A Portfolio On Specialist Subject-Advanced Acting & Screen

Introduction

Believability has always been the quality I value most in acting; the ability to make an audience forget they are watching a ‘character’ in a ‘performance’ and instead experience a living, thinking, feeling human being. Throughout this module, I have learned to find the nuance between acting and “living truthfully under a given set of circumstances” (Stadius, 2023 direct communication). I chose to advance my techniques and specialise in this skill specifically, as I wanted to develop my creativity as an artist, ensuring I set foot into the industry as a graduate with the best tools needed. Between advanced acting classes and acting for camera, I’ve come to learn and understand that believability is not a singular skill, but rather a flexible quality that is adapted to different mediums across the spectrum of acting. For example, an honest, authentic portrayal of Lady Macbeth in Shakespeare’s Macbeth contrasts with the feeling of truthfulness in contemporary plays. Likewise, what reads well on stage does not necessarily translate as truthful to acting for screen. This portfolio aims to discuss and reflect on skills learnt within these classes, using evidence to support this, and demonstrate how these skills have been applied to my academic and personal development.

Classical Classes

Across the term, I’ve found connections between Tyrell’s classical text class and Dermot’s class on Shakespeare. Initially, I found it challenging trying to avoid sounding ‘presentational’ in a classical piece of text, instead of sounding natural; this is where my believability and authentic portrayal often lacked. However, a turning point was Tyrell’s ‘stop start’ exercise. Instead of thinking that the text included ‘lines’ or ‘sentences’, rather, Tyrell suggested we utilise the punctuation in the text, breaking the speech down into individual thoughts. Pictured is an example of this. This exercise saw us reading one thought of our classical text whilst walking with intention, and then stopping in the space once we reached the end of the thought, pausing and sitting in the feeling until we were satisfied that we had achieved that thought. Only once we were grounded in this moment, could we then resume the exercise, continuing with the next ‘thought’. Getting to grips with this exercise was quite challenging at first. I’d often mistake the silence during the stop as an awkward moment of error and felt I had to continue on without thoroughly reflecting on my work in the space. This led to me approaching and using the exercise ineffectively, meaning I would misunderstand the exact instructions that made this exercise successful. I became frustrated with myself, as this seemed like a simple task, yet I couldn’t quite understand the extent of what I was being asked to do. This only developed further when working on Goneril’s monologue from King Lear. I had translated the text, but didn’t feel like I was accurately portraying Goneril in the scene. I decided to treat this classical text as I would a contemporary piece, breaking down the text into units and thoughts as suggested. Rather than just translating text into modern language, with the use of the stop-start exercise, I learned to translate text into emotional intentions, connecting emotional truth to complex text. Simultaneously, to understand the language in Hamlet’s “to be or not to be” soliloquy, I used this exercise whilst also reading between the lines to discover the dialectic thesis. This soliloquy sets up the thesis-antithesis argument. The thesis ‘to be’ translates to ‘to live’, whilst the antithesis ‘not to be’ suggests ‘to die’. This highlights the conflict in the mind, arguing against itself. From this, I’ve come to realise that Hamlet achieves believability through internalising a dialectical conflict, portraying thought as a process rather than a conclusion. Using imagery to analyse and translate my text was rather challenging. Although this method didn’t work for me, going forward, I aim to revisit this exercise and spend more time thoroughly using imagery at the end of thoughts rather than every other line. Dermot suggested to us that if we were to highlight and take notice of the last words in our thoughts only, we’d be able to get an idea of what the text was about. So I believe using imagery on this could help me find a new way of thinking when it comes to translating and tackling his work. Another obstacle I’ve found across acting in general, but specifically classical text, is vocal technique. One of my most common notes given during feedback is that my diction isn’t clear, and I can tend to be under-voiced. Unclear diction and under-voicing reduce believability in Shakespeare as the audience relies on vocal clarity and projection in order to understand the complex language. Without this, character intention and emotion are lost. I decided to treat my speaking voice as I would my singing voice, relying on vocal warmups before classes to build my projection, and using tongue twisters suggested by Tyrell, such as ‘Shit dam motherfucker motherfucker dam…’ to articulate and emphasise my pronunciation to ensure my diction is crisp and consistent. A useful exercise I found in particular was a vocal warm-up specifically for articulation uploaded to YouTube by The National Theatre. The video attached demonstrates actors warming up their voice using the quote “Do daily deeds diligently X3 times very fast” (Nelson, 2011) to ensure they are vocally engaged.

Acting For Camera

My goal when I began screen acting was to understand stillness, eyeline, subtle expression and continuity, making an effective intimate relationship between myself and the camera, contrasting the bigger, bolder presence needed for musical theatre. Learning from Keeley, Matt and Mike, experienced actors and directors who have worked both on and behind the camera, has been extremely insightful and rewarding for an up and coming artist who shares a keen interest and passion for this medium.

The primary acting technique we covered across the term was building character and knowledge from a blank page. Initially, we’d briefly do a dry read through (speaking text without thought or emotion), and then dissect and decipher every last detail of our character’s backstory, gaining insight into how they’re shaped now from scratch. Using prompts like discovering our character’s name, age, relationship to scene partner, and building upon more thorough information such as, senses, how/why I’m currently sat or stood and accessing our very first feeling/memory and reliving it. This technique led me to discover director Mike Leigh, whose process and techniques share similarities with the one we learnt. Leigh’s methods begins “working with each actor on a ‘one to one’ basis…the actor, with the help of Leigh, builds an elaborate alter ego, mapping out the character’s life in fine detail” (MacGregor, 2011). This concept was developed with the help of Keeley, who’d help us to think about our characters backstory and characteristics eventually following Leigh’s methods of “gradually bringing the actors together for a series of useful improvisations that help to build up their collective world” (MacGregor, 2011). Alongside this, we explored emotional relationships through physical touch, specifically hand touch. I feel that in this exercise, the hands acted as the eyes, lingering, moving, and guiding my partner through our scene without any context or spoken lines. This allowed for a level of intimacy to grow, whether that be through a caress of the hand or a more direct touch, such as a clasp, connecting me emotionally to my partner without the use of language, making me realise just how important and effective physicality and subtlety are for screen. The exercise opened my mind to new levels of creativity, broadening the extent of my knowledge and significance on intimacy. Furthermore, this task allowed me to connect with my scene partner, and in some cases, when my scene partner was the camera, allowed for my eyeline to adjust, helping maintain stillness and focus, which strengthened the realism and believability of the scene. Similar to my feedback in classical classes, there were times when my projection for the camera wasn’t sufficient, sometimes leading to unclear dialogue from an audience’s perspective. To help build projection, an exercise my scene partner, Eleanor and I followed was one where we would repeat our lines in the scene from ‘Sweet Maddie Stone’ several times, quietly walking around the building, whilst the rest of the class followed us and purposely talked over us. This was to allow the intimacy and attention to detail of the text feel alive and real. I played Wendy, a tough, independent mum, and Eleanor played my naïve daughter, and the scene explored our fractured relationship with her dad. Following this, we repeated the exercise; however, this time delivering our lines to a corner of the wall, with the class silent and now watching. I realised that speaking to a scene partner through a wall is difficult, so I had to find the appropriate level of volume without losing what I had discovered earlier in the previous exercise, the intention. Intention allows for a ‘performance’ to go somewhere, driven by an actor with emotional maturity and understanding. When applied in this scene specifically, I found myself, rather than portraying Wendy, portraying myself under such circumstances that allowed me to access the naturalism in the scene. Naturalism, I’ve found to be one of my biggest achievements and strengths this year. As an actor, I often overthink my abilities to convey a story honestly, though working with Keeley, her personal feedback reflecting on how “drawn to my work she is” (Forsyth, 2025) has reassured me that people don’t see a character, they see a person/ authentic actor. Before starting my studies in musical theatre, in the back of my mind, I knew I always had a yearning to pursue a career in screen acting, and knowing the course offered this was one of the many reasons why I chose to study at the Conservatoire. Classes for screen haven’t just been solely focused on the actors, but have also highlighted the importance and challenges that go on behind the camera. For example, continuity, lighting and camera men have some of the hardest jobs across this medium, and I’ve come to appreciate and acknowledge the experience I have gained taking on all of these roles across the term. Trying to keep the sense of naturalism consistent through different camera angles was a challenge, as was ensuring the eyeline remained effective. Fortunately, accessing Mike Leigh’s techniques on breaking down to build up the character, and with the help of translating text into emotional text in classical classes, ‘Wendy’ had a through line in the scene, meaning the intention was never lost. Going forward, I’m eager to advance my experience in acting for screen after graduating, utilising local classes and the above techniques, including Mike Leigh’s practises and eyeline/hand intimacy.

https://leedsconservatoire.cloud.panopto.eu/Panopto/Pages/Viewer.aspx?id=8637ec25-2947-4254-a683-b36b00ca394c&start=9.858492

Uta Hagen

The classes on Stanislavski focused on building upon the fundamentals of his technique from Uta Hagen’s point of view. Discovering and applying her 8 exercises, have highlighted some struggles I’ve faced, as I have found her work at times to be challenging and overwhelming. On the other hand, this part of the module has pushed me out of my comfort zone and encouraged me to take on her practices to achieve my goal of believability. However, to achieve this, I first needed to overcome every actor’s biggest fear; being seen. To be seen is to be vulnerable, and to be vulnerable is to be truthful, and what is acting but “living truthfully under a given set of circumstances” (Stadius, 2023). Exercise 2, known better as the ‘fourth wall’, gives actors the ability to imaginatively maintain faith in the character’s physical world, differentiating four different points of the room to deliver the activity to. The activity involves recreating a two-minute phone call I’ve had within the past 6 months, with the purpose being to create a sense of privacy band freedom between myself and the audience so I as an actor don’t worry. Out of all of Hagen’s exercises, I found exercise 2 presented as the most challenging. When I first discovered Utah Hagen in year one, this was the first exercise we were asked to present. Standing up in front of other actors felt extremely exposing and precarious. I was unable to fulfil the task and had to leave the class as my anxiety and fear had taken over. Knowing this would be part of the module, I was apprehensive at first as I didn’t want to ‘fear’ the task and not follow through with it. On the other hand, I wanted to push and prove to myself that I can overcome whatever it was that made me feel so uneasy. My exercise involved a phone call to my mum, screaming about how I was terrified of rats, which humoured my audience. I found the further I pushed on with the exercise, the more at ease I felt and actually began to enjoy it. Completing the exercise was an achievement in itself, but one of the biggest was understanding what exactly it was that made me nervous in the first place and overcoming it; being seen. Carol Rosenfeld a ‘master acting teacher’ (16th street, n.d.) who was the first director of The Hagen Institute in 2010 explains how when your working on this exercise, “it is 100% physical, you do have to pay attention to your body” (Studio, 2020) meaning if my body doesn’t move, my conscience mind is leading; don’t allow it too take the risk and act on the impulse. Similarly, exercise 3 asks actors to explore the many different aspects of our persona, as Hagen states in her book ‘A challenge for the actor‘ “You change your sense of self a hundred times a day as you are influenced by circumstances, your relationship to others…” (Hagen, 1991). The task now involved a 3 minute exercise between myself and 3 other people I personally know, ensuring each response and attitude was different towards the caller. This allowed audience to explore our change in behaviour when were in privacy, and allowed me as an actor to knowingly change behaviours automatically without it feeling like I was ‘putting it on’. Before discovering Hagen’s approach to an actors training, especially in first year, I would often associate myself with being someone who could lean into humour in any situation, mostly because I feel satisfied when I make people laugh, as I feel as though I have achieved something. And whilst this may be successful in some ways, in others I realise this can hinder my realistic approach to more serious work and my learning.

Shakespeare

Stephen Sondheim and Gilbert & Sullivan are both examples of the most influential writers across musical theatre, building the foundational works of musical theatre, making them both canons. Similarly, William Shakespeare, “often hailed as the Father of English Drama”(Hans, 2024), is a renowned playwright whose catalogue comprises 39 plays and 154 sonnets. Collectively, his canon is broken down into four eras, each producing contrasting social themes such as depression, mirth & gaiety, restored serenity, etc. Such themes are reflected in works like ‘Macbeth’, ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ and ‘Cymbeline’. Through presentations in our classes, I have discovered direct contemporary and twentieth century adaptations and retellings of his work, specifically through screenplays. This includes the successful ‘West Side Story’, a musical adaptation directly based on ‘Romeo & Juliet’. Moreover, the hit Disney film ‘The Lion King‘ is a retelling of ‘Hamlet’. Both of which demonstrate how Shakespeare’s themes and underlying meaning of the plot can be enhanced and retold to modern audiences, making Shakespeare accessible to wider audiences, often without them realising. This opens up a discussion on class divide, as Shakespeare’s work was once considered suitable only for the upper classes, largely due to the assumption that it should be performed exclusively in ‘Received Pronunciation‘ (RP). Whilst I understand that this reflection focuses on what I have learned through my physical work, developing an understanding of Shakespeare’s place in the canon and contextualising his work has been invaluable. It has, in fact, deepened my historical knowledge of acting, specifically the classical foundations, which are crucial and essential to my growth as an actor.

Conclusion

Overall, this module has allowed me to experience acting for screen and opened up a variety of opportunities that have provided me with a valuable skill set I can utilise as a graduate. Working on Goneril’s monologue from ‘King Lear‘ (act 1, scene 3) taught me that believability in classical text comes from clarity within the voice, precise, clear intention and translation of text. Acting for Camera allowed me to gain hands-on experience both on screen and behind the scenes, working as a director, camera operator, and casting director, and expanding my creative range as an artist. Simultaneously, through classes on Stanislavski using Uta Hagen’s 8 exercises, I’ve discovered that truthful acting comes from truthfulness as a person. Since September, I’ve found my confidence in classical material built, encouraging me to lean in and adapt to what I may find an ‘awkward’ silence, subsequently broadening my knowledge and understanding of text and gaining different perspectives on my take on a monologue has overall helped to create a more well-rounded actor.

Bibliography

16th Street, A.S. (2016) Carol Rosenfeld: Master acting teacher & HB studio leader: 16th street acting Studio Melbourne, 16th Street. Available at: https://www.16thstreet.com.au/carol-rosenfeld (Accessed: 24 November 2025).

Stadius, A (2023) direct communication.

Forsyth, K (2025) direct communication.

Hagen, U. (1991) A challenge for the actor. New York, Toronto, New York: Scribner’s ; Maxwell Macmillan Canada ; Maxwell Macmillan International.

Hans, V.B. (2024) International Journal for Multidisciplinary Research (IJFMR), Shakespeare: The Father of English Drama. Available at: https://www.ijfmr.com/papers/2024/6/30935.pdf (Accessed: 17 December 2025).

MacGregor, S. (2011) Mike Leigh’s process and Techniques, Mike Leigh’s process and techniques | Actor Hub UK | Actor Guide | Actor Tips | Acting Career Help | Advice for Actors. Available at: https://www.actorhub.co.uk/383/mike-leighs-process-and-techniques (Accessed: 08 October 2025).

Nelson, J. (2011) Vocal Warm-Up | #4 Articulation | National Theatre, YouTube. Available at: https://youtu.be/uRdFtrv2yGA?si=BK_H85seDnnmPmiT (Accessed: 12 October 2025).

Studio, H. (2020) Carol Rosenfeld on Uta Hagen’s Object Exercise #2: The Fourth Side, YouTube. Available at: https://youtu.be/LkNwilXVZCE?si=deq2g0lYFGet5eUN (Accessed: 24 November 2025).