We recently connected with Beatrice Onions and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Beatrice thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Did you always know you wanted to pursue a creative or artistic career? When did you first know?

I was in a dorm room in Wellington, New Zealand, studying English Literature and I was miserable. I had an hour of homework a week, so I spent my time dodging parties and dreaming of this alternate reality where a much more vibrant and courageous version of myself went to drama school overseas. One weekend, my Mum visited me at university. She stayed in my dorm. I’d forgotten to request a guest pass so I had to sneak her in, and feed her snacks from the vending machine. You see, I had opted against going to Drama School, I didn’t even audition. I had chosen English Lit (because that was a far more lucrative career path), and as a result, I adopted a deeply cynical view of the arts, myself, and tertiary education as a whole. That night, Mum and I sat on my bed. Her carry-on was taking up too much of my floor space. She asked me what I wanted to do. I told her “I want to put the suitcase up on the desk.” And then… “I want to go to drama school, but I can’t drop out, and I won’t get in.” She got up and left, out the door, through the main lobby (which we had managed to avoid all day), and returned fifteen minutes later with a tiny bottle of $12 champagne. I popped it. She made me Sharpie the date on the cork. I asked why. She said, “It’s the day you decided to go to drama school!” I reminded her I hadn’t gotten in yet. Even as I said it, I thought of the version of me who was already there. I left a few weeks later- closing out one year of Chaucer and Keats. The cork is in the drawer of my bedside table!

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I am a writer. I write for the theatre. I am a big bookworm and found from a young age that although I was engaged in a book, a larger part of me was watching myself read the book. I would think- How did the author make me laugh? How did the author make me cry? I never cry! I became very interested in learning to write to provoke a reaction from a reader. My dual love of acting and writing was a compelling match for me to train as a Playwright/Actor at NYU Tisch.

I graduated into working as a freelance writer. This has manifested as a job working for a Theatre Director as an Assistant/Associate, and working with consumer brands in a production/activation capacity. I write copy for social media, I edit manuscripts and I write reports and breakdowns for plays, screenplays, and fiction. Alongside this, I am the Founding Editor-In-Chief of BRAINS, a literary journal, and the adjoining @paperback_pantry, a creative space for books and food. I have been lucky enough to collaborate with some powerhouse brands including @nyubucketlist @FixandFogg, and @MILKimchi.

I am currently developing two full-length plays:

NEPO: “B wants to meet her Mum. Her Mum doesn’t want to tell the truth. The truth wants to unlock the fortune. The fortune no one can quite locate. Four unpaid interns, three genetic matches, two men on an island, and one best friend deploy equal doses of British Cynicism and American Bufoonery, to live and potentially inherit enough money to actually feel alive.” NEPO is being produced by Carley Lovito and Notes App Productions.

The second play is SECOND PUBERTY, which premiered in London with Orange Moon Theatre Co. in November 2023. Inspired by the revengeful acne I got at 22, I wrote this play about the synergy between teenage doom and the complications surrounding friends, relationships, and growth in your early twenties. It’s set in New York.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

When someone says something is perfect, what they mean is, it’s really good in that moment. I spent a long time trying to create the grounds for someone to say my work was perfect. Specifically, I think back to my mind-reading phase during audition season in London. I would trawl through the RADA faculty page, guessing who might be sitting on the panel in my audition. I would then curate a list of potential panelists who seemed energetically pre-disposed to a comedic classical monologue, and a list of those more partial to a cynical contemporary monologue. And then cynical and classic, contemporary and comedic, historical and classic, etc. Do I make eye contact with the panel? To skirt or not to skirt? Is a direct address risky? Run over or under? I practiced religiously. I memorized names, faces, and careers. I wanted to be perfect for everyone- votes on the board- a standing ovation- the People’s Choice! Instead, I got four rejections. The fifth rejection came later. It was the final round for Mountview. I’d weathered three rounds. The stakes were impeccably high. I was inconsolable. On the day, we were escorted to a rehearsal room and then asked to walk around the room as peacocks. I tried to look like a good actor. The rejection email was in my inbox while I was on the platform, waiting for the tube home.

Suffice to say. A peacock is a peacock.

What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?

As a reader, a huge part of my identity is books! I am deeply passionate about authorship. I consume story almost entirely through words. So when one of my favorite books is being adapted into a series or a movie- I pray that someone on the team has read the book, and loves it as much as I do. I hope they will advocate for key moments in the story, and that they can preserve the true intention of the characters; the nuances of the relationships; and the specificity of the world. And then I think- hang on a second….. I want to be that person! So this is the mission driving my creative journey.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.beatrice-onions.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/paperback_pantry/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/beatrice-onions