Mary Galloway, 2011

Mary read English at Clare. After graduating she went straight to drama school and is now an actress, performing across stage and screen.

Who was your greatest Clare influence and why?

I studied English at Clare and my greatest influence was definitely my wonderful year group and the Clare English fellows, all utterly formidable and inspiring in their own way, with a deep care for their students and their work.

Mary's Story

I feel so lucky to have arrived at the time I did and to have been part of my particular subject cohort – everyone had such a unique perspective and energy, and we just had so much fun together. I remember a lot of cake, a lot of talking late into the night, and an appreciation for and celebration of each other’s individuality.

When I left Cambridge I went straight to drama school, training as an actor at Guildhall, and then going on to perform across stage and screen, as well as working a lot of other jobs in the spaces between. I’ve also kept writing, made interdisciplinary performance work and collaborated with some amazing artists. 

I think Clare taught me about the value of curiosity. To keep asking questions, to be curious about people, to question ideas you might have accepted implicitly or taken for granted. I learned that you don’t have to put ideas together in a linear way – that you can start with a hook and just keep following it, wherever it might take you. I think it was the first place I felt a real sense of intellectual freedom and courage. Most of all, it gave me a sense of the value of community, of what is creatively possible in a group of people with respect and affection for each other bouncing ideas around. In our third year, our English group and Dr Stillman collaborated on a site specific performance of Tennyson’s Maud, with an original score, DIY lighting, and some (dance?!) episodes emerging from bushes, at the end of which I was punted down the Cam by Jeremy Hardingham dressed as death. I won’t forget it!