I studied at Doncaster College on the 2-year level 3 performing arts course between 2017-2019. I had no previous acting experience before I joined the course and so was very new to the world of acting. Luckily through the support from staff members on the course as well as a few peers that took me under their wing I was able to soon come into my own and take advantage of the training offered to me and managed to pass the course in 2019. I couldn’t have stayed on track and passed the course if it wasn’t for the help of the amazing staff members on the course who believed in me and pushed me to excel and be the best helping my skills and confidence grow after matters outside of the course started to take control of my life. What I liked about my time at college was that I was new to this industry and didn’t have a clue what I was doing, the teaching staff helped to nurture me and teach me the fundamentals to help build the foundation of my acting process which also helped to make my confidence grow which is something you need to make it as a successful actor, belief in yourself. I also enjoyed how much it felt like a family here, everyone took care of one another from staff to students and it really felt like a home away from home.
Once I graduated college, I then applied for a course in Newcastle called Project A which was a year intensive course exclusively for actors from the Northeast of England as they wanted to open more opportunities in the North in areas deprived of funding and higher education. It was similar to a foundation course that Drama Schools provide, It was purely vocational but at the end of it gave us Spotlight accreditation and helped us to meet some amazing individuals such as Michael Corbidge who is the voice director at the Royal Shakespeare Company and Ross Stein who trained James Mcavoy at The Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. So, I applied for the course and was 1 of around 600 applicants and was lucky enough to earn my place to be 1 of 18 successful applicants. What I enjoyed about Project A was the intensity, it really opened my eyes as to the hard work and discipline needed to be successful within this industry and to be able to develop a thick skin to take criticism and not let it destroy me, it also helped to bridge the gap from college to drama school.
After I finished Project A I took a year out of acting due to being unsuccessful in my drama school auditions, I didn’t give up though and reapplied the following year where I was successful in 2 of the Drama Schools and was offered a place to study at LAMDA and Bristol Old Vic, I chose LAMDA of course with it being located in London and being connected to a lot of big acting agencies for my third year shows. I am currently in my second year of intensive training and once I have completed this I will be moving into my third year which consists of doing professional reps to gain agent representation to set us up to be able to work professionally in the industry. What I have loved about drama school so far is the training it has offered, that it gives us a taste of what different acting techniques are out there so that we can then go off and pursue which one works best for us and that they give us the space to trial these techniques in doing a play at the end of each term. I have to remain humble though and remind myself that it’s not a performance but in fact a learning curve to test my newfound knowledge and reflect on what worked for me or not.
What I liked about my time at college was that I was new to this industry and didn’t have a clue what I was doing. The teaching staff was so welcoming and helped to nurture and teach me the fundamentals to help build the foundation of my acting process and ideology. From this I have gone on to train at LAMDA in London where Benedict Cumberbatch trained and is considered to be in the top 5 acting institutions in the world and it all started right here in Doncaster.