Introduction
In this portfolio I will be discussing all my specialist skills classes that I have been partaking in this past term and how they have impacted my training thus far Aswell as how they have prepared me for the upcoming industry events such as our group performance and our agent showcase. At the start of the academic year, I started my third year of training at Leeds conservatoire, in the summer of the previous year we were asked to select what specialist skill pathway we would like to be placed into for our third year, I was placed onto the advanced acting pathway. this pathway included classes such as specialist skills (Uta Haagen), screen acting, specialist skills(monologues) and Shakespeare. Some of these subjects I had experience in and some of them I had little to no knowledge of. In this portfolio will discuss how I found these specialist skills, how they broadened my skill set as an actor and how they have equipped me with the techniques and skills required of a young performer about to enter the industry.
Screen acting
Before starting this module, I had little to no experience when it came to acting Infront of a camera which made the classes very fascinating but also quite daunting. During our first class with Keely, she briefed us on what we would be focusing on which was a mixture of acting in scenes in front of the camera and acting as crew members. I got to partake as a camera operator, continuity director, in charge of costume and a clapper loader (in charge of the clapper board). I would say possibly my favourite crew role was overseeing continuity as it kept me extremely focused and used my knack for noticing small, tiny changes to good use. As much as I enjoyed doing crew jobs, I very much preferred acting in front of the camera. At first, I had no clue what I was doing but Keely ran a very supportive and comfortable set where she talked us through everything that we needed to know and what we needed to do before she passed us over to whoever was acting as director for the session. I filmed a duologue with Zoe from St Maude.
I felt that I adapted myself very well to acting in front of a camera, but I would say one of the biggest obstacles I encountered during this module would be applying direction from the director.
I found taking direction whilst filming a scene vastly more challenging than when on a stage, with on screen there are so many more components to consider and remember such as repeating what you did in the last take and replicating it perfectly, where your eyeline goes to throughout the scene, and finding your marks without dropping your eyeline during takes. I was able to take and apply all the direction that I was given but I found it massively challenging as I had multiple factors to think of as I had to take direction, remember continuity, find my marks and regulate my volume as I was only used to acting on stage where the sound would need to travel. Although I was able to do all of these things and still do the scene to a satisfactory level I did find that my acting was being massively hindered as I had so many components to think of whilst also trying to be present in the scene, i slowly came to learn that I do not yet have the brain for screen acting and that I have allot to work on if I wanted to actively pursue this as a career avenue.
A useful skill we looked at in one of the classes was reading from a script you were given on the day as this is most often than not the case in most auditions. We were given a script from Holby city and were called into the room one by one like how an audition would be traditionally conducted. When I was called in for mine my first attempt at reading the script was quite shocking as I struggle with verbalising lines whilst having just read them so my first attempt at doing the scene was arguably not the best but after the initial read I was given some direction and a few moments to re-read the lines and was able to settle into the scene. The second read went much better as I was able to get my worst attempt out of the way, collect myself and familiarise myself with the lines once more. It put my mind at ease to know that in a professional setting you are usually given more than one attempt to read in an audition especially when that audition is one where you are given the material on the day/ the evening before. We were also given some tips on how to more efficiently read the lines from the page it was so simple yet so effective, we were told to read the line then after the scene partner/reader had finished saying their line ,take a moment to read the next line and deliver it don’t rush and don’t cut off from listening to your scene partner. I found this skill extremely useful due to my difficulty with reading from the page and I made a note to put this into my skill set and use it the next time I was faced with having to read out loud from the page.
link 1 first take, link 2 second take
When reflecting on the screen acting module, I can see that I have acquired many new skills and have been able to utilise ones that I already had in my possession.
I am very thankful that I had the ability to act in front of the camera As well as being given a chance to operate it as by doing so I have a better understanding as an actor of how the camera works and when I am being given direction that is related to the camera I will have a much better understanding of what the director is saying and will be able to cooperate with ease which in short will save any unwanted frustrations.
I feel that I have broadened my skillset by taking on multiple roles whenever we filmed a scene. I thoroughly enjoyed taking on the challenge of a new role week from week whether that being costume, props, continuity, clapper loader, assistant director or director. By taking on these roles if found myself becoming gradually more knowledgeable than not just the job I was assigned to but all of the jobs that were being carried out in the room as most of the time I would be conversing with other roles and when I was not needed in that moment I would be observing what everyone else was doing and actively trying to learn via watching . I very much admired how every week Keely would try and distribute different crew roles to people who haven’t had a chance to try their hand at them which was a very good idea as some of the tasks that appeared to not interest me at all turned out to be something that I ended up really enjoying.
Uta Hagen
during my previous two years at Leeds conservatoire, I had three classes that touched on Uta Hagen so my knowledge of her technique was not completely zero but there were still many gaps in my understanding of her and what she taught. I remember being told to use the fourth side after brief explanation in the summer term of second year, but I was pretty much clueless as I didn’t really have a clue about what the fourth side was as I didn’t really understand the explanation. When I entered the first class this year and I learnt it would be on Uta Hagen and the fourth side I could say I wasn’t too pleased but I was still open to learning more, I am pleased to say that after that first class had ended my opinion had completely changed and my understanding had on the technique had vastly improved. After the first class we were asked to go away and prepare a phone call that we have had within the last 6 months that needed to be between 1.30 – 2 minutes long. I chose a phone Call with my boss that I had not long ago. Whilst still not being too comfortable with the fourth side I took it upon myself to really practice trying to get used to it as I knew if I could understand it then it could prove to be very beneficial. When it came to presenting it in the class, I found that I wasn’t very in it, but I managed to find the three points that were placed in front of me to indicate where to keep my eyeline for keeping the fourth side. After I had finished, I managed to stop at 1:58 which I was very pleased with. When I voiced that I didn’t feel into what I was doing I learned a key piece of information that that left me amazed but also contradicted everything I had ever learnt about acting(Murphy, 2025).
“It doesn’t matter what you’re feeling as long as the audience can see what you’re trying to convey”
You can feel cold but without doing anything to indicate that your cold then it will not read on stage will it? If you’re playing angry you can’t just sit there stewing, you must show something that would read to the audience that your angry.
In the next class we were asked to practice a two-minute-long presentation of looking for a small, important object. we as the actor know where the object is but you had to try and convey that you were actively looking for it without any knowledge of its whereabouts. By the end of the two minutes, you had to have found the object. The whole point of this exercise was to once again make it believable to the audience that you were looking for a lost object. When practicing mine I kept in mind of where I am looking and in what pattern I would look in those locations so for instance mine was looking for my work fob, so I chose to look on my desk, bag, drawers, pockets, desk, pockets, drawers, bag and then retrieve it from my bag. I practiced this a total of around 10 times until I felt comfortable and familiar with where and when I was looking in specific locations. When performing this I had to map out where the specific locations were in the room as this was being shown in 510 whereas I was presenting as if I was in my bedroom. I did not get to perform my piece in the space but from observing my classmates who did I learnt some extremely useful information that I would use and apply for most of the remainder of these classes. I managed to translate some of what we had learnt from these classes in other to benefit my performances in others. We were asked to do a self tape for audition tech from standing at the skies edge and I was able to use the fourth side to help with my eyeline beyond the camera.
- Practice makes perfect, the more you are comfortable with what you are doing the more you can relax into it and therefor increasing its believability. Essentially if you fail to rehearse then your performance will be hindered.
- Props can be a help and a hinderance, decide if you really need it and if it lends itself well to what you’re doing before you fully commit to using it.
- Don’t forget about the fourth side! Just because you’re looking for something doesn’t mean the audience should feel shut out, up remember to use your eyeline.
The next class we had to carry out a task whilst adding an endowment. The endowment could be anything we would like but it had to correspond with the task we had chosen to do.
With this exercise it very much reminded me of the Meisner tasks that we did in second year which seemed to get the wires in my brain crossed a little bit and I didn’t really seem to comprehend this exercise as well as I did with all the others which is fine as I expected that I would not grasp every new skill at my first introduction to it.
What I’m going to take away from these classes into the industry.
You don’t have to feel in the performance for it to read.
My most intriguing take away from these classes is that just because you’re in the performance does not mean that it is reading to the audience you are performing to. This ties quite well into my next take away from these classes which is to craft a believable performance you need to consider many different circumstances and how the character you are portraying would react when met with said circumstances. This made me completely re evaluate how I would prepare and rehearse for a scene as before I would just do the standard who, what, when, where, why and how but now I find myself wanting to do so much more in-depth research and preparation such as where am I inside or outside? Is it cold or warm? Do I have layers on or is my clothing light? How am I going to move if I’m in heavy clothing? All these small details would not have even crossed my mind before this module but now I consider it crucial information and an extremely beneficial part of my broadening skill set.
Shakespeare
When thinking about the last time I looked at Shakespeare I immediately was reminded of the time in second year in which I burst into tears during our presentation of Rosalind’s monologue from ‘a mid-summer nights dream’. I don’t have very much fondness for Shakespeare’s work, nor did I express any interest in wanting to learn more about him but if there’s one thing I have learnt during my time here at Leeds it is to treat all things with an open mind and be open to expanding your knowledge whilst your still in your training.
For our first class we were asked to bring a Shakespeare monologue of our choice, it could be one we wanted to work on or one we wished to simply analyse. We then went round and said what each of ours were. We were then given a task to pick a show in which we had little to no knowledge of that someone had brought a monologue from, we then had to research the plot of the show and come up with the most brief synopsis that we could that would still be informative enough to know what was going on. My group chose ‘The merchant of Venice’ and gave a very brief synopsis but when we re-laid this to the rest of the class everyone seemed to have a relevant understanding of what the show was about. I found this to be very useful for an audition situation when needing to know the context for the show without having the appropriate amount of time to read the full play
One class that really stood out for me was the class in which we discussed if Shakespeare is classist. when you hear the word Shakespeare you may immediately associate it with the upper class and high society and you wouldn’t be wrong to do so. This is what were told in Dermot’s class. Many of his plays follow the same formula, each either centres around the main protagonist being royalty or coming from some form of noble background as at the time of his writing each play was written to appease the royal court to gain their seal of approval. Another way of acknowledging Shakespeare’s classism is by simply looking at his theatre “the Globe” and how it segregates class via which seats they can sit in. the Gods tier of seating was the most expensive section reserved for the wealthiest of theatre goers and was situated far above the ‘groundlings’ section, this meant that the rich were quite literally able to look down upon the poor. Today it still isn’t and has never been accessible to those who are not from an upper- or middle-class background as despite the number of years that have gone by little has changed as the language it is spoken in isn’t comprehensible to people who haven’t had an extensive education with a focus on his work. The globes ticket prices also perpetuate this ideology as an average price for a standing ticket is £50. (The Shakespeare globe trust, The Tempest, 24 January 2026 7:30PM 2025) by going onto a currency conversion website I was able to find out that the cost of a seat back then which was £0.05 pence is now worth £13.30. (2025)
While I went into this class with a biased mindset, I am pleasantly surprised with how much I have learnt to appreciate Shakespeare from a contextual point of view. I found myself showing a greater interest in Shakespeare as in each class I was introduced to new knowledge about him and his work as well as techniques that make learning his pieces allot less daunting. One thing that I learnt that I will be utilising is identifying the end of each line to link the scene together.
Conclusion
Throughout this last term I have learnt so many invaluable new skills from each class, some of which I didn’t completely understand or personally find useful, but I still appreciated that they would work for others. For the skills and techniques, I did find useful I can safely say that nearing the time that I will be entering the industry I will not be ill-prepared as I have exponentially been able to grow my acting skill set. In conclusion, I have found the specialist skills module of this term extremely beneficial as a young performer who is preparing to enter the industry as It has allowed me to explore different avenues of acting such as acting for camera as well as expanding my knowledge on practitioners and play writes that I already had some what of an understanding of such as Uta Hagen and Shakespeare. I feel that I am now well equipped to go into the industry with the knowledge that I now possess.
Bibliography
Murphy, D. (2025) Uta Hagen’s acting technique, explained | Mandy, Uta Hagen’s Acting Technique, Explained. Available at: https://www.mandy.com/magazine/article/uta-hagens-acting-technique-explained-78452/ (Accessed: 05 January 2026).
The Tempest, 24 January 2026 7:30PM (no date) The Tempest, 24 January 2026 7:30pm | Shakespeare’s Globe. Available at: https://basket.shakespearesglobe.com/53059/53067?queueittoken=e_generalnew2~q_c5437e3a-7fa5-4ac0-9acd-8ca4dd4b80f4~ts_1767825386~ce_true~rt_safetynet~h_20bbdfb28a5965b07576ada928879d96d0141d362fb8f26e001bc71b7f3b28b1 (Accessed: 05 January 2026).
(2025a) Inflation calculator, Bank of England. Available at: https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/monetary-policy/inflation/inflation-calculator (Accessed: 04 January 2026).
