This portfolio conveys the development of my acting skills in chronological order from September to May and ends with a summative write-up. The development of my skills will be depicted using a before-and-after approach while conveying the feedback I have received throughout my journey through this academic year. Theorists such as Uta Hagen and Stanislavski have contributed to the development of my acting skills. The ownership I have taken over the development of my artistic skills has been discussed throughout the portfolio. The portfolio conveys the development of my acting skills, which are reflected upon using a variety of reflection techniques, and a preferred method will be discussed in the summative write-up. The summative write-up reflects upon my artistic skills now compared to the start of the academic year in September, and what elements of this academic year I wish to bring forward into the next academic year.

September 2024

(Video from Festival of Dionysis performance)

In our lessons for self as an artist, we were given the task to reflect on where we were at the start of our journey. I chose to reflect with pictures.

This picture shows a reflective image of where I think I’m at with my journey in acting. Even though I have done a lot of studying previously, I still feel at the start of my journey. Therefore, going forward, I will make sure to keep an open mind to all training and be ready to learn.

This reflection style I enjoyed, and it nourished my creative side of the brain. I can see clearly that this is a style that I will take forward throughout my process.

October 2024

In our first lesson in acting with Tom Aldersley, we learned about the practitioners Stanislavski/ Uta Hagen and their methods and worked on these for a few weeks. I could recognise the names and have done a lot of work on Uta Hagen. After the lessons, I wanted to do further reading on Uta Hagan and her methodology to refresh myself, as it has been a long time since looking at this practitioner.

Within my further reading, it talked about ‘observation of daily life’ (Ates, 2023). This reminded me of our lesson, and the homework was to people watch. After this was set, I did not see how this could help, but I know I needed to give everything a fair shot due to my plan of keeping an open mind from September. In reflection, I see that this was a key moment, and my experience with people watching was pleasantly surprising. I enjoyed this. When people watching, I could see people’s differences: mannerisms, walks, posture, facial expressions, and speech. I can see this is a good way to make strong character choices physically and vocally. However, in reflection, it would be amazing to record people, but it would be disrespectful to record without permission, and  I would feel uncomfortable doing so. Therefore, in the future, I need to keep a notebook and write down what I see, and I can form a character from that. Hearing back from one of my peers, I could use public webcams to people watch and record people, which is an amazing suggestion, due to myself being a very visual learner. 

From my further research into Uta Hagen, it talked about ‘the five key elements’ (Ates, 2023). The first is Substitution and is different from Lee Strasberg’s emotional recall, where actors ‘mentally recreate the emotional conditions of their lives on stage’.  Hagen’s substitution wants the actor to put themselves in the character’s shoes and portray this onstage with conviction rather than using emotional recall. 

The second key element is ‘Transference’ (Ates, 2023). Hagen said it was ‘the actor’s duty’. Hagen wants the actor to ‘find their relationship towards the character.’ The actor must use their own view of life as well as their experiences and relate it back to the character; this is termed ‘Transference’ by Hagen. However, Hagen is adamant that an actor should never use experiences from their life if they make the actor uncomfortable when sharing in the group/publicly. 

The third key element is ‘specificity’  (Ates, 2023). Hagen also wanted actors to know how to behave on stage with objects that would be in the scene. Hagen was adamant that actors use the specific props in rehearsals that they would use in the final performance, as well as visualising ‘specific objects when looking at blank walls or into the audience’. 

The fourth key element is ‘Authenticity’  (Ates, 2023). Hagen made sure students would utilise ‘props, costumes, or even architectural features of the venue to motivate authentic action’. In the future, I would like to do some further reading on actioning. Hagen believed it was the relationship with objects that created naturalistic behaviour on stage.

The last element ‘Preparation’ (Ates, 2023). Hagen thought that the development of authentic behaviour of the character and performing the role effortlessly requires rehearsal. Hagen created a series of exercises: Basic objective exercise, three entrances, immediacy, fourth side, and endowment. 

The character questions are a good way to gain knowledge about your character. However, Tom’s questions feel very overwhelming, causing me to lose focus when acting. To tackle this in the future, I will still use Uta Hagen’s question, but on top of that, use a select few that are meaningful to the character from Tom’s list.

I like this reflection model because it’s simplistic but yet encompasses everything we need in a good reflection.

November 2024

Reflecting on my answers 

What does it mean to be human?

I still agree with what I said regarding making mistakes and showing empathy.

How do our experiences and emotions shape us as people and artists?

 I slightly disagree with the drawing from experiences to influence Characters’ attitudes because during Tom’s lesson, we talked about  Emotional memory, ‘In which actors are encouraged to use their own emotional experience and memory in preparing to live a role’ (Britannica, 2025). This technique could improve my acting by making it a more believable and naturalistic performance. Furthermore, I have used this for performances I have done in the past prior to starting at Leeds Conservatoire. However, after many group discussions throughout the year, I have come to the conclusion that it does affect the actors’ mental state using it time and time again, because it brings up past experiences that can trigger traumas. I do not want to put myself in that state of constantly having to relive an old memory that could be sad, scary, or horrifying. On the other hand, I could see myself using this for good memories if my character feels happy, excited, or blissful, to show a naturalistic performance. 

Looking back at this question, I realized I was just thinking as an actor. I completely agree that our experiences and emotions shape us as a person and artist. These experiences shaped us as people and define who we are, but also help us to grow and develop as people, and we build upon our experiences as we continue our lives, and gain new experiences that continue to shape us throughout our lives. It is hardships and good experiences that help us to grow and develop as people. By overcoming hardships, we develop strengths, resilience, and problem-solving capabilities as well as an outlook on life. This can shape the art we do!

What is one human quality you would like to explore in your acting?

I think I want to look at introversion as my one human quality. I feel more extroverted as a person. In further reading, I can see that I might not be fully extroverted due to ‘new personality theories have come to accept that it is more likely that introversion and extroversion are on a scale’ (Guy-Evans, 2024). I might be a 70/30 split. This gives me ideas for playing characters and posing the question: where would my character fit on the extrovert to introvert scale? Introverted character traits takeaways: ‘reserve, passivity, thoughtfulness, and a preference to keep emotional state private’. Reflecting on these traits, a lot of them don’t reflect how I see myself, which would be really good to explore and to use when performing, if I answer my question previously with my character is highly introverted.

December 2024

We were given the task to create a voice warm-up that we could use throughout the year. My key learning moment was making this warm-up. Warm-ups are useful, especially when working on anything that uses your voice. Your voice is also a muscle, and as such, it needs to be trained. However, like a muscle, we need to warm up to prevent ‘pulling, straining or spraining a muscle’ (Evans, 2021).

My key learning moment in December was being tasked to make a warm-up right for you. Warm-ups are useful, especially when working on anything that uses your voice. 

During our lesson, we worked a lot on different techniques and created a list from this. The main techniques used: stretching and tension release, connection to breath, humming and resonance, articulation, and projection. This gives me, as an actor, a well-versed warm-up that will make me physically and vocally ready for the lesson ahead. I found this warm-up useful, however, very repetitive, and as a person who is neurodiverse, I thrive on changes to learning techniques in order to stay engaged and motivated. This is due to receiving tutor feedback that it did not look as though my voice had warmed up adequately. Therefore, this brought me on to one of the further reading recommendations: ‘Finding Your Voice’ by Barbara Houseman (2002). This helped me to expand on the method that I had been taught during class. Below is a video of me doing the Alexander position. This warm-up enables me to take ownership and responsibility for my progress and development as an actor.

January 2025

During the lessons in January, we worked on actioning, which was a big development for me as an actor. I have touched upon it before, however, not in so much detail. Actioning is one verb that is active /transitive to each line of your text. This was a big development for me because it made me reflect on my character and how I  will influence my objective through my line.

Active verbs are simple verbs that can show action. This is useful as it gives the actor (me) the ability to play around with that specific action (LumenLearning, 2025).

We then got suggested the actioning book, which gives suggestions of verbs that can help if the actor is stuck on what active/transitive verb you use on a specific line (Caldarone, Lloyd-Williams, and Johnson, 2017). This allows me to add words to the line that is spoken in order to give the line meaning, and by giving it meaning, we give an impression to the audience on how the character is feeling.

The pictures above highlight my use of actioning within ‘Till the Stars come down’ act that I performed. I have used actioning to better my performance and really carry weight to the lines I speak. For example, the line “she wouldn’t lie about a thing like that,” I used the verb to affirm the character’s stance and certainty of the situation in order to give the line a presence and more meaning.  

February/March 2025

Stanislavski was the founder of the Moscow Art Theatre opened in 1898.  Stanislavski was known for being an actor, director, and producer. He was mostly prominent for creating a theory of acting called ‘The Stanislavski Method’. He believed ‘the actor must serve as the people educator’ through naturalistic performances and extensive rehearsals (Moore, 2025). Thus, only a permanent company could perform at such a high level of skill. He did not believe that the actors were in the real world of the character when on stage, and thought that actors needed to be in the characters’ inner world. He turned to science, and this was the start of the Stanislavski method. He went from the external approach of the actor being on stage to only psychological approach of the actor being in the inner world of the character. 

As well as this, in his process, he would say “I do not believe you” to other actors, therefore using the criticism method by saying that the performance was not naturalistic and therefore not a believable performance (Moore, 2025). In Tom’s lesson, he used the same method with me; he did not believe that I was my character because I did not know where I was or why I was saying the lines I said. Reflecting on this, I will use the 4Ps, which is a quick reflection process.

My pow moment (what went well) was that after Tom told me this, I did my further reading on the play we were doing, as well as my character. My pin it task ( what do I need to spend more time on ) is going into the next play, I’ll do this prior to showing, therefore already having that believability. My prep ( How prepared was I?) prior to this showing was of poor standard due to the feedback given; however, this year is about making mistakes and learning, and I do not feel negatively about this. I feel I was present ( was I distracted?) in the lesson and have taken on board the feedback given. 

The specific acting skill this text is focusing on is Emotional memory, ‘In which actors are encouraged to use their own emotional experience and memory in preparing to live a role'(Moore, 2025). This technique could improve my acting by making it a more believable and naturalistic performance. Furthermore, I have used this for performances I have done in the past prior to starting at Leeds Conservatoire. However, after many group discussions throughout the year, I have come to the conclusion that it does affect the actors’ mental state using it time and time again, because it brings up past experiences that can trigger traumas. I do not want to put myself in that state of constantly having to relive an old memory that could be sad, scary, or horrifying. On the other hand, I could see myself using this for good memories if my character feels happy, excited, or blissful, to show a naturalistic performance. 

The article touched upon ‘given circumstances’ (Moore, 2025). We have done lessons on this with Tom Aldersley. Given circumstances mean to me what has happened prior to the scene that is affecting you in the current scene. For example, in the scene for my acting assessment, I had just woken up, and therefore, you might be a bit sluggish to start and not fully awake. Then, as the actor, you try to show this to the audience. This can also relate to the current situation your character is in, what they have to do later, and how that will affect your character in the present. I had to go see another person that day in my assessment, so this meant I needed to get ready to go, e.g, putting on clothes, going to the bathroom, and freshening up. This Technique will make the performance more naturalistic as the audience would see that this is what the character normally does. Furthermore, creating the world around the character for the audience. I have never really thought about given circumstances or in so much detail, and this year in my training has really shed light on it. I really think this is a useful technique for me and will be putting it in my acting toolbox for the 2nd year in order to be a believable actor.

Another key learning moment was my acting assessment. The above pictures show my preparation for my acting assessment as well as my reflection on my acting assessment. During this process, I was up for trying all the techniques used after the process. I could see I was very fond of them all, and I will be using them for my acting process. The further reading I would like to do over the summer is Stanislavski’s ‘An Actor’s Work’. This book goes more in-depth with his techniques.

Above is a picture of my feedback. If I were to do it again, I would establish stakes by waking up and looking at my watch. This physical action would allow me to establish stakes whilst still honouring the truth of my characters’ starting point. As well as this, I will look into inner psychological drives and actions from ‘An Actor’s Work’.

April 2025

A key moment this month was losing the main role in the dance assessment. This was due to my knees playing up, and consequently, I missed one lesson, and the role was given to someone else. I understand that this is something that the tutors had to do; however, I felt that I could have prevented this by accessing physio earlier on. This is why I went to physio, and it was explained to me the reasoning why my knees were playing up, and I was given exercises to do in order to strengthen the muscles. The video below is of my physio appointment. 

From this video, what is shown is the reason why my knees were feeling sore all the time, as well as an exercise to strengthen the muscles that are needed to prevent further strain. This is what I will need to do in the future, and I will add this to my workouts each week.

When learning the dance, we used repetition over a long period, which was very effective for establishing muscle memory and was attuned to my neurodiversity. This made me very confident when performing the dance. I’ll take this to my future work in all areas of my course, as I think this is applicable for making sure work is well learnt. 

The video above depicts me and my duet partner practising the duet part of the dance. As well as others, teaching me sections of the dance.

Above conveys the end product of our duet in the performance.

Through this process, we used repetition as well as worked on Actor movement. On being told at short notice that we would be assessed on our Actors’ movement, I felt shocked as we were working for weeks on the dance and not as our characters. This made me feel underprepared for the assessment, which in turn caused me stress because I like to be prepared in order to achieve perfection. However, this made me look into Actor movement briefly, but not in as much detail as I would want. For my future reading, I would like to look into Laban’s Efforts in Action and Actor movement. 

May 2025

My last key moment of this year was my screen assessment process. The assessment was a self-tape. I had done self-tapes before; however, after the lesson in which we tried making a quick self-tape and gaining feedback, I was really taken aback by how much is needed for a self-tape.

Looking back at my first self-tape tape there was some nice connection made; however, with work on it and more time, as we only had 20 minutes, I could have had a much stronger connection with myself and the other scene partner. A key takeaway that Phillip Wolff told us was to treat it as a real scene. From my feedback, I was told it was very slow; stick to the general rule of 1 minute for each page of the scene.

This is a highly effective process and deepens my understanding. Character conflict helps the scene create higher stakes, making the audience more interested. The character’s objective, as I explained earlier in my portfolio this gives a goal for my character to strive for. The character obstacle is creating tension for the scene. A good obstacle would be something you, as the character, disagree with.

The actors’ objective grid is a technique shown to us by Phillip Wolff. You want to get your scene partner to do something. It shows you how you could pay safe objectives more risky, and the red ones are the best to choose, as they create a more interesting watch for the audience.

Using my Acting objective as a guide, this leads me on to my acting dynamic. Acting Dynamic is the problem you have with your acting partner, and how are you going to overcome it?

The acting Parallel is both using the acting objective and the acting dynamic to create a short imaginary scenario. However, do not use actual events. But still use people from your real life and personal feelings. In reflection of the acting parallel, this was very powerful for me because I am a very visual person. This created the scenario in my head that I took with me when I was performing.

This was my first take from my acting assessment.

Above is the direction given by Dom Kirk, my scene partner. I tried to implement for my next take.

This was my second take from my acting assessment.

Above is the second take direction given by Dom Kirk, my scene partner. I tried to implement for my final take.

My Reflection above.

Dom Kirk’s Feedback.

Summative

Comparing myself to when I started my course, I feel like I have a strong understanding of processes and techniques.

Above this is a discussion on my progress and where I’m at on the 29th of May 2025. In the meeting, we touched upon what is needed prior to and within year 2. This also goes into three key moments needed to focus on, which are mental health, as well as my body health, embodying my voice, and being present in the room.

Key learning within Mental health/Body health

One topic we covered was “not holding back within the lesson”. In my opinion, I find it challenging to block out unhelpful thoughts as well as overthinking others’ perceptions of me. The teachers told me a good method is to get on with my own work instead of focusing on what others may think of me. In turn, I will be present in my lessons. In reflection on this, I need to research RSD and ADHD. Over the summer, I will be tackling this with my specialist mentor. In the second year, I will set myself the goal to focus on my own work and to strive to make bold choices.

Another topic of discussion was my physical health and how that has affected me this year. The main area in which I was affected was my knees. Reflecting on this, I will be using the Boud Reflection Model (1985). My experience over this year has been a journey with my knees. Since the summer of 2024, I have had problems with my knees. Looking back, I actually went to the physio practice early on in the academic year, and they deemed my knees to be perfectly fine. This created resentment towards my knee pain, and created the idea in my head that I was lying to myself about feeling this pain. In turn, it had affected my mental well-being. After I went to the Leeds Conservatoire physio, I finally got an answer to why I had this pain. This gave me relief and building blocks on what I needed to do. In reflection of this, moving forward into year 2, I will make sure to trust my body and seek support promptly when needed. This impacted my learning, and as a result, I lost my part in the dance assessment. I will also make sure to continue to carry out the exercises given and implement them into my workout routine.

The last topic we discussed was “being ok to fail,” as this is where we learn within our course. Within my specialist mentor session, we talked about how challenging thoughts impact this. I think the fear of failure has come from not understanding tasks or questions within my course, as a result, not allowing myself to fail by not giving everything a go, not raising my hand to answer questions, and not volunteering to take part in the task. In the second year, I need to prevent this as it’s not allowing me to develop to be an exceptional actor. My definition of success might need to change from ‘getting everything right’ to ‘fail’ in order to allow myself to reflect, then this will prompt me to develop.

Key learning within Embodiment of voice

Jo raised that she needs to see my embodiment of voice in the second year. This definitely needs to be addressed prior to coming back in September. I was not really sure what embodiment of voice was clearly defined as. My research talked about ’embodiment acting’ (Giddings, 2025). Embodiment acting in being in the present moment by ‘using your five senses and the five bodies- physical, mental, emotional, energetic, and universal. This article also talks about Jamie Wollrab’s method of embodiment, where they go through a practice. In reflection, I will use this practice over the summer and see how responsive I am to it. If it does work well, I will take this into my second-year practice and implement it into my morning routine. As well as this, I can use it at the end of my lunch break if I feel out of balance.

Key learning on being present in the room

The last discussion point I will talk about is “staying present in the room,” both physically and psychologically. In reflection, this is important for the development of an actor, as if I’m not present in the task, I will not be able to fully embody it. As well as this, it will create group cohesion when doing group work. I will tackle this problem prior to starting back in September by starting my Adhd medication. Within my specialist mentor sessions in the summer, I will look into anxiety techniques to help prevent me from not being present in lessons and group work. As well as looking into grounding techniques to stay in the task and the room. In the second year, I will implement these, and I will also keep my teachers in the loop and give them any information needed at the start of the year, and keep open communication throughout.

Conclusion

In conclusion, I aim to implement strategies in order to overcome barriers to learning caused by neurodiversity and mental health difficulties to further develop my acting skills and participation in my second year. Further research of key theorists and acting techniques will enable me to develop as an actor. Authenticity and communication with others are paramount to this process to aid my collaborative skills and help when seeking support.

Reference list

Actions: The actors’ thesaurus (2025) Goodreads [Photograph]. Available at: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1224418.Actions (Accessed: 06 June 2025). 

Ates, A. (2023) The Definitive Guide to uta hagen’s acting technique. Available at: https://www.backstage.com/magazine/article/the-definitive-guide-to-uta-hagens-acting-technique-68922/ (Accessed: 31 May 2025). 

BBC. (2025) Konstantin Stanislavski – Naturalism and Stanislavski – GCSE Drama Revision – WJEC – BBC Bitesize (2023) BBC News. Available at: https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/guides/zxn4mp3/revision/1 (Accessed: 15 May 2025). 

Caldarone, M., Lloyd-Williams, M. and Johnson, T. (2017) Actions: The actors’ thesaurus. London: Nick Hern Books. 

Churchill, C. (2012) Love and information. London: Nick Hern Books. 

Evans, V. (2021) Vocal warm ups — why you should always warm up your voice. Available at: https://verityevans.medium.com/vocal-warm-ups-why-you-should-always-warm-up-your-voice-f40f65d9ada6 (Accessed: 4 June 2025).

Giddings, P. (2025) The Energizing Acting Technique You Need to Try. Available at: https://www.backstage.com/magazine/article/embodiment-acting-technique-explained-78263/ (Accessed: 09 June 2025). 

Guy-Evans, O. (2024) Introvert vs. Extrovert Personality: Signs, Theories, & Differences. Available at: https://www.simplypsychology.org/introvert-extrovert.html#What-is-an-Ambivert (Accessed: 4 June 2025).

Houseman, B. (2002) Finding your voice. London: Nick Hern Books Ltd. 

Lawrence, B. and Chekhov, A.P. (2000) The bear: A play. London: Samuel French 

lumenlearning (2025) Guide to writing, Active Verbs | Guide to Writing. Available at: https://courses.lumenlearning.com/suny-ecc-guidetowriting/chapter/active-verbs/ (Accessed: 15 May 2025). 

McGowan, E. (2022) Actioning in acting: A guide to the technique. Available at: https://www.backstage.com/magazine/article/actioning-acting-explained-75443/ (Accessed: 14 May 2025). 

Moore, S. (2025) Konstantin Stanislavsky. Available at: https://www.britannica.com/biography/Konstantin-Stanislavsky (Accessed: 15 May 2025). 

Payne, N. (2017) Constellations. London: Faber and Faber Ltd. 

Schott Acting Studio. (2025) Mike Alfreds [Photograph]. Available at: https://schott-acting-studio.de/en/mike-alfreds/ (Accessed: 12 May 2025).

Steel, B. (2024) Till the stars come down. London: Faber and Faber.