How Beginners On Stage (BOS) Touched My Life… Aimee Lawrence

How old were you when you started BOS?

8 years old

How long did you stay at BOS?

10 years

What did you love about BOS?

Show day!! Seeing everything come together and belting out my solos in front of the audience was (and still is) the best feeling! Looking back at some of the photos attached below brings back memories of brilliant times with brilliant friends I met at BOS. Sharing a show day really does bring people closer. During the last few years at BOS, we made various videos and I remember being so happy laughing with my friends yet still creating something we were all proud of at the end. I always loved the Christmas retirement home visits, the Christmassy feeling and putting a smile on the residents’ faces. Singing Les Mis at Fleet lights was amazing too.

What didn’t you love about BOS?

I’m sure Talla will remember my rigid arms that seemed to be glued to my side when I was acting, so we had to plan how they would move for my LAMDA exams! It was a constant battle between my brain and my arms but I would always get there in the end haha. I can’t say I was a fan of the sick feeling I got before a drama festival, nor the feeling of being so close but missing out on a medal. Of course, these things prepare you for the future.

What experience/feelings, if at all, have you used and taken from BOS into your adult life?

5 years after leaving BOS and I have certainly made use of the singing, dancing and acting skills I developed during my time there, including many shows, and, perhaps most notably, becoming Musical Director of the Cambridge University Show Choir. My LAMDA exams remain on my CV, evidence of hard work, perseverance, self-confidence and the ability to perform very well under pressure. However, these skills are only one nuance of what I have taken from BOS. The ability to lose your inhibitions and just go for it, the confidence to move to another country (I have just moved to Paris for the next few months) and join a choir, sign up to sing ‘I will always love you’ solo at my Parisian University without knowing the number of audience members, and dance in a hip hop group without ever having tried hip hop. Beyond the arts, the confidence to initiate conversations with anyone, anywhere; do a presentation to any number of people; lead assemblies as I did at school; even dancing at a party without a care in the world; the understanding that it’s best to just try these things because ‘what’s the worst that can happen?’ was something that BOS reinforced in me. I will be moving to Brussels in February to work with refugees. I plan to set up and run a show choir for them, and that doesn’t scare me.

Anything you might like to add about your experience with BOS…

I often think back to something Talla once spoke to us about: never losing your childlike qualities, ie never feeling too grown up to make a fool of yourself, be silly, act immaturely, because life is too short to care about what other people think. Although of course I know when to act like an adult (note the word act haha) I’m 21 now and I haven’t lost by childlike qualities yet, I hope I never do, and if it’s up to me, I never will.