Changing places
Lubna Kerr’s little listicle on moving into the arts at a later age
Lubna Kerr’s latest play, Chatterbox, arrives at the Edinburgh Fringe hot from a successful preview mini-season at the Morecambe Fringe. It follows Tickbox and Tickbox 2, hits at previous Fringes.
But performing was not what Lubna originally trained to be – she has a PhD in pharmacy and over 35 years experience working in the NHS. Here, she provides little listicle of folk who have moved into a new arena in later life – inspired by the idea that you don’t always start doing what you want… But you can end up doing what you need.
Lubna Kerr. Pic: Colin Hattersley.
Where does it say you have to do the same job for the rest of your life? It’s not in any holy book that I know.
“Do we really know what we will do at the age of 18 when we leave school or even earlier when we have to make our selection of our subjects in school?
“Perhaps school does not make our brains excited and we never engage. Higher education is not for everyone. How many of us are doing what our parents wanted us to do because “it was a good job for a woman”?
Luminate is an organisation that helps older people make transitions in life. I was very lucky to have a residency with them in 2021 and I met some wonderful people who were now doing something very different from what they trained in.
People like Annie Sturgeon who was a primary school teacher but now is an artist with her paintings being on display in many different venues as well as being a writer.
But then are other people who did follow their passion but for some reason left it to follow a career, then come back to it when they retired. This is what Jude Nixon did, she is an artist with a focus on using items she finds on the beach and making them into art.
childhood passion
Michael Heaney came over from Ireland to study at Aberdeen University. He stayed in the city to work in the oil and gas industry. However, on retirement he went back to his childhood passion of art, focusing on writing, photography, and artificial image-making from existing digital photographs. Not to mention modelling his fantastic range of waistcoats!
Fiona Harrison was a civil servant and when she retired at 60 she decided to go to college to study music before getting a master’s degree in digital composition and performance at Edinburgh University. As a composer and sound artist she is inspired by the growing area of ecology and music and by the sounds of the natural environment.
Maria MacDonnell has had full and successful career doing a variety of things but now she is a writer, performer and storyteller with her own show at the Storytelling Centre at this year’s Edinburgh Fringe.
The other male in this residence was Clive Andrews who likes to combine research with performance, completing a MA in directing circus and performance.
I was the final person in this group. I trained as a pharmacist, I have three degrees (as opposed to Three Degrees) the final being a PhD in pharmacy. I am a doctor of drugs.
But my drug of choice is the performance arts. Chatterbox is my second play with a very successful first play Tickbox which has been touring the UK.
It’s never too late to follow your dreams, never let anyone stop you.
Listing
Chatterbox
Pleasance Courtyard (The Green), 60 Pleasance, EH8 9TJ (Venue 33)
31 July – 25 Aug 2024.
Daily (not Tue 13, Tue 20): 4.55pm. (1 hr)
Tickets and details: Book here.
The C word
Scottish Poetry Library, 5 Crichton’s Close, Canongate, EH8 8DT
Wed 7, Thurs 15 & Wed 21 Aug 2024
Daily: 1.30pm. (1 hr)
A Work in Progress.
Tickets and details: Book here.
ENDS
