Alicia McKenzie

‘Alicia’s Amazing Adventure to Find the First Black Briton’

Hear from Alicia about her career, practice and work:

Alicia McKenzie is an actor, storyteller and theatre practitioner. As an actor, she has worked predominantly in theatre, working for many notable companies such as the National Theatre, The RSC, Northern Broadsides, the Watermill, the New Vic, Bolton Octagon and many more. Storytelling is at the heart of all her creative work. She seeks to take her audiences on a journey, using the imagination, simple devices and bold performances, into the heart of a narrative.

As a theatre practitioner, her work is immersive, innovative and multi-faceted. After studying for a Master’s Degree in Applied Theatre, she has worked with children and young people for over 15 years. As an artist, she is particularly interested in how an audience’s involvement can shape the narrative of a show making each performance unique and a lived experience for all. She also makes work from the point of view of a black, female, northern woman and celebrates stories from the black diaspora.

The Show:

Alicia’s Amazing Adventure to Find the First Black Britons is her first show as a solo artist. The piece incorporates her desire to use group imagination and simple storytelling techniques to enable the audience to participate in the unfolding of the narrative as the quest plays out. In the show, an adult Alicia remembers an unsatisfactory conversation with her childhood teacher about why people have different coloured skin. Unhappy with the answer she was given, she sets out on a quest to find out how long black people have been living in Britain. With a little bit of magic, the ancestors leave her clues to solve and with the help of the audience, all are whisked back in time to meet some extraordinary characters from years gone by.

Elsewhere Alicia works in Racial Diversity and is a performance and presentation skills coach. Alicia’s Amazing Adventure is a happy union of her many strands of work and experience.