My skills audit highlights and outlines both my strengths and weaknesses and analyses what I have learnt so far in my BTEC and elsewhere. It is very interesting for me to reflect on this because it shows me how much I have really learned.
What skills have I developed on my BTEC so far?
I have developed my rehearsal techniques a lot. A rehearsal is so important, whether it is your very first rehearsal or your dress rehearsal. It is important to stay focussed within a rehearsal and not allow yourself to be distracted by others. It is your time to perfect you character building, character presentation and characteristics. If you waste this time you are wasting your energy. Plus it is also time to get valid notes about what we are doing, theatrical techniques and the whats, hows and whys of a particular technique or exercise. To make a rehearsal successful you need to work with people who can push you and encourage you and who will also make you focus on your work.
A large part of the BTEC has been my evaluations. If done properly you can get a very good mark and through the writing process understand how to develop yourself as an actor. However if done wrong, it is just an unthoughtful waste of time that will drag your mark down. Something I have learnt especially is to not only write what but how and why. By doing this you are stating (pass), developing (merit) and explaining (distinction.) It is also key to be able to critically analyse a piece of theatre, whether it is your own piece or someone else's. By being able to give feedback and understand what was effective and what needs improvement, you are demonstrating your depth of knowledge as an actor.
Objectives are probably one of my least favourite things I have learnt, for the simple reason that I find them hard. However I have come to understand how important they are to an actor on stage. They give you purpose, direction and a reason to say your words. As words ride on the action, without objectives you would be acting and not feeling your dialogue. They are key in the process of connecting body and voice.
Something I have been told about throughout my course is to let my creative instincts take over, but I feel I have only just began to fully grasp the concept of what they really mean. Though I have felt glimpses of them throughout my course, I feel I am starting to fully develop my creative instincts. This comes from breath and spending emotion. When you are living in the moment you are feeling your environment; the temperature changes, the breath of you and others, the lighting, the atmosphere. Breathing particularly is key. If you are breathing from your stomach you can lead with your breath not your head. Your stomach is a fountain of emotion and once you breath from there natural emotions feed your performance. This leads me onto spending emotion. You can't do anything half heartedly, you must spend your emotion. Keep pouring it out, whether that is following an objective of looking, protecting, accusing, remembering, whatever it is use all your emotions that come naturally when performing and keep using it up- never lose your energy.
I have tackled one of my biggest theatrical fears- physical theatre. One of my biggest weaknesses is being able to open up my body physically because I feel my self going out of my comfort zone and sometimes this stops me becoming fully physical. However after doing a play fully made up of physical theatre, I feel much more confident on stage when doing physical work. Also I feel am I more confident in connecting my body and voice which also comes through my development of my creative instincts.
I have done many types of theatre and they all required different techniques. For example I worked in an ensemble, I've worked in different theatrical configurations, I've done mask work and worked for a specific audience. Working in an ensemble has become something I now feel very confident with. It requires the skill to bounce of other actors and be able to collectively contribute to the energy levels of a piece. Different theatrical configurations require different skills. For example working to three sides requires you to have your head and body facing two ways and a good spacial awareness. Doing an immersive piece of theatre requires you to maintain your character and interact with others in ways that will engage your audience as spectators and cast members. Mask works requires you to embody a physical stance based on a mask. You must exaggerate your movements and always show your mask to the audience. Working for a specific audience is very hard. When you are working on a piece of children's theatre you cannot make it childish and it takes a lot of work and thought to understand how to effectively present a piece.
I have learnt that transitions make a play. Bad transitions will make a bad play. It is very hard not to let the energy dip during transitions and therefore you need to work on them to make them sharp and efficient.
A type of theatre I thought I would never be doing was multimedia. Putting on a multimedia performance requires skill, imagination and sometimes a whole lot of luck. I worked on live feed, presentations, dance, speakers and lighting. All I knew were aspects of theatre, but I had never gone behind the scenes to work on this kind of technology. I feel it has broadened my skills and my understanding of the theatrical world.
Warm up are very important when doing any kind of theatre. You need to prepare your voice, body and mind so they are ready to adapt to whatever course your lesson takes you on. Some exercises have improved my alertness, my projection, my articulation and my general confidence when approaching a rehearsal.
Have you gained any skills elsewhere?
I have learned to organise my time more efficiently which helps me in rehearsals, especially when fitting rehearsal time into my schedule. I learnt this in work experience which also gave me an idea of the office work and paper work required when running any theatre business. I had to be efficient, precise and creative, all which are skills I feel I can bring to my lessons. Through theatre workshops I have learnt to appreciate different types of theatre and the work it takes to put on a performance; it doesn't happen overnight. I am always told that practice makes perfect and in both my music and theatre this is true. You will get something wrong one hundred times before you get it right, which isn't easy, but is very true. Finally and perhaps a very important part of the theatre world is that you will get a lot of rejection, but instead of letting it discourage you, you must learn from it.
From what I have listed I can recognise what my strengths and weaknesses are:
Strengths
Evaluation Working in an ensemble
Working in different theatrical configurations
Spending emotion
Character break down
Transitions
Rehearsal techniques
Weaknesses
Physicality
Mask work
Breath
Creative instincts
Warm ups
Specific audiences
Sight specific pieces
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