Introduction 

The experience of my first year at leeds conservatoire has been beyond what i expected. With incredible ideas of music thrown around like it’s the norm and my teachers showing my peers and I what it means to create art through acting. In this portfolio i will go through each individual lesson group that i have been taught in my first year of leeds conservatoire, picking out key moments from my reflections that i found to be the most helpful in terms of furthering my learning and knowledge, whilst showing how i have been helped by each of these aspects in a practical and mental way. I will delve into closer detail for moments and actions that stuck with me when it comes to my learning process. I will talk about how I will continue on with my progress into second year, be it keeping techniques that worked, or learning from and adapting ones that did not. And finally I shall give a summative statement that goes over my final conclusion, my thoughts on how I believe I will further artist development, and my overarching take away from my first year at leeds conservatoire.

ACTING:

This was all done by the use of his most infamous work, The eight efforts, these effects were a list of six actions that Larben believed summarised the human movement, these actions being;

 strong, light, direct, flexible, sudden and sustained. 

Larben then fitted these words into pairs that he considered opposite, those pairs being; strong and light, direct and flexible, sudan and sustained. Finally after establishing this he placed each word into every combination of three, without overlapping each word’s opposite word as to create a clear tone of the movement and to not have the actor contradicting themself. These unique sets of three were called float, punch, glide, wring, dab, slash, press, flick.

For example the combination of strong, direct, and sudden, you have the result of ‘punch’. 

I found Larben’s technique of the eight efforts of action to be of great use because it always allowed me to have a clear starting place for a scene. For example in the scene three duologues between maggie and john from when the starts come down, where i am playing john, i found some lines very ambiguous and i felt i needed a hand gripping my characters aim in delivering that line so i turned to larbens efforts. I felt I was able to play around with many more emotions as the efforts gave ideas I had not thought of before. 

 Watching others perform scenes from roughien on the stair has been very important to me as it was the first time I truly noticed others passing other skills from one lesson to another. For example the breath control used was only ever improving the quality of dialogue.  This lesson we focused on putting voice technique into acting. For example going over what we covered in our voice lessons and seeing what it’s adding. Talking about not being “unvoiced” acting due to our generation’s internet culture of phones being close to us. We would pretend that we were projecting to a full audience of a theatre. As to test the extent of our skills. This helped me because I have always been someone who struggles with their projection due to being used to mics, so to have my inaccuracies directly pointed out and then told how to improve on them, I was very grateful as it gave me the opportunity to see myself from the audience’s perspective.

VOICE:

SPOKEN VOICE

One of the most important aspects of spoken and technical voice for me has been the ability to carry what I’ve learnt from one lesson, into another, for example in our first term we were taught the fundamentals of intercostal diaphragmatic breathing, learning to engage the diaphragm, intercostal, abdominal, and pelvic floor muscles. This actively pulls the diaphragm down with every breath taken in. In this proper form of diaphragmatic breathing, we are able to fill the lungs more efficiently and effectively. 

It is the taking of this skill, and transferring it into something like projecting a monologue, that makes its value very clear. For example, I had been prepping a couple lines of text for one of my movement classes and I needed to be able to project these lines while on the move. At the first attempt reading out my lines I was not satisfied, but once I took a moment to control my mind, focus on my breathing and finally apply my diaphragmatic breathing technique, I quickly found myself being able to sustain and control all of my words with ease. For example on the line “they’d think that I’d finally lost it completely.” I was originally losing all of my ‘T’ sounds and not pronouncing my ‘D’ sounds as I was in a hurry. but as i said earlier after collecting myself I found everything falling into place as I had been taught. This is one of the many strengths that I feel have developed over the past months at Leeds conservatoire. 

On the other hand of my progress in vocal technique, I have felt myself struggling with tongue twisters. For example “she sifts the bag of unsifted thistles into the bag of sifted thistles, because she is a thistle sifter.” This phrase was particularly difficult for me to pronounce as I often have a tendency to replace my ‘s’ sounds with a ‘sh’ sound in this instance.

But I was able to overcome this by practicing the ‘s’ and ‘sh’ sounds in a different context, for example I would use the tongue twister. “She sells sea shells by the sea shore.” This helped me because it was a tongue twister that I had used often in previous warm ups so I was very familiar and confident with it.  After a week of practice I found myself able to split apart  the ‘s’ and ‘sh’ sound with confidence, this is due to my repetitive style of work that i used, simply repeating the two tongue twisters to myself with very slow pace as to get every sound. I found this process of work to be very helpful as it gave me a challenge in my diction that I have never felt before. I will continue to work on my pronunciation throughout the second year as I know I will be hit with many more challenges like this, be it a different accent, singing whilst playing my instrument or projecting while in movement.

SUNG VOICE ENSEMBLE SINGING

I have found sung voice to be particularly interesting for me as I have always been in my school choirs and school musicals, but I have only ever sung in these situations, I have never had direct feedback or been given the theory behind warm ups so when i came to leeds conservatoire and was shown things like what a head register or a chest register is, i was very interested to learn more about my range. 

One of the very first songs we sang as an ensemble was, for forever, from dear evan hansen. This song was very difficult for me at first due to its high notes and use of the head register so as a male singer i would try and sing the octave down, but after multiple lessons on this topic and going over the parts where i felt i struggled i was able to warm my voice into singing comfortably at this higher than normal range. I bring this moment to attention in my singing journey as I thought it was my most notable moment in terms of steady progress.

MOVEMENT:

When I had my first movement lesson with Leeds conservatoire I felt I was at a confident fitness level and considered myself ready for the coming weeks, but when I was met with the vigorous cardio level of our first dance and choreography session I was amazed by how much I lacked stamina.

DANCE AND CHORIOGRAPHY

 Over the months I have slowly piece by piece been able to build myself to a point of complete control during our cardiovascular endurance warm ups and have found our 20 minute warm up routine to finally be useful and not a labour to dread in the morning. 

One of my first goals in this section of movement was to be able to increase my strength, in terms of jumps, low level acrobatics and lifts. It was lifts essentially that I wanted to be consistently powering on with, so when the time came for Donald to lead us through a dance routine, I put myself forward for every opportunity. This first dance routine was an american 1950s speak easy style dance movement including dancing moves such as; shorty george, the bang, and a vine. These were all new to me and I definitely struggled. for example when learning how to do the shorty george i, which is a move that require quick feat one after the other while your arms flick out side to side to the beat, i struggled with keeping myself at the correct pace, i often found i was either going to slow or i was a beat behind. This took three sessions for me to be able to confidently perform. This was due to my attempts that I would make in my own time, playing the backing track and getting used to coming in on time and staying in time with the music even if I missed a move. I found learning these sets of dance moves to be very helpful as they were all unique and could also be transferred into other styles of movement. For example I often used some of the step ball changes that I learnt from these classes, in my devised movement classes.

DEVISED MOVEMENT 

Devised movement is not an unfamiliar topic to me, as I did an assessment in my first year at york college on movement. But the format in which this type of movement is done is definitely new. For example in term two we would often 

Been given an artist prompt like pictures or music and then from that, in groups or possibly even solo, we would physically form the feels and emotions that we felt came from this piece of stimulus.

Another part of devised movement that I have found very useful is the warm ups. Every session we start with a roughly 15 minute warm up which eilon calls martins not quite yoga. This is a series of movements with your arms and legs, going from squats with your legs into high reaches with your arms. Simple patterns that flow one after the other seamlessly in every single movement. It serves as a moment for the whole class to not only gather ourselves and focus on the tasks at hand, but also allows us to see each other’s energy levels for that day as quite a lot of what we do realises of how we interact with each other. I plan to take this warming up method further into my acting and movement sessions by making a repeating pattern out of whatever is thrown at me. For example if at the start of second year we are learning another set of moves for a devised movement piece, I believe I will definitely from martins not quite yoga into the muscles that are in focus for the performance. I will not only be growing in terms of making my own styles of work but I will also feel confident as the stretches will be placed in my muscle memory.

ANIMAL STUDIES

When I heard of the idea of animal studies I was talking with somebody who was just finishing their first year in drama school, they said it was a complete immersion into an animal of your choosing. At first I was very confused by this idea because I always assumed I would be in my own mind about being human and not having the correct limb proportions or generally being the wrong size. I chose a jackal as my animal as I wanted something quadrupedal because I knew being on all fours was the most animal-like thing for me. When I had my first lesson about being aware of my own body, I found focusing on my spinal alignment to be extraordinarily helpful, having a difference between how a human would crawl on all fours versus my canid jackal would. Thinking a lot about my upper spine being slightly hunched but not to the level where it would be seen as a woof, but not too little as to be mistaken for a dog. These were all ideas that I had so much fun playing with, being able to create a character in such an unusual way. Only ever one instinctual thought at a time. I found this rather easier the further along I got as I got quite a pleasure in only focussing on movement in my animal state. Eventually we started playing with our senses. For example I was blindfolded and safely led around the room by a classmate whilst there was paper doused in incense like herbal smells scattered around the room. It was my job to locate these smells when they were near. I found this very challenging because being humans we rarely find ourselves needing our noses above the other senses, so I was confused for sometime until eventually adjusting to the lack of my other senses and the focus on one. I was able to successfully local multiple different scents around the room. I found this very useful because it gave me an idea of how my animal may view the world at times, focusing more on their instinctual senses to lead them, instead of just vision. I believe I can take this in my other classes because there may be times when creating a character that I will want them to be more primal. For example they may walk more hunched like a large carnivore, or walk with heavier steps like a slow beast. 

ACTOR MUSICIANSHIP:

Actor musicianship was not a term I had ever heard of before applying to Leeds conservator,  I had only ever thought of myself as a musician and also an actor, never merging the two but being introduced to ideas like music labs, drum machines and ensemble rhythm exercises. I am so happy with my artistic development. 

MUSICIANSHIP 

In the beginning of musicianship I was shocked to see that we were not going to bring our instruments, but nonetheless I dove right in. We started our journey with lots of rhythm games like counting a song’s time in our head and aiming for us all to clap on the same beat, or going over famous songs and breaking them down bit by bit to see what overlapping themes they all have. But the main aim of musicianship was understanding each other’s instincts when it comes to improvisation in music. In musicianship we started by using the previously mentioned drum machine, this is a game where we each, one at a time, stand in the middle of the room and offer a sound without our instruments. This could be clapping, stomping or vocal sounds. Once a clear rhythm and repetition was set, this person would offer the rest of the class, one by one at random, would also walk to the middle of the room and offer a sound, keeping in mind the original person’s set rhythm and style. This would only come to stop when all members of the class were together in one large mass of noise. In September this would very often create confusion, people falling out of time, giving vocal offers out of the desired theme, we all simply didn’t know each other yet. But in every instance we used this drum machine, I found it helpful. I found it helpful because once a week it acted as a consistent factor that we would all be a part of and we would all grow with, this led to us gaining more of an understanding of each others learning and creating styles which of course ultimately leads to better opportunities for all of us in terms of musicianship capabilities.

Now, it’s one thing to have and refine these musical abilities, but it’s another to transfer them in actor musicianship. This is where the concept of music lab comes in.

MUSIC LAB

In the music lab we would bring any of our instruments we wanted for that day and arrive without any real idea of what we might be playing. This was because our teacher in charge, Laura, wanted us to come in without any preparation, in order to refine our improvisation and adaptability. In the music lab we would be split into groups of four and given a task, for example our first task was to take any well known song and change its genre, as an example we watched metalica’s enter sandman, a very well known heavy rock song, switched into an American country song. This was done by playing with things like the vocal styles, instrument choices and timing. My group saw this and thought we would try moving something into rock. We eventually settled with the jungle books ‘I wanna be like you’. We gathered different pieces of the puzzle together, with myself focussing on making a drum part and arrangement for the focals. Eventually we performed it to our classmates and were very satisfied with our results. I found this process of learning very helpful because it not only furthered my music experience but also gave me time with my classmates, allowing me to learn from their skills and understand their thoughts when it comes to approaching devised projects. I plan to take these skills I have learned from these lessons into my future assessments by continuing to work on my musical knowledge and on the spot ideas. I find it keeps me on my toes and ready for anything. I am very proud of the way I have been able to develop with these lessons.

SELF AS AN ARTIST

I have found studying the idea of self as an artist to be a completely new experience for me. 

One of the first things we were given as a task in self as an artist was making sure to consistently reflect on our lessons as often as we can. I found this very challenging as I have always struggled with routine so writing consistently has been hard for me especially as it is writing about my own work. I was very pleased to learn that these reflections could be in any form, be it written paragraphs. Bullet point notes, voice notes, or videos. I found this very helpful because it allowed me to keep achieving my goals while also enabling me to keep my ideas fresh. I have not placed the voice noted reflections in this portfolio as I believe writing them out will make them a lot clearer, but it was very useful for me to voice record as I did at the times when I needed.

In the final week of having these lessons led by an external director, we were led by one the MA’s. In this lesson we explored another level of taking inspiration from external sources, for example we looked through newspapers and picked at random words that seemed interesting to us. I ended up picking out words like,passion, growth, control, faded, time. After adding in conjunctions that I also found, I was able to form “in the faded growth of passion, control takes time”. At first glance it is most definitely seen as some form of unorganised poetry but once I was given dialogue I was able to properly extract meaning from this story I created. For example we used dialogue from a duologue in roughien on the stair, a play we’ve been studying, and i was able to see so many emotional opportunities for my character. What I mean by this is my character was no longer bound by the scene, I felt that they were possibly worried about their world outside the duologue, or even the problems of the word itself. I found this very useful because it gave me a better look at how characters who have different ideals than me, may view certain situations. I will continue to use this method of breaking down emotions and building them up again as it is a very versatile technique and can be applied to many other scenarios like when we are trying to create a character for acting classes or prepare a scene for research for performance classes.

SUMMATIVE STATEMENT

How has my first year gone? Successful. Successful in terms of organisation, in terms of enjoyment, progress being an actor, becoming an actor musician? I would conclude that I have improved in all of these aspects but was I successful to the standard I had planned for myself. I would like to start my summative statement with these opinions that I believe to be true.

My management and organisation of work at the start of the academic year was a mess, i had just come from relaxation of summer and hadn’t really had a challenge since my exams two years prior, i believed that whatever was going to be thrown at me I would by far have the facilities to control. Boy was I wrong. First I was out of the comfort of my home, which I only now realise to be a strong reason for my mental disorganisation, and second I was given a more time consuming timetable than I could have planned for. Being in movement classes at nine in the morning, organising music for other people to hear and play, watching classmates flawlessly tackle topics I’d never even heard of. It took me at least a month to properly realise what had hit me. But standing here looking back on it all I am glad I was thrown in the deep end or else I would never have had an idea of what I was getting myself into. I can now confidently say that after trials and tribulations of every kind I have found my solution. Writing everything down straight away! Not letting myself “have a break” when really I’m just going to rot on phone. I even downloaded an app to remind me to check my notes app and be aware of my screen time. But now I believe heading into ensemble weeks I am prepared to operate without these assistants, and I can organise on my own.

So I believe I was successful in my organisation, but how about enjoyment?

Definitely one of the easier questions for me to answer, but I do believe I have been successful in being able to have fun and enjoy all the things I have been working towards in my first year. But hasn’t always been like that. I found it very hard at the start of the year to find enjoyment in some of my classes as I was too worried about how others may view my style of acting or approach to music, but not long after these thoughts even came in I was warmly given the reassurance that everybody thought these things. I realised that it’s the fact that we are all different is the reason we were chosen to learn here, to learn from others strengths and teach them yours, this was a beautiful revelation i came too as it allowed me to view this course differently, i was able to keep enjoying no matter what because i new my classmates and i were looking out for each others best interests. 

In my first year I have learnt a lot about acting but what have I taken from it?

I believe i have had many different methods for acting shown to me over the past academic year and thus of found ones i like and dislike, for example i believe one of my strongest ways of creating a character is using the laben efforts, this has been particularly effective for me because i find most use in a character when i am able to physically represent them, given them attributes. I am only able to believe myself once i tackle the small things, how they drink tea, eat breakfast, walk to work, which labens eight efforts has helped me with. I have also found other attributes of acting less helpful is Stanislavski’s circles of attention. I found this acting technique unsuitable to myself as I wish to be an actor for screen, and with so many of my role opportunities coming from self tapes, I am unable to fully find the need for my character to be beyond what would be considered the second circle, what is directly around me. But overall I would conclude that I have found more positive techniques out of what has been taught to me. I believe that in the performances mentioned under previous headings I have been successful in drawing out every asset given to me.

Finally, as an actor musician, what have I taken from my first year, and was I successful? I believe yes i was successful in certain areas but as a conclusion i know it is something i can not be fully confident in until the tasks ahead in second year. Watching the current second years on display in a multitude of performances I have felt rather intimidated, but I know this is something I can work on not only in September when I get back, or summer in my own time, but now. Actor musicianship is something I can work on constantly, be it practicing music theory, trying to play guitar while standing up, or even singing while playing. These are all things i believe i have definitely improved in since coming to leeds conservatoire, but i know there is always room for improvement. I will continue to work hard between now and September so that I can hit the ground running with all the blood, sweat and tears gathered in my first year, so that it was not in vain, and my hard work can finally feel justified once I call myself a true actor musician.