Introduction
Throughout my first term of third year, I undertook many classes under my chosen specialist skills module: advanced acting. I found the term challenging but also very enlightening as I expanded my knowledge on various techniques and the historical and cultural aspects of performance and theatre. Moreover, this module helped me grow to accept, and finally understand, that acting, as an art form, is very contradicting. An actor’s world has many paths, processes and techniques that are thrown their way, one very different from the last. This module has given me full responsibility and control over my preparation and rehearsal time when producing work for my classes. However, I am still appreciative of the variety of techniques I have developed and put in my ‘actor’s toolbox’ as it’s allowed me to decide what ideologies I resonate with the most. During this module I partook in 4 classes: Naturalism via the route of the Uta Hagen technique, Shakespeare class, monologue bootcamp and screen acting. In this portfolio I will reflect on my development in these sessions and evaluate what was successful and unsuccessful for me as an actor and learner
Shakespeare
“Even if you have never had first-hand experience of a Shakespeare play, Shakespeare is so embedded in British culture and looms so large in the world of British theatre” (Yarker, 2012)
Learning how to work towards mastering the delivery of a Shakespearean text and learning about Shakespeare’s impact on modern theatrical culture was something I really enjoyed and found very intriguing.
“In speeches what’s on the page is what a character is authentically thinking and feeling in the given moment” (Wright, 2020).
‘Thinking on the line’ is a skill that highlights the key difference between a contemporary and Shakespearean speech. Allowing the actor to speak their thoughts as they think them and not allowing space for subtext and self- indulging, personal moments on stage. A Shakespearean actor is generous; they take the audience on each detailed thought process that goes through their head. Performing this way was a challenge for me for the first few weeks as I struggled with breaking my natural habits to add physicality and gesture before speaking; preempting the line. In second year; we did alot of work on subtext and, as an actor, I prioritise grounding myself into a character, placing myself into their world which usually leads to many deep personal discoveries that I experience with the character and their journey, which I link to the text. However, what I learnt with Shakespearean works is that analysing the text itself has to be a priority before becoming too creative with the character as the text will give you a lot of information about how that character’s mind works and what their trying to communicate. In order to “think on the line” I had to irradiate my habit of putting my interpretation of the character’s delivery of a line and thought process first and instead really examine the text and discover what journey it wants to take the character on. “Shakespeare literally ‘directed’ the actors by the way he wrote. They were given only their own lines in cue script form, with no ‘hands on’ help from any other source, so the layout and wording in their original cue-scripted text was paramount” (Ozanne, 2025). I tried using movement, walking around the space and stopping every time punctuation indicated a thought change. I also wrote a lot on my script – uniting and highlighting the punctuation and the dialectic to track my character’s emotional journey. Eventually, I was managing to practice this technique consistently and I found it really helpful as it allowed me to isolate Shakespeare as it’s own individual style of performance with it’s own process of a lot more rigorous research into context and the text itself. It helped me recognise how my intention as an actor and a character will always be different to that of a contemporary piece.
Moving on, a discovery I made across all my classes, but particularly loved for Shakespeare, was using imagery. I am a visual learner and find that whenever I perform I have visions in my head of what my surroundings look like and if I’m performing a monologue or soliloquy being aware of what my fellow characters look like. I feel like I cannot discover my characters fully until I feel like I am observing every aspect of their world in my head. Therefore, our session on imagery was extremely easy for me to jump into; putting detailed pictures of what the character was describing or even abstract drawings to depict the emotion I felt from the text was extremely useful and something that not only allowed me to layer the piece I was working on but also allowed me to learn my lines more effectively as I now had images correlated to text.
Moving on, developing my knowledge on the influence of Shakespeare is something I feel is very important for an actor studying and performing his work. It allows you to make connections to modern day storytelling as Shakespeare plays span so many themes that is covers arguably all bases of stories today. This allowed me to strip back a Shakespearean piece by looking at what the story was trying to convey through it’s themes and not panicking or over complicating the story in my head by avoiding the simple, over all trope. I feel I now understand the context of his pieces better and am able to categorise what type of story different plays fit in to. For example, is the piece comedic, historical or a tragedy.
We also learned about Shakespeare’s canon as well as the negative impacts that is connected with his works. “The work that went into considering the Shakespeare canon between 1640 and 1740 – at both ends of the period a canon of thirty six plays” (Depledge, Korean and Annual, 2017, p.87). It’s important to recognise Shakespeare’s canon as setting a precedent for the literacy works that follow him, as mentioned above in regards to story strictures. It allowed me to see plays in a different light when analysing them as an actor. Being able to recognise the creative structure of a play and the creation of dialectics and themes all links back to Shakespeare’s canon – in turn this helped my perception as an actor and I’ve been able to pick apart stories and themes at a much faster pace now. For example, “10 things i hate about you… seamlessly adapts not only The Taming of the Shrew but also the figure of Shakespeare into the plot” (Lathrop, 2015).
However, it’s also important to recognise that Shakespeare sits in a refined area of intellectual pursuit – in the times it was written; going to the theatre was for the rich and being able to read was for the rich. Therefore, basic stereotypes of class and hierarchy were fed into a lot of his plots. In this day and age this is still reflected as you only see Shakespeare plays being performed in big venues in big cities, where, to be entertained by his work costs a large sum of money. This makes Shakespeare as an art form unattainable and unattractive to alot of people who don’t fit into the wealthy bracket. And mirrors the societal structures highlighted in his plays over 400 years ago. This sparked a determination within me as a performer, looking at modern adaptations of his work in a new light – using my regional accent when performing a speech, making it feel personal and real to me and my culture and not just performed in an accent that is deemed ‘socially acceptable’ for Shakespeare.
Two Noble Kinsman speech before direction
Copy and paste the embed code from Panopto hereTwo Noble Kinsman – after direction to be braver and come across more as if your talking to a friend
Richard III – Lady Anne’s Speech – developing with Shakespeare class
Monologue Boot Camp
Monologue bootcamp was an extremely useful class for me – it helped me understand how to breakdown monologues in a way that can work for me, in preparation for my career and professional auditions but it also allowed me to see the contrast of a Shakespearean speech into a contemporary speech as we studied both back to back.
As mentioned in my Shakespeare section – I struggled with the concept of “thinking on the line” but I managed to become more confident doing this by partaking in a ‘change of thought’ exercise which we did for many weeks in our sessions. The exercise involved walking around the space speaking aloud your speech, every time there was punctuation you changed direction, adding a physical change to your body’s movement. This helped wire my brain into understanding how important punctuation in in a Shakespearean speech and how it’s always there for a reason, shaking the open and clear thought process of the character. This also helped me develop my performance skills in demonstrating a clear dialectic, which is common in nearly all Shakespearean speeches. “Dialectics” is a term used to describe a method of philosophical argument that involves some sort of contradictory process between opposing sides.” (Maybee, 2016)
When rehearsing and analysing my chosen contemporary speech we also tried the ‘change of thought’ exercise but with more flexible variations. For example, we starting with the original exercise (changing direction at any punctuation written) but the we tried version where we would stop moving when we felt the character has a change of thought based off our our interpretation of the text and the character. This links with my point about how Shakespearean text is stricter and punctuation is significant to the intention and tone. Whereas, contemporary text allows alot more freedom for the actor to experiment with subtext and pauses a lot more. I found this exercise really effective for my contemporary speech as it helped me with the pacing of the speech, I found myself speeding up on sections where I could feel my character getting angry compared to the still moments when I wasn’t moving – allowing me to see the colour and shade of my character and which tone felt right for the piece. I also experimented with targets in these classes, using my imagery practice and already having experience from the phone call exercises from naturalism class where I had 3 set points to look at which where various things I imagine around me as the character. This helped alot also – as I found myself being able to be brave in expressing emotion through volume and not being afraid of silence as I was focusing completely on what was infront of me and reacting to my stimulus in due course as my character.
Uta Hagen – Naturalism
Out of all of the techniques I was introduced to, this was the one I struggled with the most. As an actor, I resonate with the Meisner technique a lot and found it was something I could naturally really get my teeth into. The Uta Hagen technique is the opposite of what Meisner’s ideology advocates for. “Hagen’s acting techniques encourage actors to avoid over-intellectualizing their processes and instead root themselves in rigorous observation of daily life” (Ates,2019). I completely respect the technique and agree that actors should be able to replicate feeling and emotion through observation and choreography rather than putting themselves through the emotions of the character as I recognise that isn’t always sustainable for live theatre. However, my main understanding of naturalism has always mirrored Meisner’s – using emotional substitution and preparation to get into a role. This is why I found aspects of Uta Hagen’s technique really useful as I feel I have 2 versions of how to approach naturalism and therefore can be in tune with my body and what type of work I’m doing in the future and be able to pick the process that is the safest option for me within that work that produces a good result. “If we realise our individual responsibilities to an art form, we must not only live up to it as individuals, but remember the collective form of this art, and that more than anything else that it is one for all and all for one” (Hagen, 2023, p.21)
An exercise that made me enjoy and connect with her technique was the endowment exercise. At this point in the module I was still struggling with the concept of replicating emotion rather than feeling it, however, this exercise was to do with external reactions and working with human instinct. Studying my own behaviour and putting together choreography of what I would do when reaction to a physical feeling, for example: eating something spicy. This exercise became a gateway into my understanding of the technique as a whole – focusing on physicality and observing what is the natural response for you in certain situations and being able to replicate and substitute that consistently in the context of a show. These exercises did make me realise how detailed and long the acting process should be in order to entertain an audience through replicating realistic and naturalistic scenarios on stage. In order for my endowment presentation for be repeatable I had to rehearse it a minimum of 20 times as well as sit down and study my behaviour from past scenarios when, for example, eating something spicy. Moving on, I also found the following exercise really useful – ‘Bringing the outside in’- I found myself connecting with this alot as it allowed me to use visuals and imagine the space around me. The exercise involves you using the technique of creating an endowment while also having a physical task and being in a space that I recognise and can imagine being in and how that changes my physicality. This exercise helped me juggle the practice of using the space around me within the context of my presentation, me endowment and the task of looking for something realistically. It felt like a jigsaw – piecing together all the sections of our sessions and realising how useful they can be. For me to learn and be creative, writing and visiting blocking works for me to allow me to create the space in my mind – then getting it up and adjusting it if it didn’t feel natural the way I thought and making it the most accurate and realistic for me. These exercises allowed me to understand what aspects of the creative process work for me and how I can individually adjust them to create the best work I possibly can.
Endowment and Bringing The Outside In – my interpretation from my self led rehearsals
Screen Acting
I believe being able to act for screen is a fundamental skill you need as an actor in the industry. “The popularity of streaming services, especially after the COVID-19 pandemic, reinforced the understanding that screen acting skills are crucial for sustaining an acting career” (Student Resources, 2017). I recognise as a musical theatre performer how important it is to screen act as it opens up so many more opportunities for me creatively. Initially, I was tentative going into classes as I consider myself to be a big character performer therefore was concerned about my abilities to create more gentle, subtle acting and trying something more detailed and exposing.
“In film and television, scenes are shot out of sequence. This means that different challenges face the screen actor, who must move quickly between emotional frequencies with little time to prepare” (Student Resources, 2017).
This was another challenge I faced – being able to jump into heavy material quickly. The difference between this and theatre is that these heavy scenes would be rehearsed and set and then would have to be repeated every night for a whole contract. However, with screen acting, once a scene is shot and the director is happy you never have to do it again – therefore the acting techniques and the method of discovering character, in this class, was a lot more similar to Meisner’s techniques of feeling raw emotion and using fake memories, hot seating and improvisation to allow us to be creative in the space and push scenes to their limits. I was aware that screen acting, although appears more realistic than stage when you watch it, is actually a lot about using your imagination and visualising your surroundings depending on the angle the camera needs to get of you. For example, when doing a false memory exercise with Sam – being given a short scene of random lines and then closing your eyes and answering questions on the spot about your relationship with your partner as a character you’ve invented – we had to sit quite close together on the floor to shoot the scene despite the tension between us as we both had to fit in the shot. Or another example being – having to address your lines to the corner of the space, above the camera lense and not have someone to feed off of so the camera can get a different angle of you – but ensuring the scene is identical to the last for continuity purposes.
I found all of these practices really useful to experience in the room and I felt it made me not only a more flexible actor but a more imaginative storyteller. I also found the sessions really good to take risks and be explorative with choices as screen acting usually means you are originating a piece of script rather than playing a character that has already been played before in a musical. This, along with the exposing nature of the camera, allowed me to delve deep into my creative mind and notice how the innermost feelings you release, as an actor, can showcase so delicately through your face, physicality and voice to create such a detailed story.
Lastly, what I found the most useful from the sessions was our mock screen test auditions. These gave me the opportunity to see through, not only, the actor’s eyes but the casting directors eyes too – as we role played for eachother. It allowed me to really look for the finer details in people’s interpretations of the texts and made me realise how little space you have to work with when making bold choices as you have to stay in camera shot. It also taught me to be brave and be able to take on offers with new material. “On stage, for an actor to be effective, he or she must be heard and felt…On the screen, on the other hand, modern-day microphones can pick up even the quietest actor… This opens up a world of new choices for the screen actor to make use of” (Milionis,2025).
Screen Acting Post Memory Hotseating exercise with random text Take 1
Take 2
Take 3
Take 4
Screen Test Mock Audition Take 1
Screen Test Take 2
Contemporary Monologue
Contemporary Monologue after taking direction to breathe through the words more and deliver it as if you’re having a conversation
Conclusion
In conclusion, my advanced acting module helped develop my skills greatly. From opposing techniques of emotional memory hot seating in screen acting, to Uta Hagen’s technique of transference – I feel I have expanded my skills where I can adapt in rehearsal rooms and directors’ choice of preparation in a space. It has helped me develop self discipline, recognising just how much detail and practice going into preparing a piece and a character and allowed me to feel vulnerable in a space and be brave by trying new techniques that I may not have fully understood or been comfortable with initially. Overall, I feel enriched with a lot more knowledge and experience in the practice of the art form upon reflection.
Bibliography
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