1. Could you tell us how you would identify yourself as a practitioner and the context in which you’d like to work including who your audience or target market would be?
As a practitioner, I see myself as someone who strives to make work that represents my beliefs in the most earnest way and through my work, seek understanding of the world around me and hopefully ask questions that make that audience/viewer also want to question that of their world. I count myself as quite an activist and I would say I take an anarchistic approach to the work I create and take inspiration from. I believe, that as a queer female creative, all I create is political and that most political thing I can do is speak my truth unapologetically. From the artists that inspire me, funny women such as Victoria Wood, Julie Walters and Lily Tomlin they all paved the way for us, younger creatives to be who we’re unapologetically.
Other artists like Marina Abramovich, The Guerrilla Girls, Pussy Riot, these are all outspoken women paving the way much like I believe I have an obligation and strive to do so not just with my art but in my everyday life also; I put myself into my art and my art is a part of myself.
Anarchy is political and I am political. Whether I like it or not, my being a queer female; I am an activist by just being. Maybe this is why I have always been outspoken and had a very strong understanding of who I am since I was young. Having this knowledge of myself, I have always connected with that of political acts through art by the likes of the beauty of drag queens by standing up and having their voices heard by their taking agency and unapologetically being or be it with comedians such as Tim Minchin or Hannah Gadsby who go against the status-quo to speak their own minds and truths or performers such as marina Abramovich or Yoko Ono.
I Acknowledge my privilege and use it to as a presence when creating work so I can keep relevant and compassionate to the subject matters I may be dealing with. I understand that yes, I may be a minority in some rights but in other rights I have been given so many upper hands in life which I do not and will not let myself forget.
My work as a theatre practitioner works in activism and anarchistic comedy which I perceive to be all political but my work outside of theatre is also that of under-dogs creating a space to have a voice and be heard also. My artist collective focuses on the real and the now and wants to help northern artists find space to have their voices heard and their work seen. Creating a collective of like-minded, multi-media artists it is incredible to be surrounded by such a hive of creativity and inspiration. Collaborating and helping one another is something that I believe embodies that of The Northern Project and I’m very proud to be a founder of such an exciting project.
2. How is your identity as a practitioner both reflected in the portfolio; and produced by the portfolio?
I believe my portfolio to be professional and formatted in such a way that shows my technical skills and eye for aesthetic as is important as a filmmaker and where my work is taking me for the foreseeable future. However, I also wanted to show my work as an activist and passion anarchistic comedy which I why I included my work in arts activism and my IPAR clowning show, ‘The Armageddon Arms’. I understand the importance of showing my past projects as an artist and practitioner as it does affect the art, I create in any capacity be it theatre or film or music. For me, I know who I am as a creative and know when and where appropriate to use my skills and knowledge with whatever project I am working on and so I wanted to reflect this in my portfolio by picking and showing a range of different skills I have learnt whilst on my Drama and Theatre course.
As a practitioner, I am a collaborator, a director, a writer, producer, teacher and student. I have a lot of skills that have come from being a drama and theatre student which are amazing transferable skills to many different paths in life. With my path in life going that of a different way to theatre, at the time being, I am ever so grateful to have these transferable skills to be able to slot into other jobs I am asked to do. To be able to show these skills to the fullest, I chose to present my portfolio as an artist who has been a theatre practitioner and is also other things as well. I very well may go back to theatre one day, but I wanted my portfolio to show the whole of me as a creative; the past, present and future. I believe I have managed this in my portfolio and have a strong enough belief in who I am as an artist and human to have produced such a body of work to portray this to others.
My determination is in my work and with completing my degree and creating my artist collective I believe this proves my willpower and drive within the arts. But it is not just my drive that pushed me forward, it is also my passion for the arts and giving platforms to those artists who need their voices heard, from myself evolving as an artist I have found a much needed drive to create space for not only myself but other independent creatives to be allowed to share also.
3. Drawing on evidence from your portfolio, what would you identify as the most significant moments of insights to your learning as a practitioner?
When speaking on my learning when it comes to my work, I have found that even if I find something I am interested in and want to discover more, I will never stop learning and I will never stop finding new practices I want to discover. For example, when I first ventured into university, I was very ready to learn how to perform in a conventional acting sense; the real curse of my first year learning was that I wasn’t at all bothered if I acted again or not, it was that creating behind it I cared most for. Second year, I learned about creating and devising and taking whatever ‘little’ idea you had and taking it to the very extreme, stretching it out to as far as you could to see the potential; to see potential in your own artistry. I will never stop exploring the ‘small’ ideas because of this learning, in fact I have learnt that there is no small idea; all great things evolve from the smallest thing and that is a mantra I live by with my art; never be scared by the small stuff and not to be intimidated when they grow into the big stuff.
Creating has always been an integral part of my life be it in any form so being able to harness that spirit I have always had and develop it on an academic level has been an unimaginable privilege for me. From creating my end of year Independent Practice as Research (IPAR) performance right to my very first acting module in my first year, I have learnt to look at my creativity and vision on a deeper level and with a wider knowledge of understanding. The growth within my pitching and conversational skills have grown throughout my degree and have managed to help with my directing be that with my IPAR cast of four or when working as a freelance filmmaker or managing The Northern Project.
I’ve really started to fully see the longevity that my learning on my degree and in certain modules will have given me in the future when it comes to working in the creative field outside of theatre; the grit and nerve it takes to stand on a stage and perform to an audience, or create a show from scratch in a very limited amount of time or for allowing yourself acceptance of failure, theatre is really a test of every part of one’s self and to want to be a part of it, first of all you have to be a little bit mad but second, you have to really be ready to give your all and I have found a lot out about how dedicated and hard-working I can be behind the frivolity of creating.
4. What do you want to do next and how do you think your portfolio evidences and helps this ambition?
To me, this question is twofold: on one hand I understand that this portfolio can say a lot and do a lot for me if an employer were to view it. On the other hand, this has been another university assignment that I am meant to pass, and by conforming to all the module needs it means I will be one step closer to getting a degree. By this I mean, I have spoken about things that do not necessarily define me as an artist and also, I don’t believe would help me get work in the areas I am planning on and wanting to get. On the other hand, and speaking on such projects, I have found this module very time consuming, yet interesting and have treated it as a learning curve about myself. By doing so, looking back at the creative work I have produced and been part of over the past three years, I have learnt more about myself and also about my creative agenda and so even if I won’t be using this portfolio with future employers, it has been useful for me. I may have found it tedious and may have thought it to be unproductive for my future work experience, but I have found it has made me think more deeply and more creatively about myself and that is invaluable in this line of work and also just in my life in general. I believe it is really important to take stock every once in a while, and it has really helped me feel more grounded within my work and creativity again.
My portfolio shows a history of me as an artist and it is always important to remember where you have been in order to plan out where you want to go next, so yes I do believe my portfolio expresses who I am and who I have been as an artist. I think it would be hard to show where I am going to be as an artist, but it definitely shows my plan, my drive and my hopes of where I want to be.
I believe my portfolio is professional and has a well-rounded and polished look whilst also displaying my skills in the area of the arts I want to be and the creative space I want to create. I feel proud to present my past and present works and showing the growth of my projects in one collective space. My portfolio shows my ideologies and my purpose as a creator and I’m proud to share it.