s plays.

What inspired your love of drama and film in the first place?

In primary school we'd do these Christmas productions - they weren't really pantomimes, they were productions of different shows - and in my last year we did A Christmas Carol but there were about 90 pupils in our year, and they had to find parts for everybody so it was basically A Christmas Carol with characters from Dickens’ other stories too. I was Fagin from Oliver Twist and I absolutely loved it.

I got the bug for film in primary school as well. We had a film club and a film school, which I loved. In film club we would watch a film then write a review about it online, and in film school we were taught how to make a film, from writing the script to shooting the film and then editing the film.

Then when I went to secondary school, I did my GCSE Media, where I was able to do more writing and filming - but I didn't really do much acting there, which is ironic considering the school actually specialised in performing arts!

Where and what did you study before ARU?

I did a Level 3 Extended Diploma in Creative Media Production and Technologies at the College of West Anglia in King's Lynn in West Norfolk, which lasted for two years, and then I started my Drama & Film degree at ARU in Cambridge in 2020.

Why did you choose to study at ARU?

It was the course. I loved the idea of doing drama and film together. While I enjoyed the film side of my college course, I also enjoyed acting in other people's projects. A lot of people would invite me to be an actor in their films, which was always really nice, so when I was applying for university, I knew that I wanted to study both subjects alongside each other, which ARU enabled me to do.

But also a small part of it was because I could easily commute to Cambridge from where I was living by train because I chose to stay at home throughout my degree, which probably wasn’t a bad move considering I was studying at ARU throughout the COVID years.

What’s the most valuable thing you took away from your education?

Resilience! Simply because whilst my cohort had those two years of COVID, we also had other things to contend with like rail strikes and tutor strikes. During the rail strikes, I had to stay over in Cambridge because otherwise I couldn't have got in.

But despite everything, I'm proud that we got through it because it was difficult for everybody. During COVID, we were wearing masks and testing before we came onto campus. In the first trimester, I had an injury so I had to work completely online. Nonetheless, I got through it and I'm proud of that. I still managed to walk out with a 2:1 in the end, which was brilliant.

I also got the chance to learn stage combat, which was great fun and a lovely thing to add to my acting CV. I did the whole course and now I’ve got a certificate in it. We were taught by a professional stunt/fight co-ordinator. I absolutely loved it. That’s one of the many opportunities you can take up during the course should you wish to.

Which aspects of the course most helped your career development, and why?

All of the performance modules. Up until that point, I hadn’t done a lot of performance work on stage because I studied film at college, so I was doing a lot of studio work. For the final ARU module, the Festival of Performance, I had the opportunity to perform in a theatre space outside of the university so we performed at the Town & Gown pub and theatre  in Cambridge and that was an amazing experience.

During my second year, we did an ARU Community Theatre performance on one of my first modules with Heather Lilley, and it was brilliant. We went to a local primary school to do a Theatre in Education-style performance, which is something I'd seen many companies do when I was at school, but I never thought I’d have the opportunity to do it myself so that was another amazing experience.

More than anything, I learned to adapt to different working environments and different skills. We performed in ARU’s Covent Garden Drama Studio and Mumford Theatre, then moved on to venues outside the university such as primary schools and pubs. I think that has really prepared me for performing professionally. I've performed in studios since leaving ARU, and now I'm going to be performing in a studio at the Fringe too so I think I can say I really enjoy working in a studio environment.

Another thing that was very useful, and fantastic for drama courses, is that we worked very closely with film. Even though I was making films on the film side of my course, I was able to be an actor for other students and their films, which gave us a very specific kind of work experience and I'm still in touch with some of those people so you get to make those connections with different people on this course.

What advice would you give to other Drama and Film students?

Take all the opportunities that they offer you. If they say “Do you want to do stage combat?”, do it. If they say, “Do you want to go filming with the film students?”, do it. If they say, “Do you want to go to London to watch a film showcase?”, do it. Because it all helps you develop your skills. It's not just about what you do in your modules. It's about choosing to learn other things too, because at the end of the day, it’s all offered to you to enhance your skillset as an actor.

In my case, the fact that I can do stage combat; the fact I can work on both screen and stage, it all adds to my CV. So take all the opportunities that they give you.

What are you hoping to use your skills on after the Fringe?

When you register for the Fringe, they ask “what do you want to get out of it?” As well as representation, I said that I'd like to develop my project for either TV or film. So I’m looking for people who are in that industry. That's going to be my roundabout way of getting back into the film industry. That's my goal from the fringe.

What was your favourite thing about studying in Cambridge?

I didn't spend a lot of time in Cambridge before I studied there. I now go to Cambridge on a regular basis because I love it so much. I've made friends there who I'm still in touch with.

It's nice and busy - there are people everywhere, and all these wonderful places to wander around. There's just so much there for you to enjoy. Just walking around Cambridge is lovely. I just love Cambridge.