Date
Saturday 17th May 2025, 14:00
Event type
Theatre & Workshop
Location
Mary Ogilvie Lecture Theatre, St Anne's College

‘Making it personal’ is a public engagement theatre event supported by the University of Oxford PCER Fund and Centre for Personalised Medicine. This project uses theatre to connect the public with new genomic research.

What is it really like to receive genetic risk information, especially when planning a family? This short play depicts a day in the life of a couple who have a young child with a serious genetic condition. After several years of not knowing, they’ve recently been told the condition is caused by a de novo mutation (DNM) – a type of genetic change. Although on average the risk of it happening again in a future pregnancy is usually low, for some couples the risk is much higher. Could this be them? They could take a new personalised test to find out or they could just take a chance in their next pregnancy. What will they decide? Join us to see how our fictional couple navigate this uncertainty and also the opinions of friends and family.

This public engagement event has been designed by a panel of people with lived and professional experience of genetic risk. It is open to a mixed public (age 16+, under 18s must be accompanied by an adult). The performance is followed by a workshop in which the actors will improvise as you suggest other ways of telling this story. Please note, there are a limited number of tickets for this event. Please register your interest early here and tell us why you would like to attend.

  • You will not be required to act.
  • People with personal, professional or no experience relating to the topic are very welcome.
  • You do not need to have prior knowledge of genetics, genomics or theatre.

Important further information:

  • This short play (c.40 minutes) will be followed by an open audience discussion to workshop alternative conversations to those presented in the play.
  • The audience discussion will be audio recorded and transcribed for the purposes of post-event analysis.
  • There will be a refreshment break between the performance and the workshop. Please let us know if you have any dietary requirements.
  • The venue is accessible. Please let us know if you have specific requirements and we will do our best to accommodate you.

You can register your interest in attending this theatre and workshop event, by completing the form here.

If you have specific questions not addressed here, please contact the project leads Dr. Ali Kay and Dr. Minna Jeffery: alison.kay@imm.ox.ac.uk and minna.jeffery@st-annes.ox.ac.uk