Since I was at primary school, I have had a passion for performing and acting; you could say I loved being the centre of attention! Since then, I have tried to get involved with as much acting and performing as possible. Below I will discuss a few of the performances I have acted in, and how this has shaped me as a performer.
Be My Baby
Whilst studying drama at A Level, I performed in a performance of Be My Baby by Amanda Whittington. I was cast as Mary Adams- a nineteen year old mother to be who is forced to give up her little baby girl. The play, set in a mother and baby home, follows the story of the girls who are living there- and sheds a light on how unmarried pregnancies were viewed in 1960’s England.
My character faced problems and pain that I couldn’t relate to, yet they were so real. Many girls, my age at the time, will have had to give birth to a baby and then have it taken immediately away from them. To grasp the pain and trauma this must have caused, I read many real stories and watched programmes about these mother and baby homes. When performing, I also used the technique of method acting, which was also new to me.
From performing in the play Be My Baby, I believe I experienced acting a story that some people in my audience might relate to or share. This was obviously important to bear in mind, and meant my performance had to feel and look sincere.
Woz The Great and Powerful
In March 2020, I performed in Rhys Speight’s ipar, ‘Woz The Great and Powerful’. I played the character of Joanna Hoffman, marketing executive for Apple- and the Macintosh team. Going into this process I researched the character before hand and learnt that she had a Polish- American accent. Unfortunately I couldn’t effectively do this accent without making the character seem comedic. This caused an obstacle in the process, as we had to work out the best way to show the character without making her out to be a comedy character.
Through directing, Rhys told me that Joanna was the voice of reason within the piece, and was supposed to be the character the audience relates with. Due to this being the case, we decided a well spoken English accent would be effective- due to the fact it wasn’t over the top and easy to understand.
I thoroughly enjoyed playing the character of Joanna, as it was something completely new to me. I had no knowledge of Apple and the people behind it, prior to the play. Playing a strong woman within a world of men was a big responsibility as I wanted to show how hard Joanna worked to be where she was, and the things she must have over come to get there.
From an acting perspective, this experience helped me to explore being the serious character in a comedy play. I also had to learn how to work and adapt my character to best suit my abilities whilst maintaining what the director wants.
