Progression

I’d like to get into acting in the future. To do this, my next logical step after college is to prepare for higher education. The industry makes it difficult to get noticed for jobs and therefore higher education increases my chances of successfully doing acting as a career.

Universities that offer courses for acting include LIPA, The Manchester School of Theatre and The University of Birmingham. These are just a few examples. There are also more professional, harder to get into, drama schools that I aim to study at in London including LAMDA, GSMD or RADA. Universities often require a certain amount of A-levels or equivalents. For those drama schools, all that is needed is a really really impressive audition.

Auditions are required for this industry usually consisting of a Shakespeare monologue, a modern monologue and a theatrical song.

These courses offer further professional training in acting and chances to be in major productions. Eventually, an agency might discover you from these performances or the university/drama school will guide you in your next step.

Case Study

I have chosen to do a case study on the actress Jodie Whittaker. She attended the drama school I’d prefer to get into (GSMD) and following her steps to become a successful actor is the ideal dream.

After amazingly securing a place at the well-respected drama school, she continued to study in acting courses where she was trained physically as well as vocally to improve her understanding of how to perform different roles realistically and engage an audience. She was taught a variety of different techniques including Stanislavsky’s. Stanislavsky’s aim was for his approach to be useful for all actors therefore this would’ve been extremely useful. She was also taught how to use her voice for different roles and for expressing different emotions.

Jodie went on to do her first professional performance in The Storm at Shakespeare’s Globe in 2005 when she was 23 years-old. Since then, she has worked in film, television, radio and more theatre.

Her first major role was in a film called Venus in 2006. Clearly her career took of early on in her life and this is something I hope for in the near future.

Jodie’s career started and continues to be based in London. I would also like to find myself working in a major city such as this.

Although I don’t aim as high as to be in anything big such as Broadchurch or Doctor Who like Jodie was, I feel that being noticed by any agency and having the opportunity to be in something so popular would be interesting and a once in a lifetime experience.