My Journey So Far

With the completion of my drama school skills training, I am now able to look back on the past two and a half years of my studies and critically evaluate the learning curves and mistakes that have shaped my development as a person and a performer. Our first and second year classes were primarily focused on building a wide array of the applicable skills and assets required to be a musical theatre performer, whereas our most recent term in third year has been a chance to broaden our horizons and give us an insight into different avenues of performance as well as potential outlets beyond the stage or screen, whilst simultaneously narrowing down our specific casting type to tailor accordingly to the industry. This period of training has been invaluable in facilitating both personal and professional growth, significantly widening my perspective on potential career options following my time at Leeds Conservatoire, such as prompting me to reconsider avenues of performance that I had previously opposed, including tv and film. This portfolio will discuss my development this term and evaluate the successes and failures of the varying techniques we have been taught within it.

The Art of Screen Acting

A new skill that we have been able to develop in third year is acting for screen. These classes have been taught by Keeley Forsyth as well as Matt Lewney, who both have considerable screen acting experience in shows such as ‘Harry Potter’ and ‘Brookside’ respectively, as well as work behind the camera in directing and producing. For me personally, this is extremely helpful in a learning environment as I am able to receive direct notes and feedback from professionals who have experienced the lives of a career on screen. These first-hand encounters are particularly useful to me, as I am able to transfer skills a learning scenario into perspective in the real world, which is something we are not always able to do within a classroom as processes often appear differently in a theoretical sense as opposed to their actual equivalent in the industry. In a similar light, acting for screen is in many ways a parallel but different set-up to stage acting. For example, as numerous cameras have access to close-up angles of your face, and overhead mics are able to pick up almost every small detail of sound, you don’t need to focus on filling the room or playing to the size of the performance space or theatre you are in (which is something we have worked on considerably in theatre acting). This was a very freeing experience for me and allowed an opportunity for me to act somewhat naturalistically without worrying that my performance wasn’t big enough, potentially adding more truth to my portrayal of a certain character. However, screen acting also comes with its challenges. One of these being a lack of motion, particularly in close-up shots. I struggle to stay still whilst being on screen, whereas we are given an opportunity to play to the whole room in a large theatre venue, so the change at first was confusing, but in my final product I was able to reap its rewards and I can now perform in each format accordingly.

This term, our industry focused screen acting exercise was to film a 3-5 minute monologue to be used as part of our social media and spotlight public profiles. I chose to do a speech from the ‘Knocky’ by Michael Wynne as it leans into the ‘more scouse’ end of my casting type, which will be useful when applying to productions such as ‘The Responder’, ‘This City is Ours’ and ‘Blood Brothers’ (all of which I would love to be a part of). I had been working on this specific monologue since the start of third year and had previously taken it to advanced acting classes with Tyrrell, Alex and Esther, where we looked at contemporary monologues for stage. From these classes, I developed a greater understanding of the context in which the monologue was performed as well as the tone of the piece, pinpointing the importance of allowing a range of professionals to work on the same task with you. From this, I knew how it would likely be presented on stage. As a result of this, when it was time to record it for screen, I was given the rare opportunity to shift the format of the piece from stage to screen by stripping everything back and reducing the focus of my work to close-up shots. Subsequently, I didn’t have to overly stretch my voice due to the presence of overhead mics, and I was able to play around with my eye-line gaze and focus, given the proximity of the two cameras around me having the outlet to record all of my movement. I didn’t need to be as expressive with face movements and I could make further use of the gaps within the text to provide subtext, as the audience is able to see what is going on behind my eyes due to close-up face shots. This therefore meant my work was a lot less heightened than usual, and felt more truthful, which was a refreshing change. Matt told me that the stakes of the scene are the same regardless of its format, but the way in which I can express these stakes can vary depending on where it is being performed. This is a note that was especially useful to me, as I am often told my acting isn’t heightened or big enough for stage, but on screen it was appropriate. The entire module of screen acting has taught me that despite the fact that certain specifics of acting on stage and screen can be different (e.g. range of body movement), the process of rehearsal and performance of acting is almost identical (yet expressed slightly differently), and can be modified to suit a different format if you have the right skills and/or are able to actualise techniques to alter performances based on its setting. From this, I now feel confident that I could act in the same piece (e.g. Shrek) if it was formatted on either stage or screen. The performance of the ‘Knocky’ monologue, where I have adapted my performance from stage to screen, can be seen in the video below.

In addition to this, classes in acting for screen surprisingly helped me to develop directly as a musical theatre performer. Post-pandemic, there has been a much greater focus on self taping or zoom based auditions. As a result of this, regardless of whether or not I decide to pursue a career in tv or film, skills in acting in front of a camera will be vital in getting through the first round of most theatre based auditions too. An example of this comes from a mock audition class for Standing at the Sky’s Edge, where we were asked to submit a 1-2 minute selected acting scene from the show via self-tape. I was able to use skills from screen acting classes to utilise the space on camera and set up my background accordingly for a self-tape. This will be an integral part of auditioning post drama school and will be conducted mainly by myself. Due to this, it was crucial I was able to independently set up and record a self tape without a staff member in the room, allowing me to exercise resilience and initiative as an individual artist. As seen in the next video, my set up, appearance and performance differs from my previous acting scene due to the nature of the piece (this now being a musical). This module, along with others, allowed me to pinpoint the subtle differences between musical theatre self-taping and full screen acting, something I was not previously aware of.

My Specialist Skill-Advanced Acting

In the first two years of our acting training, we were predominantly taught the foundational methodologies and acting processes of Sanford Meisner under the realm of ‘living truthfully under a given set of circumstances’ (Meisner, S). Meisner’s process came with many challenges, but overall helped me to understand the importance of fully being in the space during a scene, and always listening and reacting to your partner through Meisner and Adam’s lens, ‘acting is reacting’ (Stadius, A 2023). These were fundamental ideologies to develop my acting within the first years of my drama school training and will inevitably go on to serve me throughout my acting career. This approach focused primarily on improvisation and an actors feelings in the moment. Despite rarely being the case for me, this could sometimes lead to a lack of preparation and laziness. This was a vast contrast from our new approach, Stanislavski, which focuses almost entirely on preparation and self-discipline, encouraging the actor to know exactly what is required of them in a performance. The performance can be replicated identically every time, which for a constantly stressed person like me, is easier to muster. Bearing this in mind, I chose advanced acting in 3rd year to further develop these skills and look elsewhere for elements of other approaches within the realm of acting to create a more well-rounded actor. This year, each specific advanced acting class was taught by a different lecturer, and focused on a different aspect of acting, whilst all linking in to one another. These classes consisted of a monologue bootcamp, Uta Hagen’s fourth side and Shakespeare.

As previously mentioned, one of our advanced acting classes was the monologue bootcamp with Tyrrell Jones. The first half of classes in this term were taken up by monologue workshops for classical texts (usually Shakespearean), whereas the second half of the semester allowed us to utilise the tips and skills we had learnt from these classical texts into preparing and performing contemporary pieces of work. The first bunch of classes of this module in particular intertwined well with Dermot Daly’s Shakespeare classes, as we were able to contextualise our findings from his often theory based lessons into our monologues and vice versa. I find working simultaneously with theory and practical work to be a vital learning tool for me, and is something I often try to explore immediately after a class in order to see how it can actually be applied into my practice. One example of this is the use of the iambic pentameter within Shakespeare. I found it to be useful in outlining how to speak a new Shakespearean piece e.g. through sight reading. Furthermore, we explored the similarities and differences in prose vs verse writing, a trick I now use to distinguish between characters of different social classes. Finally, and what I personally found most useful, is the individuality of each thought or phrase within a piece of classical text. This is displayed in the two images below where I have used a red mark to signify every time I believe a new thought occurs within two Shakespeare monologues from ‘Macbeth’ and ‘A Midsummer Nights Dream’ respectively. Despite my prior knowledge of these techniques, it was useful to go into more depth and understanding in our advanced module to nail down exactly what each format is intended to do.

Through class exercises, I have been able to use this technique to outline the differences within each line of a Shakespearean monologue. This came in handy for me in reference to thinking on the line. An exercise we used to perfect this skill was the moving/still task in Tyrrell’s lesson. This involved walking whilst saying the first thought of the text and then stopping immediately when the second thought starts. This ensures that as actors we can think on the line and separate each and every thought within a monologue. Although this may not work in the performance of some contemporary pieces, it can still be used in their preparation, and works particularly well with classical texts. This is a skill I will be able to take into future monologues that I may be struggling with where I can then apply thinking on the line. To me, this whole module highlighted the importance of connections in methodologies between different classes and teachers, encouraging me to combine elements of work from a wide range of mentors.

As discussed, we studied the iambic pentameter or beats within a line of Shakespearean text within Dermot’s class (ba dum ba dum ba dum ba dum ba dum). Even if this technique is not commonly used today in performance, I found it extremely useful in both learning and understanding text within Shakespeare. It will also be useful if any directors use the iambic pentameter in their rehearsal process, as I have learnt that it is crucial to have a big wheelhouse of skills that may not all be used. Subsequently, whilst Shakespeare wasn’t an outlet I had originally intended to be pursue significantly throughout my career, if my agent asks me to audition for a Shakespeare show, I will have all of the skills and processes in place to perform to the best of my abilities in the audition room. By the time rehearsals for these shows start, I can then utilise these techniques to analyse the script in more detail. This is something I think we often overlook as actors, because drama school training is often catered towards how to behave and prepare for an audition instead of an actual show contract. As a result, we often come underprepared to the rehearsal room whilst being over prepared for the audition room. I have thoroughly enjoyed our third year advanced acting classes as they have provided us with a holistic approach in how to achieve success in both scenarios and keep us employed as professionals in the industry.

In essence, despite differences within acting classes in third year, they all link into each other. At the start of term I was struggling to see where exactly they linked, however with my development I have come to realise that these links occur mainly through my own opinions and experiences, meaning I get to choose where bits of each module can apply in other. I was set with the realisation that we can no longer be spoon-fed every last detail and must strive towards more independence. These numerous acting based classes we have undertaken over the years have provided snippets of ways to use acting in other formats.

A practical example of new processes

So, my third and final year of drama school training thus far has taught me to hone in on the most beneficial and time efficient methodologies and processes that can be used to better myself as an actor and performer in general, as some techniques that we have been taught do not work for me. Over time, I have also matured to find that this is okay, particularly in a career of self-employment, where I often find myself being my own toughest critic. I have discovered that the trick is to find the best hacks that work specifically for you as an artist and find potential tweaks and habits that will allow you to get the best of out them. For example, in our recent swing project of Shrek, we had to learn numerous tracks each and therefore understand different characters. In a normal show scenario, I would do significant preparation on the character I am playing to get a better understanding of how and why they would make certain choices within the show. This prep would always include Alex Palmer’s 21 questions which we have looked at in depth this year. However, this was not a sustainable format when learning more than one role and so I modified it to fit Uta Hagen’s 6 questions that could be asked before every scene, as well as picking out other specific tailor made questions for each character that I deemed the most important for that character. This can be seen for Shrek and Farquad in the images below.

I have highlighted swing project as a standout area of my recent development as this is a process I wouldn’t have integrated into my first or second year work because I deemed it to be cutting corners and therefore cheap work. However, throughout my training and particularly in my third year specialist classes, advanced acting has taught me to do what works best for me in any given situation to get the best results quickly and effectively. As a result of this, I was able to understand the intricacies of each of my characters in a shorter amount of time, albeit in slightly less detail than with a full script and character analysis. This is a skill I will be able to take into account professional setting if I am ever required to be a swing or understudy. With this being said, I have started my preparation for our third year show ‘A Man of No Importance’, where I will be playing the lead, Alfie Byrne. In this instance, I have had sufficient time to fully analyse the character in detail, as seen in the 21 questions document below.

In addition to this, I have started to outline the key exercises within Uta Hagen’s manuscript (from Alex Palmer’s classes) that can be used to provide extra context in character preparation. These exercises come from opposite ends of the Uta Hagen’s wheel, and can be layered on top of each other at different stages of a character analysis.

In summary

Upon reflection, I have found that the paramount component that I will take into my future endeavours in the industry is balance. Whether that is in reference to splitting my time up in the most effective and safe way, or utilising the most important parts of different approaches. This will subsequently amount to great progress in becoming the most well-rounded performer I can be. I have thoroughly enjoyed my time in third year so far, and plan to keep using many approaches we have studied in my future endeavours.

Bibliography

Meisner, S. and Longwell, D. (1987) Sanford Meisner on Acting

Stadius, A (2023)