Within my practical skills, when I started Leeds conservatoire, I had a range of both strengths and weaknesses. I wanted to find an affective and measurable way to tack my progress. I created a development plan (see images 1 through 5) or myself with specific goals and clear targets, this has been extremely useful in my development as it has provided me with a reference point for improvement and reflection. I continued to set myself goals throughout the year and also reflect on my old ones. In this portfolio I will provide details of these goals and also my practical progressions and how these will support my professional development.

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Acting

When I began my training at Leeds Conservatoire I knew my acting was a skill I was less confident in. I have often found it manageable to initially connect to a script, scene or character but slightly more difficult to dive deeper and find more truthful connections to context and character. Within the industry this is such an essential skill and therefore something I wanted to really work on throughout first year in order to create myself an actors toolkit and set of techniques and practices I can explore to help me reach this level of depth and truth I need.

Throughout training in acting we worked on a range of different acting techniques, in the end after further reading and research I found that Uta Hagen’s techniques best worked for the skills I was aiming to gain in truth and depth of character.
In class we undertook a workshop in sense memory by closing our eyes and imagining different sensory factors and experiencing how these affect us. We then created our own monologues incorporating the principles of sense memory into this (image 6).

Image 6

I found this task extremely useful in connecting to how a character feels as it gave me a focus point of their senses rather than trying to overly focus on the characters exact emotions which allowed me to quickly reach a good point within a scene. This could be extremely useful in the industry as there will be times where an actor has to sight read or quickly perform something without much notice and I find that this skill can allow me to have a clear focus point especially when I don’t know as much about a character or if a character is extremely different than me as senses are relatable and universal. Because of valuing the importance of this skill I decided to do some further reading into Uta Hagen and this technique. After reading ‘chapter 5, pages 53-59 of ‘Respect for acting’ I learned more about the ways an actor can physically create a feeling of different senses for example it showed me the way that actors usually pretend to yawn and then suggested you should instead ‘inhale deeply as you push your jaw down and back until the mouth opens, and you continue to pull the air deeply into your lungs before forcing it up into your head as you exhale’ (page 54, respect for acting, Uta Hagen).
I also decided to read the rest of this book and highlight things which stood out to me in order to add them to my actors toolkit (Image 7 & 8).

Image 7 & 8

I found that this work both in class and personal developmental practice helped me a lot a lot to achieve my goal of making bold and truthful acting choices as it allowed me a way to access what characters were feeling quickly, despite this I knew I needed more areas to add to my actors toolkit in order to achieve my other goal of gaining deeper understanding of context and characters. After a lot of thought and reflection I decided there were two strands of this in my opinion, both of which I wanted to find a practice and technique to achieve. First was the truth given to me, In the industry when booking a job it is an extremely useful skill to be able to figure out all the context clues and know how to affectively learn everything given to you in the script about your character, the general context and everything else about your character and other characters and the world. Secondly, from meeting multiple practicing professionals in professional studies lectures and also from speaking to directors in research and development weeks I have found that it is a highly favourable skill to be present, engaged and provide choices outside of just what’s given so that directors have something to work with.

I wanted to incorporate both sides of these skills into my consistent toolkit and practice in order to develop me as a performer.
During our acting classes we began to focus on a play called ,The ruffian on the stair’ by Joe Orton. As a part of this we were given a character and a set of 5 questions to think about; what does our character say about themselves?, what does our character say about other characters?, What do other characters say about my character?, what does the playwright say about my character?, What do I do? According to the playwright. (Stage directions). I thought this task would be useful in gaining that deeper contextual understanding and depth of character so I decided to practice this method on the script I was working with as I knew that if it worked for me it was a tool I could add to my personal practice to further develop my skills as an actor. I went through the script (image 8 & 9) and highlighted any lines or stage directions which applied to these questions. I found that this was extremely beneficial as it helped me to find patterns, build the world of the play and my character and find clarity and also remaining questions. I now use this task when I am faced with a new script and plan to use it for even more development in the future for example completing this process with scripts for the upcoming shows I’m part of in the Leeds theatre festival.

Image 8 & 9

There are two ways different ways I ended up developing the present, making choices part of my skills. Firstly, in an acting class we were asked to create characters initially to be, we then did an improv class where we pretended to be in an airport as our characters and interacted with everyone else’s improvised characters too. I found that the freedom of improvisation and also character relationships being created by working with other actors unlocked a more present and open side to me as a performer. I have continued to use this skill by imagining characters I explore in different scenarios and feeling how they would react, I feel like this allows me to know my character beyond what’s written on the page and therefore be a more receptive and open actor which is an extremely useful skill that I feel like I have continuously developed via this practice.

After completing this task we were encouraged to get to know our characters further and make choice about them, therefore I created a social media for my character in order to train myself into making choices about who they are and how they interact with the world. I have practiced similar skills to this throughout my training my creating playlists and Pinterest boards for characters and due to how much development I’ve seen from doing this I have decided to add it to my process and continue doing this. (Images 10-12).

Image 10 & 11 & 12

As an aspiring musical theatre performer I am aware that our skills are not mutually exclusive and I wanted to find a way to incorporate what I had developed in acting into improving myself as an overall performer therefore I decided to put some of my acting techniques into my acting through song preparation. In my first acting through song class I sang “falling out of love can be fun” from Miss Liberty by Irving Berlin, I hadn’t yet honed my skills or actors toolkit so I did extremely little research or prep and therefore was unable to be fully present in the session or make informed character choices, after the work I have put in over the year to improve my toolkit my preparation for acting through song has majorly improved (see image 13). This translated into my improvement in performance and confidence within acting through song classes.

Image 13

overall in acting I am satisfied with my progress I feel like I have been very specific with my goals and why they are important for the industry and then focused on consistent ways to practically implement these into my practice and continually done this leading to a high level of improvement throughout the year.
My hopes for the future are to continue developing my acting with the same goals in mind, I would like to try more methods and techniques to see if there are more I can add to my toolkit to make my craft more specific and detailed. I will do this by completing further research and wider reading into a range of methodologies and practitioners.

singing

When I began the course I had a real passion and care for singing but also a lack of knowledge and understanding of technique and active practice.

I learned through my vocal technique classes with Scott Harrison that personal practice is not as simple as singing through songs, I have never had a consistent vocal practice routine and therefore spent a lot of time researching the different parts of the voice and body and how to warm these up and created my own vocal warmup to follow everyday (image 14 & 15 & 16 & 17).

I particularly wanted to focus on my mix belt and creating a cleaner and brighter sound, in order to do this I took a vocal warmup that Aaron Newland-Bentley taught us in a vocal tech class and repeatedly practiced this exercise everyday. (Example; Audio 1). I found that this drastically improved the clarity of the sound I was producing which in turn will allow me to sing a wider range of repertoire. This skill is extremely beneficial to my development as a performer as lots of modern musical theatre involves a lot of mix belting, also understanding the placement can allow me to sing in a healthier more sustainable way which is extremely relevant to the vocal endurance involved in performing up to 8 shows a week

Within singing another important industry skill is to be able to do a range of styles, when I started the course I wasn’t comfortable with a wide range of styles and I knew this was something I really wanted to improve.
This skill is useful in the industry as there are many different styles of shows that I could end up being part of as a performer, for example contemporary shows may require a more pop/ rock vocal in some cases and more golden age shows may require a more legit or classical vocal quality. This versatility is very important in my development as a performer as it makes you more employable as you are less limited by the style of show you can be put forward to audition for and also suit. This isn’t a skill we particularly work on in first year so I decided to work on it in my personal private practice by singing songs in different styles and learning the different qualities needed for those, (example of folk, pop and musical theatre in Audio 2, 3 & 4).

Audio 2

Audio 3

Audio 4

I wanted to further aid my development by understanding the different styles therefore on Monday April 20th between 5:30 and 8:30, I attended a Masterclass run by Sheri Sanders linked to her book ‘rock the audition’, which is a book about auditioning for pop and rock musicals and bridging the gap between popular music and self taping. It covered information about lots of different styles including; Jazz, Motown, 70s Folk/ rock, Disco, 80s, punk, rap and R&B, country and contemporary folk. I wanted to do this as an additional stage in my development to help me take what I had practiced in regards to different styles and truly implement this into how it fits in and affects me in the industry. I think this discovery and understanding of different genres has been extremely beneficial in my development as a performer and it’s something I will carry forward. An example of how I am already implementing this is in our first year project auditions as we are doing ‘HAIR’ the musical and from my research and new understanding I am able to choose a folk rock genre song which fits the show and sing this accurately whereas at the start I wouldn’t have known what to sing for this audition.

Overall I am satisfied with my progression and development in singing, in the future I want to continue to improve my mix belt, I will do this by continuing my daily exercises. I would also like to work on more legit repertoire in the future to further increase my development in this area.

Dance

When I first started at Leeds Conservatoire I was relatively new to dance, I had previously danced on my foundation course which gave me a basic understanding of dance but still with a lot to learn. I decided to set myself specific goals as to not get overwhelmed. I wanted to gain strength and flexibility and also understand how to perform and understand different styles of dance and also improve my pick up skills.

I learned from independent research (website linked in my bibliography) that flexibility is not just about aesthetics but also strength and injury prevention.

I made sure to warm up first to prevent injury then every other morning I would complete a range of dynamic and static stretches in order reach my highest level of motion, I found that I noticed this difference the most in my kicks as at the start of the year (kicks before video) my leg was bent and hip not square whereas in the second more recent video my alignment and technique are much stronger (kicks after video).

Kicks before

Kicks after

We had audition technique classes throughout the year and also lots of quick speed pick up dances during other classes. I found that this helped my development massively and improved my pick up skills which are essential for a performer as in auditions I will have to quickly learn a routine and still perform it. Also as shorter rehearsal periods will expect me to quickly pick up and remember choreography in order to be efficient in the process.

I have attached below a few examples of the different styles that we have done to show my development in quick recall of dances. The first video is a video of our dance to ‘all that jazz’ from Chicago which required a very slow, distinct and precise and the second video is ‘Dead Ringer’ which requires a much more upbeat and fierce energy and attack. Therefore my development was hugely impacted as I had to have a range of skills and performance qualities in order to perform these different styles to the best of my ability which is an extremely valuable skill because in the industry I could be auditioning for a wide range of shows all of which may vary in the dance and performance style and energy required.

All that jazz

dead ringer

Additional skills

As a performer it is highly important to have additional skills outside of just performing, a big focus for me this year was that I wanted to find a way to incorporate other hobbies into my life in a way that was well organised and scheduled and also aids my overall development as a performer.

When I first started I found that I was getting overwhelmed with the course hours and finding that I couldn’t find time to fit in other things I love and care about for example; the gym, running and gymnastics. A really essential skill as a performer is time management as after you graduate you could be working full time and still trying to keep up with auditions and training, therefore I created myself a weekly timetable including scheduled time for personal developmental practice and also scheduled classes and additional hobbies.
I have attached this schedule below.

Making time for additional hobbies has extremely developed me as a performer and person, attending gymnastics three times per week has drastically improved my strength and flexibility and I am starting to develop tricks and skills I couldn’t do before, as a performer being able to do acrobatics or tricks can be classed as a specialist skill therefore developing these was very important to me as they will help me stand out once I eventually enter the industry, I also find that gymnastics is a good social outlet and release for me whilst still physically benefiting me making it the best of both worlds.

Below I have included a couple of clips of me practicing skills at gymnastics, I hope to further develop these in the future by continuing to practice and attend my sessions three times a week.

gymnastics footage

I also decided in order to gain strength I would practice handstands against the wall everyday to increase body weight strength and also balance and core engagement. (Shown below).

Daily handstands

The other hobby I wanted to continue was running, I found that this hobby has benefited me as a performer as it has increased my endurance which is extremely useful as in a show you could be doing back to back dance numbers or even just physically using your body a lot. I can tell that I have made progress in my stamina via running as I recently completed my second half-marathon in 2 hour 14 minutes and 10 seconds which beats my last half marathon a year ago suggesting I have improved. I also find that the resilience you gain from an event like a half marathon is very relevant as a performer having to deal with being physically or emotionally tired and yet still resilient. Below I have attached evidence of my half marathon.

Leeds Half-marathon evidence

conclusion

In conclusion, I am very happy with the overall progress I’ve made this year. I have put lots of resilience and dedicated planning and work into improving and developing. I have focused on what I really want as a performer and a range of physical and mental skills to achieve these things. If I were to go back to the start of the year and change anything I would start my stretching and strengthening exercises even sooner to have developed further and also gotten up even more times in acting through song to push my acting skills and confidence. I would also try to set slightly more measurable goals as some of my goals weren’t objective enough which made them slightly complex to measure. An example of this could be “gain strength in my legs by doing specific leg workouts and exercises” instead of “gain strength” as the first is more specific and measurable. Although I believe I have improved in all the areas I set out too I still hope in the future to continually work on these areas and improve them using the techniques and methodologies I have created and compiled for myd