PERSONAL STATEMENT
My theatrical journey began with a wonderful musical theatre group, the Garioch Youth Musical Society, and as time progressed a passion was lit inside of me and I felt the desire to do more. Subsequently, I joined more groups such as Chalmers Mackay Youth Theatre, Mitchell’s School of Drama and Aberdeen Youth Musical Theatre. I even successfully auditioning for British Youth Musical Theatre before it was cancelled due to Covid-19. These theatre groups not only gave me a strong work ethic, but also taught me teamwork, how to communicate with others, and helped me deepen my understanding of my emotions, all things I needed help with as someone with a diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder. My passion for acting led me to tackling graded examinations in the both acting and musical theatre singing, all of this on top of doing drama at primary and secondary school.
Speaking of primary and secondary school, they were both incredibly difficult for me as someone who was going through challenges in my personal life such as my autism, depression and being a person in care. Nevertheless, I took this all in my stride and let it shape me and build me up, and now my unique perspective of the world gives me the ability to tap into all the feelings I went through in my past and deliver raw and compelling performances. Not only this, but through these experiences I have evolved and matured into someone who is resilient, brave and independent, with good social skills due to drama teaching me interpersonal communication.
Through a theatre group I attended late in my secondary school days, I was offered the fantastic opportunity to tour His Majesty’s Theatre in Aberdeen. This tour gave me insight into the intricacies of technical theatre, and opened my eyes to the world of lighting and sound in theatre. I felt captivated by the lights and sound effects they were able to display and taught myself more about how it works at home through research and questioning professionals.
After my academic venture at secondary school, I successfully auditioned for an acting and performance course at my local college. This course has not only allowed me to develop my acting skills which have since flourished, but I have also had the incredible opportunity to work with P&J Live in Aberdeen, giving me phenominal experience in the professional industry I wish to enter, and showing me first hand how the industry is. Through college, I have been given the chance to work in a recording studio, perform in plays and pantomimes, improve my skills in dance and singing, and my confidence and skills have expanded exponentially.
This course also provided a professional lighting and sound desk, and I felt fascinated by this once more. My fascination was so strong that I would regularly go to college alone to work on lighting and use the equipment we had. My lecturers encouraged me to create lights for several productions, such as a pantomime and the final year show for both first and second year. I have built a strong portfolio of work which I am immensely proud of, and now when acting I can appreciate all that goes into a production from onstage to backstage.
To conclude, I am a triple threat actor with experience acting in an abundance of different roles, one who has worked and enjoyed being both on stage and off stage doing technical theatre, and therefore appreciate all aspects of a performance.