The following is my artistic CV and Personal Statement.
Curriculum Vitae:
Personal Statement:
As a child my thoughts would often wander to tales and stories birthed from the world around me. Sitting in my parent’s car with my brother beside me, I would peer out of the window creating narratives for the hills and the trees that passed us by. The earth has always felt like this empty canvas that my mind has aimed to fill with thought provoking tales of tragedy, comedy, romance, and on occasion, horror. Creating a narrative for the world has helped to keep me passionate about the life I lead, and my hope in dramatic writing is to share my stories and negate as much of the monotony that can infect other people’s lives.
An extension of my passion for storytelling is performing. From a very young age I fell in love with the vibrant nature of theatre and this passion for the arts stayed with me throughout my life, helping me to explore my feelings and become the person I am today. I began this love at the Stephen Joseph Theatre in Scarborough performing in the round and learning from any creatives that I could possibly find. From this upbringing I began to see theatre as an unconventional way to explore emotions, beliefs, and alternative views. Storytelling and theatre, to me, has always been a way to learn more than what we are taught in schools.
My social and educational background is heavily routed in the world of theatre, wishing to focus my mind on the passions I had found as a child. Through deciding to pursue theatre and writing as a career, I have learnt a number of great skills in creativity, ingenuity, and determination. My most recent endeavour in educating myself in the world of theatre has been at university in York. I have spent three years on the Drama and Theatre course at York St John, where I have been able to explore mature and complex themes through works that I have been lucky enogh to create. My hope now is to continue growing my knowledge in complex works, ideas, and themes with a Masters in Dramatic Writing.
The course that I took at York St John was a perfect fit for me. While learning some amazing performative and literary skills, the course helped to elevate the way I looked at the world around me. I went from predominantly performing to predominantly scriptwriting in a transition that felt natural and wonderfully freeing. Having spent a lot of my life exercising my passion in one way, it felt strange to focus on my writing and explore this other way to tell stories and I was hooked on writing from the first drop of ink that hit my page.
It didn’t take long for me to begin questioning the narratives I was seeing before in the world around me, asking what it was I wanted to say about them. In my scripts, I hope to shed light on another aspect of the world and give my audience more to think about. Constructing a story feels like a long piece of string with knots running along it. I will start at one end, developing my characters carefully. Then, I will proceed down the string, following where these characters need to go, untangling the knots. All the while keeping my eye on what I want to say through everything I am giving to my audience. This way of looking at the creative process has served me well but I am very excited now to find other ways to create the work I love.
I have always tried to keep an open mind in looking for inspiration. Walking down the street I will often find myself looking at someone or something that catches my eye, thinking about who they are and how I would transpose them to stage. Tiny things like a part of a conversation can trigger larger ideas in my mind, that I later develop through further research. An interesting inspiration for me is short films. To me they are of great significance and have taught me a lot about the perfect way to consciously tell a story. Whereas plays, feature films, and television have the time to get their audience emotionally invested in characters, it is the intention of a shorter story to make you care almost instantly. I have taken this into my writings, working to create character and plot that my audience will feel a connection to.
I was able to put my storytelling into practice with a challenging and rewarding module entitled Independent Practice and Research, where we were given free rein in creating something, we felt passionate about. I was able to create, develop, direct, and perform my own play. This endeavour filled me with more emotions than I could describe and I was exhausted through the entire process but that didn’t stop my love and complete devotion, and after a long process I was proud of the story I was putting out into the world. Currently I am working on an idea for a play using absurdism as a framework. Already I feel very connected to the show, caring for my characters and where their stories will lead.
The writing profession is so diverse, and I know I still have so much to learn – this itself is what I want to get from a further education course in dramatic writing. Through studying Drama and Theatre at University I have come across new techniques and skills in the world of writing, such as creating character specific dialogue and keeping focus on what your project is about. However, I wish to learn more and take part in in-depth analysis and discussion in the theory of playwriting, so I can take my ideas further and give them the creativity and professionalism they deserve.
I have been writing for a couple of years now and am currently building my portfolio and building myself up as an artist. My goal in life is to feel fulfilled through the knowledge that my work has gone on to help others, and to give them something different to the monotony that life can present. I am not invested in stardom, monetary gain, or self-preservation. I wish to create entertaining and challenging theatre, and I am always willing to go the extra mile for my art; working with immeasurable effort, putting myself forward for any and all activities that would further my dream, and take any praise or criticism to enhance my performances.
While reading your online page describing the details of your Dramatic Writing course my mind was instantly transported to all the projects I could create, develop, and feel passionate about. So many questions came to my mind in relation to my artistic voice. My dissertation in my final year of university was titled ‘How does Art and Arts Activism give a voice to people in the current Climate Crisis?’ Through my research I was very lucky to speak to working artists about the concept of an artist’s voice and became very interested in this idea. I know that I want to rid the world of monotony and replace it with intrigue and thought. I want to raise ideas to another level and explore each story I wish to tell. But how? What does it mean to have a voice? What does my voice look like? Is it different to other writers of my age and background? There are so many questions that I know I will be thinking on and it will help me to take my work to wherever it is needed.
As for studying in London, I have always felt it is a city that feels so far away from the experiences I have already been through. The bustling streets contain creative fuel around every corner, and I know it is the perfect place for me to continue my art. I would be immensely excited to explore and find new places to feed my imagination. I want to further my education with your dramatic writing course because I want to better the world for others and my way of doing that is through the stage. To get to that point I wish to grow as an artist and further explore the art of script writing.