UNIT 8 - MY SKILLS LIST

Progression


To recognise the needs of the Performing Arts industry and my role in it, I have taken the time to examine how I have progressed in these key areas:

LO-1: Skills List
LO-2: Preparing for progression and further training
LO-3: What has worked on the course and what still needs development.


LO-1: Skills List


Back at the beginning of the year, we were given a skills list that by rob that we would need in order to make our piece as good as possible and develop our skills as actors:


  • Confidence      
  • voice projection
  • eye contact
  • memory
  • practice
  • Creativity
  • use of space
  • respect
  • thick skin
  • range
  • flexibility
  • imagination
  • face
  • communication
  • witty
  • body language 
  • positivity
  • integrity
  • pacing
  • maturity
  • child like
  • control 

I feel that compared to my auditions at the beginning of the year to get onto this level 2 course, which I was quite nervous to do, my confidence as an actress has developed massively. I took a fair-sized role for the play before last, and confidently took on playing the main character Pa Ubu in the last play. This was surprisingly comfortable for me and I am looking forward to taking on further challenges to confront any nerves I may have about facing an audience.

I have learned about how to embody my character more fully - from posture to reflect the high/low status and confidence of my character, to differences in how male and female characters might hold themselves. I have also developed in the way I project my voice and use vocal range to convey my character's emotions, background with accents, and to project well so that audience members can hear me clearly even if they are seated at the back of the theatre. I have also practiced how important facial expressions are in conveying my characters and their intent - even if it feels over-exaggerated to me.

I have also learned important skills in working with other actors: to not feel so inhibited in taking risks and potentially making a fool of myself when trying new things to explore scenes and characters. This is especially important for exercising creativity and imagination with both improvisation and exploring script work, which we have had lots of chances to do. I have found that maintaining a 'safe space' of mutual respect where my co-actors and I can experiment and take risks in this way has been valuable, and it has been lovely to have mutual support and encouragement among my peers.

I would like to feel that I have more expertise in how to express different characters and take on acting challenges in a realistic way that can truly convey the emotions of a piece to an audience. Even though as actors most of what we perform is 'fiction' or made up, I think there is a lot of truth told in emotions that are important to get across in these works. I am confident that further training on this acting path will empower me to do just that.

LO-2: Preparing for progression and further training


I feel my time and practice on this course has confirmed to me that I definitely do want to be an actress. I have done plenty of research online into what routes I can take to progress. The more common path academically now that we are rounding up Level 2 is to progress onto a Level 3 Performing Arts course, which I have applied and auditioned for to take at Westminster Kingsway college, and from there progress either to a drama school or university to complete a Performing Arts Degree. My main goal is to complete my drama degree at RADA https://www.rada.ac.uk/ as students from Rada are more likely to go on to have successful acting careers. I think this is in part because it is so hard to get into Rada - they only accept 14 applicants onto their course per year! Interestingly, their acceptancy onto the course is not dependant on  official qualifications but purely on the audition alone. Even though I have applied for the Level 3 acting course here, which is an official qualification, which seems not to fit in with the Rada plan, I actually think getting more practice and experience to develop my acting skills and confidence will help me in the Rada audition process.

Additionally, I feel 'getting my foot in the door' will definitely work in my favour to get into Rada. As such, I have sucesfully gotten a place from August 5th at Rada's Summer School, and from 12th August at Central School for speech and drama. I have had consultations and help from officials at Camden Council that work with young people who have helped me achieve and fund this placement and I am very happy with the progress and excited to do the course.


LO-3: What has worked on the course and what still needs development.


The feedback I have got from teachers on the course is that I have done very well with written work - both blog/research and creative writing, and that I have made a lot of progress in confidence and projections and that I am good with being disciplined about learning my lines and remembering how scenes are blocked out.
I feel the main area I need to improve on is being more consistent in my attendance and being on time first thing in the morning, which I have struggled with a bit as I often find it difficult to sleep well the night before. 

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