I have been acting from a very young age, taking part in school productions, Shakespeare competitions and drama clubs. I always love the adrenaline and the feeling of being in front of a live audience, which led to my love for theatre.
My time at AUB has allowed me to develop a creative process whilst rehearsing alongside techniques I use while performing. My third-year shows are a great time to put this into practice.
I always begin my process by sitting down and reading the text from start to finish, making notes as I go along on things I don’t understand. I then go and do some research of the play, looking up its key themes or whether there is any meaningful connection to the writer and the text. If I have been cast as a character, I will make a mood board. This will include their favourite colour, music and even what I believe to be their favourite food. This allows me to create a personal connection to the character I’m playing.
When I am learning lines, I’m not the type of person who can just sit and learn them. I like being on my feet and rehearsing while I naturally learn the lines – I find this to be a smoother and easier process. I love playing games when rehearsing; for example, doing scenes in different styles (TV soap, musical, news report). I find this helps not only for learning lines but also exploring the type of energy the text is really asking for. When on stage, I immerse myself in the scene and the play using my inner monologue to help with my physicality and facial expressions.
I have learnt a lot through my time at AUB, from developing my knowledge on Stanislavski, to learning about screen acting, to voiceovers and academic writing. Before coming to AUB, I thought I knew a lot about acting and the creative industries, but I was very wrong.
My time here has let me explore many different aspects of the industry and also shown me how difficult the industry can be. But it's grown my love for acting even more and being able to work with so many industry professionals has truly been an aid for my study. Having the different skills classes (voice, singing, movement) have also been valuable in aiding my journey to help me learn how to use my voice in so many different ways and being expressive in my body and voice.
I have studied many texts and acted in multiple short films for AUB and BU. Currently, I am an assistant director and actor in AUB Productions' Romeo and Juliet. This is the first of two shows I will be acting in during my final year at AUB.
Over the last year, I have started to explore directing alongside my acting studies. On the BA (Hons) Acting course, we get the opportunity to not only act but crew (stage management, assistant directing, publicity, etc.) some of the shows. For the school tour, the cast are also the crew, and we build the set for each school we go to.
I was given the opportunity to be the assistant director and student lead for this show. It has been a challenging but rewarding experience. Being one of the actors remembering your own lines and blocking, while also helping out the director and writing down the cast's blocking and set changes, is a lot of work and can be difficult at times, but it has given me a deep insight into what it is like to be a part of a touring company and a director. I have observed Fiona as a director and how she works and she has given me the opportunity to take on responsibilities, (e.g. leading line runs). This has been really valuable when developing my craft.
In the future, I aim to be a director at the Royal Shakespeare Company, directing and acting in contemporary versions of classic plays. I think the texts are so interesting, but I like putting a modern twist on them to engage the audience. This is something I plan to explore during the Negotiated Practice unit of my third year.
