- 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?
I love working with people. I always have, whether that’s as a co-creator, or working with a group as an ensemble, or directing a group of people. I find that I get a greater response from myself when I can see that people are enjoying the work that they are creating. I believe that drama and theatre and performance should be accessible to all, not just in terms of being an audience, but in terms of your own personal involvement. If someone wants to be involved why should anything stop them? I know that this question could come across as slightly naïve but it’s a goal to strive towards, and for something that I want to implement into my own practice, as I want to be a teacher, this is something that I want to put into place in my classroom, that if a child wants to achieve something who am I to tell them they can’t and to hold them back.
I think that children should always have access to creativity, that we should not be limiting their minds, and the arts broadens them. It gives them a different way of thinking, a different perspective. The opportunity to be in a classroom as a teacher, gives me the opportunity to help children to discover what is they enjoy, and to give them access to the creative arts. I would love to be able to have a school club that focuses on creating theatre with the children, so that they can learn something about themselves and continue to learn about the world around them, but in a safe environment. In terms of the target audience, it would probably be a target audience of children, young people. But this would be something that would be a discussion with the group, to ask their opinion so they are used to making their own decisions. I don’t want to always just be giving them direction all the time, I would like it to be a collaborative process, to work with them.
Another aspect of my life that I feel identifies me is through my photography, I have been taking photos since a very young age, always loving the aspect of being able to make a memory and moment last forever. I would to be able to in the future, go into performance photography, something I have not yet tried. However, I have got many photos of my travels around the world.
- How is your identity as a practitioner reflected in the portfolio; and produced by the portfolio?
The projects that I identify in my portfolio I feel showcase who I am as a practitioner. Truth be truth till th’end of reck’ning is a collaborative performance showing that I enjoy working collaboratively in a group to create something big. Taking inspiration from something I have witnessed and experienced myself to be put into a performance for someone else to witness. Continuing to put theatre and performance into the world.
My It’s Not Ok project with the secondary school children was one that helped me to solidify my knowledge that I wanted to work with children to create performance. Working off of their enthusiasm and willingness to create. This work is the kind of work that I want to continue to create, I want to take a subject and work with a group of children to create a performance in response to this topic. To help give them a sense of achievement within their abilities and themselves.
The Separation of Ugly is a performance that taught me a lot about how I want to work in the future, about what things to consider in a performance and what to change. It was a real learning curve for me. The performance in itself helps to showcase me a practitioner by showing that I again, like to work with a group of people. Within this performance I was the director of a cast and not in the performance myself, which did give me a greater perspective.
Each of these performances and projects has given me the opportunity to see myself grow as a practitioner, to understand how different people work and to how to adapt myself into different social scenarios for the creation process. Furthermore, everything that I have learnt from the creation of these performances will benefit me in teaching, learning to adapt, to be patient with a process and with people, to understand that not everything will go the way that you imagined it and many more. Most importantly though, it has taught me how exceptionally wonderful it is to see children, and people to succeed in what they do and love. Through my theatre Instagram you can view some of the performances that I have helped to create and have been apart of, this gives people the opportunity to view my style and areas of interest, alongside being able to keep a record of all my work for myself.
Additionally, I have added a link to my professional photography Instagram page, which showcases my photos. Giving potential employers the opportunity to view my work, and getting my name out into the world.
- Drawing on evidence from your portfolio, what would you identify as the most significant moment of insights to your learning as a practitioner?
Working with people has to be my biggest insight into my learning as a practitioner. Nearly everything that I do is working with people, working off of what people say, and working with people to achieve my end goal. When creating a performance or project it’s not just the people who are in the cast that you need to work with to succeed, it requires a wider branch of people. For example, for my performance of The Separation of Ugly, I had to work closely with the lighting and sound technicians to so that I could access the lighting and sound that I wanted for the performance. I also had to work with people form outside of my cast to help me run my lighting during the performance, as this was something that I felt would benefit from an extra pair of hands.
Moreover, I would probably say this project in particular was where I learnt the most about who I am as a practitioner and as a facilitator. During my creation process I knew that I was strongest in workshop delivery and a facilitator, so I wanted to use this to my advantage during my creation and rehearsal process. I would go into each rehearsal knowing with a moment or scene in mind that I wanted to work on but would try different exercises and activities to be able to see what could be created in the space, as I knew that if I went in with a solid idea in my head and I couldn’t execute it then I would feel as if I had failed and I would lose motivation. I learnt that I need to be able to play with an idea and find a moment that worked from what was created in the space.
Additionally, to all of this, working with people for me as a practitioner is a way of giving back and helping to show achievement. When my group first started working with our group of children at the school in Hull on the It’s Not Ok project, they were slightly resistant to us and were not very forth coming with ideas, but as soon as we assured them that we were there to explore ideas and to have fun they loosened up and we got some productive work done. I believe that when working with children you sometimes have to let them know that it’s okay to have fun and be silly in order for them to become productive, as long as it is not taken too far and that you as the facilitators still have control.
- What do you want to do next and how do your think your portfolio evidences and helps this ambition?
My goal for the immediate future is to become a primary school teacher. To get there I need to complete my PGCE with QTS. When initially applying to university for my undergraduate degree I had thought about applying straight for primary education. However, I decided to do my degree in Drama: Education and Community as my undergraduate. I feel that this has given me the opportunity to explore the world of theatre a performance and creativity and learning how I can implement that into my teaching. Having the opportunity to work with different communities is one that prepares you for many different things. In my portfolio I explain about how I worked with children in a secondary school in hull that was in quite an underprivileged area, where they don’t get much access to theatre and performance. By giving them opportunity to be involved in a project like It’s Not Ok, it meant that they could learn about a sensitive subject and could explore a response to what they learn. We could help to educate them on how they could respond in certain scenarios and if they know who to talk to about any issues that they are facing. This also helped me to learn more about safeguarding within schools, so that I could acknowledge them in the schools I work with during my PGCE. Additionally, I have a LinkedIn page and an educational and theatre twitter set up so that I can keep on top of educational developments and keep up to date on theatre and the arts, particularly within education and the community.
However, in the future I would love to run a Youth Theatre that prioritises children who are neglected or bullied. I have always had a lot of sympathy for children who are neglected and a lot of empathy for children who are bullied. I would love to be able to create a safe space where children who suffer can go and feel safe and feel heard. Every child deserved to feel special and feel like they can achieve. Drama can do so much for a person, not just learning about dramatic techniques but learning a lot about yourself, you can either separate yourself from the outside world and know that for those few hours you are safe and able to be who you want to be. You can also explore what you are feeling without feeling like you are in therapy and having to talk about yourself directly. The brilliant thing about drama is that it can be used to help but without causing anymore trauma. Through my theatre Instagram you can see the performances that I have been a part of and have been involved in creating.