As I approach the end of my second year of drama school training, I am beginning to piece together where I believe I fit into the creative arts industry and the best ways to advertise myself as a performer in the world of musical theatre. In this portfolio, I will be discussing the best ways that I intend to showcase myself in the industry that will help me achieve my goals and maximise my potential opportunities from graduation through to my career in the years to follow.
Background and Influences
My interest in musical theatre began at an early age through the influence of my mother, Donna. Despite now working as a hairdresser, she has always had a passion for the world of theatre, which she passed on to me, being a part of two theatre companies in which she would perform semiannually. My first experience with theatre was at the age of eight, when my parents took me to watch Mamma Mia on the West End during a bank holiday, which I was encapsulated by, and that resulted in me returning to watch the show twice more that month. Once it was clear to my parents that this was something I had a love for, they encouraged me to join Playbox Theatre, a Saturday school in my local area, which solidified my obsession with performing. The following year, I began performing in productions with Stratford Musical Theatre Company, alongside performing in pantomimes with Three Spires Guildhall. These opportunities made me realise that this love for theatre was no longer just a side hobby, but was undoubtedly what I wanted to do.
In 2020, both my parents and I began to look at possible paths that I could go down to immerse myself further, and we started to look at schools tailored to musical theatre training. After attending a couple of open days, I decided to audition for Tring Park School for the Performing Arts on their Performance Foundation course. Remarkably, I was accepted and started my journey at drama school later that year. I absolutely thrived in the vocational training and finally felt like I’d found my place. After a couple of years, I chose to specialise in musical theatre, which began my triple threat training through a three-way split programme equally disciplining us in singing, acting and dance. At this point, I felt like I had reached a comfortable point with my singing, and as someone who had never danced before this, I decided to take this opportunity to completely hone in on my dance training. Through performing in multiple shows while at this school and engaging in the intense dance training, I ended my four years at Tring feeling like I had a well-rounded foundation across the three disciplines, beginning my journey in auditioning for drama school.
After auditioning and being offered places at a variety of drama schools, I decided on Leeds Conservatoire. On joining, it was highlighted to me where the gaps and weaknesses were in my training, such as my ability to sing in multiple styles, and so the training has further advanced my skillset to fine-tune my strengths and balance out my abilities across the three disciplines. Outside of my training, being in Leeds has encouraged me to start professionally gigging with separate managements, which has also fuelled a passion for live music and progressing my ability in my saxophone and solo singing. This has helped me learn ways to advertise myself as both a performer and a musician. Overall, I would say that drama school training has challenged me in multiple ways but helped me to distinguish between expectations and realities of the industry, preparing me for the industry that I am going into. Luckily, as I had attended Tring Park in years before, I was used to the long and demanding hours, and was fully expectant of what was required of me to use the training to its full extent.
Working to my advantage
One of my main concerns during my training was my looks, for example, my short height and baby face, which may have limited me to quite a small casting bracket.
I was fortunate enough to have Nigel Harman, West End and TV star, as my mentor through family connections, and he assured me that while this might be a challenge, I must use it to my advantage. He advised me to play into that youthful look by suggesting that I begin my career only playing young roles, such as the child’s chorus in Oliver or Matilda. Nigel assured me that while there is a pool of talented child actors, the industry is always looking for young-looking adult actors to play these roles to avoid all the complications of working with children. I took this advice under my wing and, since then, have embraced my youthful look and begun to tailor my repertoire to work towards this bracket of casting.
In 2023, I was lucky enough to perform in front of Lily James at a Founder’s Day performance at Tring Park. Lily trained at Tring and had starred in many of my dream shows/movies, such as Mamma Mia, and so has always been a great inspiration for me. I was privileged to have an inspiring conversation with her after the performance in which she assured me in my ability and that if I were to continue progressing my skills, I would surely flourish in the industry. This motivated me heavily and encouraged me to persevere with my training, while taking ownership of my features and recognising my authentic look. As someone who has always been insecure about my tightly-curled hair, this was a turning point for me in terms of claiming this as a part of me, and I began using it to distinguish myself from other performers.
Designing and Creating my Website
There is a range of information and content I would include on my website. Firstly, I would include a performance video of me singing ‘Get Out and Stay Out’ from 9 to 5, as I believe it highlights both my acting through song and contemporary style tone very well.
Performance video
Vocal reel:
Secondly, I would include a vocal reel or samples to display my versatility across other musical styles such as pop and legit. For this portfolio, I have included here some vocal/ instrumental samples that I had professionally recorded and mastered, which highlight my pop singing, saxophone playing and traditional musical theatre style.
Dance reel:
For my dance reel, I have decided to include a video of me dancing a repertoire from Dreamgirls. I believe this shows a good foundation and knowledge of technique, while also embodying style and performance.
Acting reel:
For my acting reel, I would upload a video of me performing a monologue from a play called My Mum’s a Twat. I used this monologue for my drama school audition, and I believe it is very well suited to my casting type as it highlights my youthful appearance and playing age of late teens/early 20’s quite well. It also shows my ability to perform in multiple styles of emotion, such as happiness, as well as frustration and resentment.
Information to include on website:
Title page:
Name, options, three lines with each subtopic, actor, singer, dancer
About:
Training includes;
Tring Park School for the Performing Arts (2020-2024). Theatre credits while training include- Jesus Christ Superstar, 2021, directed by Louisa Shaw (as Mary Magdalene), Fame, 2022, directed by Louisa Shaw (as Serena), 9 to 5, 2023, directed by Joe Ashman (Ensemble) and Guys and Dolls, 2024, directed by Donna Hayward (as Hot-Box dancer/Missionary).
Leeds Conservatoire (2024-2027). Theatre credits while training include – Cabaret, 2025, directed by Adam Stadius (as Fraulein Schneider), Rust, 2025, directed by Ellie Coote (as Evie), Dance Project, 2026, choreographed by Simon Hardwick and My Fair Lady, 2025, directed by Sam Spencer Laine (as Ensemble).
Casting Type:
Age- 20
Playing age – 14-23
Ethnicity – White British
Gender – Female
Height – 5 Feet, 1 Inches (155cm)
Appearance – White British
Eye colour – Blue
Vocal type – Mezzo Soprano
Vocal range- E3-G6
Link to Social Media:
As someone who has always used social media to my advantage, I have a wide range of content already on my social media handles that I could use to my benefit by linking my Instagram and TikTok to my website. Here I have included some context that I’ve already posted, and I will continue to post content like this both up to my graduation and after. There are a variety of videos, ranging from content from professional gigs which highlight my ability to work with pop material, as well as more relaxed clips of me playing both saxophone and piano. I believe these are good examples of content, as some are relaxed enough for platforms such as TikTok, while others are more formal videos of me performing, more suitable for my Instagram account.
Headshots:
For my website, I have chosen to include these three headshots of myself as I believe they show the most variety in style. The first image is versatile for both contemporary and pop-based musicals, such as Mamma Mia or Bring It On, with an approachable and modern look, while the second is more styled towards classical and legit casting. Finally, the third image, which is one I use for my personal branding when I do professional gigs, is more daring and bold, which would be suited to musicals such as Grease.
Creating a CV:
Here, I have chosen to include some images of my previous CV that I have used for jobs both in hospitality and the theatre industry. However, as I approach the end of my second year of training, I would like to include some further information on it, in order to tailor it towards a Musical Theatre Performer rather than a general employer. Below, you will see the information that I would add to my CV in order to cover all bases of my casting type, demonstrating my employability.
Further Information to include on CV:
Accents and Dialects:
Highly skilled; American Standard, American Southern, RP.
Skilled; Mancunian, Cockney, North East (Geordie), Yorkshire, Scottish, Irish, and West Country.
Music and Dance Training:
Highly skilled: Jazz dance, Classical Ballet, Alto Saxophone, Piano, Mezzo-Soprano, Sight reading, and the ability to read music.
Skilled – Tap dance, Commercial dance, Contemporary Dance
Vocal range – E3 to G6
Driving ability: Full UK Driving License
Cover Letter
For this portfolio, I drafted an example of a Cover Letter that I could send to creative teams. For this example, I chose Katie M-G, Chairman of Stratford Musical Theatre Company, who is head of putting on their future production of Dear Evan Hansen.
Balancing Creative skills with Performance Skills
One thing that was a new experience for me during my training at Leeds Conservatoire was my particpation in R&D modules. I am grateful to have worked with some excellent external creatives on their shows and earlier this year, I had the opportunity of being Composer and Musical Director on our own show After. This module improved my skills massively and provided me with a great insight into how I fit into a creative team to apply to both the rest of my training and future projects after I graduate. I found the R&D process particularly useful as I was able to step away from the performer mindset and take on a more logistical and practical side of putting a show together. I learnt things that improved my knowledge of musical theatre, such as the budgeting and finance side of producing a musical, alongside the importance of using social media as a marketing tool and how beneficial that can be in our day and age. This also motivated and enlightened me on how to continue to practice bettering myself to improve both as a performer and as a creative.
Conclusion
With almost two full years of musical theatre training done now, I now feel confident in my performance and creative abilities and feel ready to finalise any adjustments I need to make prior to my final year. Later this year, I have the opportunity of working with Sam Spencer Lane on our second year project My Fair Lady, which will strech my ability to work in a different style to that that i’m used to, aswell as working with another director whom I can network with, with the potential of working with/for her again in the future. Moving into summer as I prepare for my final year of training, I will continue to practice my standards of professionalism and discipline by strecthing myself inside and outside of classes. In order to do this, I aim to maintain my stamina and strength by attending the gym and taking public dance classes aswell as begin to plan my material for agent showcases to ensure I present myself in the most compatible way so that when it comes to graduation, I can hit the ground running, with my personal branding solidified.
