In this portfolio I intend to explore my entry into the performance industry and how I will navigate it as a graduate. I will outline my casting type as well as how I will make myself stand out further in order to excel in my chosen disciplines.
Background and Influences
My passion for musical theatre began from a very early age when I auditioned for my primary school production of The Lion King. From then on, I spent my entire childhood singing showtunes from Matilda, Wicked, Oliver, Annie and Joseph. My parents, especially my Dad who has been a Leeds based actor himself for thirty years, had a huge influence on the survival of this passion through a deep support and appreciation of the arts. I consider myself incredibly lucky to have been encouraged to participate in extra curricular Drama classes and performance opportunities from around the age of ten when I truly developed confidence in both myself and my performance abilities.It was due to this encouragement that I decided to specialise in Musical Theatre directly out of secondary school and studied the discipline at Leeds City College for two years before auditioning for Drama School.
About Me
Image is very important when being perceived in the industry and how this reflects your casting. I have been described by peers and friends as a ‘Girl next door’ type in my physical attributes, having been compared to a few characters in look and demeanor most commonly, Belle from beauty and the beast and other love interest type characters. I have and am interested in playing love interest/ leading lady characters because my skillset as a strong singer/ actor and appearance have enabled me to embody these roles well.
When thinking about how I want to present myself to the industry, this is definitely an archetype that I would benefit from leaning into as a lot of these roles are often matched with voice types in Musical Theatre that I can replicate especially in the Legit and pop opera genres that I excel in. However the industry isn’t short of girls of my height and appearance and it is also important to choose headshots that convey a range of character potentials other than just the obvious. The Ingenue, the Femme Fatale and the Best Friend are three contrasting archetypes that I believed I could conceivably play as represented in these example headshots below.
I have attempted to capture the essence of this range with both the colour and cut of my clothing as well as the expressions that I am using in these pictures.
But headshots alone however can only say so much about me as a performer. It was also essential for me to look at what a CV and cover letter could say about me as a performer.
In this CV I have included a few of my most recent accolades, each of which I know represent very contrasting styles of performance and skillset to be cast as these roles, be it defined by voice type, look, or breadth of professional experience. For this reason I felt it important to credit my Radio experience to demonstrate my ability to voice act in a live setting. I also matched the colour scheme of my CV to correlate to my leading headshot to give the overall warm impression of my most common Ingenue casting and myself as a person.
When composing a cover letter, making the details personal to the addressee are just as important as getting across the right image. My example includes all of the necessary details about myself but also addresses the company directly and elaborates on my eagerness towards the specific project or venue.This implies a thought through approach to my networking and might esteem me above a more generic, less personal letter for someone else. I chose to write my example letter to Lucy Casson, leading casting director at Leeds Playhouse.
What are my Advantages?
As someone who is Local to Leeds and has taken part in a lot of Leeds based theatre from a very young age, I have previously made many connections with local theatre makers. This is also strongly due to my dads connections to directors and producers across the city. My experience doing the Radio Play ‘The Final Whistle’ (as displayed on my CV) was due to a long term contact with the director Martin Riley who has known me since I was born and offered me the part at short notice. Similar connections have allowed me to work with local music producer Ed Heaton as a session singer. Both of these were paid work. Opportunities that I have also had as a result of maintaining connections include offers of contact with further connections. The best thing I can do to maintain these connections is by going to see the work of the people that I have contact with as in person networking increases the chance of being introduced to further contacts best achieved in public settings. As someone who considers themselves to be quite personable and approachable I believe that this could give me an edge in finding local work.
However, although connections may sometimes help you get a foot in the door, I need to know as a performer what my strengths and weaknesses are in order to make sure I stand out in the best possible light. This is especially more applicable to agent sought work when the pool of competition is much higher when being put up for roles. Something that I know I excel in is harmonies which I have always had a natural ear for. I believe that I would be an excellent vocal captain and my basic piano skills would also contribute to this. I am soon to be the vocal Captain on the upcoming project ‘Life Behind Bars’ which I am also featured in as part of Leeds MA Theatre festival at Leeds conservatoire. This also helps demonstrate that I have strong leadership, organisational skills and confidence which is desirable to directors especially during projects with time constraints.
Vocal Reel
When thinking about putting together a vocal reel I had to consider displaying not just what I’m good at but a range of different material that could display my versatility as a performer. When creating some sample videos I decided to take a few factors into consideration: vocal style, genre of song, acting choices, accent and how I decided to dress.
The three songs that I chose as samples of my vocal work were, ‘Wait a bit’ from Just So, ‘I Get a Kick Out of You’ from Anything Goes and ‘I Could Have Danced All Night’ from My Fair Lady. First and foremost each of these songs display hugely different vocal styles: Contemporary Ballad, MT Jazz and the Soprano classical style. What also makes these song choices distinct from one another is that I have a different accent in each, demonstrating my ability to adapt my vocal style and technique to a wide range of vowels and placements. This includes ‘Wait a Bit’ which I sang in my own Leeds accent which as a northern performer uses my identity as a strong selling point to many casting directors. I also chose a range of characters and dressed for each of these accordingly. As similarly demonstrated in my headshots I decided to adapt my appearance to give off the effect of a different character. The lack of confidence I had to display in ‘Wait a bit’ felt like an appropriate song to wear my glasses, often associated with out of place characters. Reno Sweeney is a more sultry performance which is why I kept the look simple and slick. Whereas the florals and hair out of the face gave my interpretation of Eliza Doolittle more of a period effect. Here is a draft of a vocal reel displaying the highlights:
Dance reel
Of the three disciplines in Musical theatre I do consider dance my weaker discipline despite being confident in baseline technique and abilities to display a level of strong musicality and performance skill rather than outdance the dancers. It is this that I think contributes to me being more suited to leading role material rather than dance ensemble however I believe that I would be well suited to shows that use dance as a secondary or tertiary discipline.
Similarly to my songs, I wanted my dance videos to reflect a level of versatility. It’s for this reason I decided to record my two strongest but very contrasting styles of dance (Tap and Commercial). Both of these show both musicality and embodiment of movement that can be applied to multiple genres of show. My main aim for developing and showcasing these skills is to open me up to the ensemble work that I’m more likely to be offered as a graduate. First round auditions for any west end shows or tours are almost always a dance round and therefore having a strong dance reel for either self tape purposes or other forms of self promotion can help elevate my impression as a versatile performer. Here is a first draft dance reel capturing some recent highlights:
Self Promotion
I have experimented as part of this portfolio with different methods of self promotion. The first is an existing platform that I have utilised well in the past few years. I have an Instagram account dedicated specifically to the performance opportunities I am taking part in and it has served me as a strong networking tool. I have a direct connection to my existing contacts in Leeds as I have mentioned prior, this included theatre companies, other performers I have worked with. I have also used my highlights section as a sort of catalogue of specific events and projects that I have worked on, allowing people to be selective about what content of mine they see. Although not as likely to be seen by an agent or casting director in deep detail, I believe that I have been able to maintain an image of myself as a professional that is in line with the sort of work that I excel in as well as want to do more of. I also believe that the more personable aspects of my account such as captions give someone a better understanding of what I am to work with as a professional and my personality shows that I am kind and enthusiastic in my work.
Another way I did this was creating a mock up website which would be a lot more accessible to a casting agent with a strictly professional focus on who I am as a performer. The pictures and videos that I chose to display are mostly composed of the existing material I have shown in this portfolio as I think they best surmise who I am and what I do. I used a consistent colour scheme and layout to also reflect this consistency and give an immediate and clear impression of what my personality and casting type is at first glance. In my website design I have carefully chosen a colour scheme that reflects the colours in my existing pictures, head shots and videos to be as adjacent with how I present myself in the rest of my visual content. I have kept the design, simple, organised and relatively feminine to reflect my casting type and also who I am as a person. I made sure additionally to leave links to any digitalised media such as the Music Videos and Radio Play to make my work easily accessible.
Creative Work
Something else that I have highlighted on both my website and my Instagram is the creative work I have also been a part of. Personally, performing is not the only professional avenue I would like to navigate after graduating. I recently took part in an R&D which I conceptualised and composed alongside some peers. I decided to include one of the songs that I wrote not only to display my performance skills once again but to illustrate my collaborative skills with others in order to create a cohesive piece of work. I think that my ability to create also demonstrates my ability to make strong creative offers in a room especially with collaborators.
Conclusion
I believe through the exploration of this portfolio I have been able to identify the benefits of my type casting as well as navigating how to make myself more versatile in my look and skill set making me an adaptable performer with additionally strong collaborative and organisational skills. I am understanding what it takes to build yourself as a brand and that the details of physical appearance, song choices and practical skills all have a part to play in this and how you will be presented to a casting director or agent.
