Skills Audit

Over the past year I feel that I have developed a range of skills since studying at Westminster Kingsway. To be able to perform well and truthfully within your character, there are a set of skills one must have. For example ;We practice during rehearsal times, vocal exercises. This consists of  ; E, A, I, O, U pronunciations which refines clarity within your speech so you sound clear. It help with skills like , "diction", because you want the audience to hear you clearly. It's no use , being a decent actor , but your audience cant make out what you are saying, you want to sell the story to them and your talent. 

 I am quite a confident actor. I know I have certainly grown in confidence since starting the course this time last year. I like to take on a challenge, and it pushes me outside my comfort zone because yes you are on stage, but your taking form of a character, so if the character you are portraying is quite eccentric then you have to put a side a section of own self to the back of your mind, and become a different person that isn't you. I am quite a loud performer, which out of all the skills I have , would probably be the best one. It isn't about trying to be louder than the rest of the cast, or the one that gets heard over everyone else, because then you wouldn't be cooperating well with the other performers and would make the actor seem selfish and self centred. There is a fine line between cockiness and confidence , however. Being loud helps the audience with hearing the story. It also aids with showing that you're brave , which is quite an important trait when it comes to confidence. When I had started,  my nerves somewhat  caused my legs to stiffen, resulting in my walk look less natural. However since practising standing in neutral has helped my balance and helped my walk look more natural, because it had looked like I couldn't bend at the knees. It was just a nerve thing, but I have channelled that out , and I'm more used to performing in front of larger audiences now. I am good with dynamics and proxemics. I don't like standing in just one spot, I like to use the whole space. when performing on stage you bet loads of space to have your character being focused on. why waste all that space by standing in one spot, off stage its rare you get a lot of stage to perform in, especially in class. 

I am a very determined actor. when I get there, I know where I want to go with the characters I play. I experient playing the scenes differently during rehearsal, trying different ways of how the scene could go and if one is successful I stick to that because when reading about the characters initially I know immediately, roughly where this could go but the rehearsals help deciding the final destination. knowing that the set of skills we are required to have, is needed to progress onto drama school or university, I have a drive for expressing the skills I know I have. Sometimes, I used to get comfortable playing characters with the same qualities, but I feel that I have shown my development of characterisation, because not everybody is the same. If you have researched your character and given them a back story for the circumstances that they are now in the play, then it helps to form characteristics that they may have. Rehearsal techniques like hot-seating really does help because you find out more about the character through the type of questions that asked, and the answers you think of; the questions help you think more and delve down the path you want your character to go, and then it will help become them.