First Class B.A with Hons. in Acting Studies from The University of Manchester
I completed my undergraduate training at The Arden School of Theatre in 2007, attaining a first class B.A with honours in Acting Studies, from The University of Manchester.
I grew up performing, it’s all I’ve ever known, pantomimes in the village hall from the age of 8, professional musicals at The Everyman, Cheltenham from the age of 11, and I attained top marks for my BTEC National Diploma in Performing Arts. When I was seventeen, I remember researching drama schools and reading an article referring to Arden as the northern RADA, great, I thought, the same quality of training for a fifth of the price. Arden has a short but interesting history, founded by the Manchester Royal Exchange Theatre, and The Manchester College in 1991. Until 2001 Wylie Longmore was the head, an interesting, highly educated extrovert with a natural flair for Shakespeare. It was his vision and strict policy that created this image of a northern RADA, offering a thorough and interesting course, taught by an experienced team of working professionals. I joined the school in 2003, when the legacy of Longmore still hung in the air like the pleasant scent of an aromatic candle, not long extinguished.
In 2003 I opened my answer to the first essay with a Peter Brook quote, the question; what is theatre?
Perhaps it is all that's needed, yes, but boy would it be dull. I'd much rather see a man act AND walk across the space to create dramatic energy, worthy of keeping focus, or better still - a clown, not a clown you find at your average friday night fancy dress party but a trained professional clown. Good clowns are never dull. The rest of the first year consisted of a series of 5 week projects. The first of which was ’Life stories’, that helped us get to know our peers as well as ourselves. The second was ‘Arndale’, which like ‘Life stories’ parallels other drama schools. Using Stanislavsky’s work we built a three dimensional character who eventually spent a day in the Arndale shopping centre. The third project was 'Style Mill' - creating and performing a spooky tour based in a fascinating old mill in the south of Manchester (take a look at this place - http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/quarry-bank-mill/). The fourth was the ‘Medieval’ project, unique to Arden, where we created a medieval village in which we lived in character and costume from 10am-5pm for the whole five weeks. This developed what we had learnt in terms of the essential questions required for an actor to create a detailed character. It was great - like being in The Game of Thrones or a version of Robin Hood. We concluded our time as medieval peasants with a festival that involved pie eating, archery and a pilgrimage to Skipton castle. As well as the projects, skills classes included voice, singing, Alexander technique, movement, stage combat, and physical theatre to name a few. Linda Chase even taught us verse and Thai Chai. The core acting theory and practise concluded with an ensemble production of Sophocles’ Antigone.
The second year was more intense, longer hours and more essays. The skills classes continued and new subjects were covered. The most exciting being held at The Circus Space in Rochdale, where I studied trapeze, stilt walking, tightrope walking and juggling. The acting theory and practise went from the Greek classics of the previous year right through into the twentieth century; movements included naturalism, realism, symbolism, and expressionism. Perhaps the most valuable block for me was based on kitchen sink drama, it put all that I had learnt from Stanislavsky’s work into practise - I became easy in my skin, my performance style became less grotesque as I started to trust myself, acting became real for me. The year concluded with a musical ensemble production, we were “all for one and one for all”, in Dumas’ The Three Musketeers. I played Athos, heavily influenced by Oliver Reed's interpretation. After the year ended my education continued during the summer when James MacPherson, my physical theatre teacher, and his company; Artizani, employed me in my first street theatre season. I have been performing static and walkabout street theatre for Artizani and other companies at numerous festivals and events ever since.
In the third year, the group were split, and the students wishing to graduate with honours formed a new fourth year but really it was our third. It was all slightly confusing, however, Mark Langley worked in the capacity of year tutor and kept us all in good order. We studied acting with the esteemed Helen Parry, and devised and performed several projects publicly. The most challenging task in the honours year was the 10,000 word dissertation. I was led towards concentrating on the medium of street theatre after two years work with Artizani. I demonstrated the varying degree of culture, entertainment, and art within the medium by interviewing practitioners and developed a good rapport with some, who still employ me. I even made a Venn diagram.
My actual fourth year, consisted of moving into the new third year, full of strangers, who to their credit welcomed us into their tight knit group with open arms. We produced many plays; classic and contemporary. Perhaps my finest triumph during my time at Arden was during our final musical production of Into The Woods, where my take on the Baker earned me representation by my first agent in 2007.”
I completed my undergraduate training at The Arden School of Theatre in 2007, attaining a first class B.A with honours in Acting Studies, from The University of Manchester.
I grew up performing, it’s all I’ve ever known, pantomimes in the village hall from the age of 8, professional musicals at The Everyman, Cheltenham from the age of 11, and I attained top marks for my BTEC National Diploma in Performing Arts. When I was seventeen, I remember researching drama schools and reading an article referring to Arden as the northern RADA, great, I thought, the same quality of training for a fifth of the price. Arden has a short but interesting history, founded by the Manchester Royal Exchange Theatre, and The Manchester College in 1991. Until 2001 Wylie Longmore was the head, an interesting, highly educated extrovert with a natural flair for Shakespeare. It was his vision and strict policy that created this image of a northern RADA, offering a thorough and interesting course, taught by an experienced team of working professionals. I joined the school in 2003, when the legacy of Longmore still hung in the air like the pleasant scent of an aromatic candle, not long extinguished.
In 2003 I opened my answer to the first essay with a Peter Brook quote, the question; what is theatre?
- “I can take any empty space and call it a bare stage. A man walks across this empty space
whilst someone else is watching him, and this is all that is needed for an act of theatre to be engaged”
Peter Brook : The Deadly Theatre :The Empty Space : 1968
Perhaps it is all that's needed, yes, but boy would it be dull. I'd much rather see a man act AND walk across the space to create dramatic energy, worthy of keeping focus, or better still - a clown, not a clown you find at your average friday night fancy dress party but a trained professional clown. Good clowns are never dull. The rest of the first year consisted of a series of 5 week projects. The first of which was ’Life stories’, that helped us get to know our peers as well as ourselves. The second was ‘Arndale’, which like ‘Life stories’ parallels other drama schools. Using Stanislavsky’s work we built a three dimensional character who eventually spent a day in the Arndale shopping centre. The third project was 'Style Mill' - creating and performing a spooky tour based in a fascinating old mill in the south of Manchester (take a look at this place - http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/quarry-bank-mill/). The fourth was the ‘Medieval’ project, unique to Arden, where we created a medieval village in which we lived in character and costume from 10am-5pm for the whole five weeks. This developed what we had learnt in terms of the essential questions required for an actor to create a detailed character. It was great - like being in The Game of Thrones or a version of Robin Hood. We concluded our time as medieval peasants with a festival that involved pie eating, archery and a pilgrimage to Skipton castle. As well as the projects, skills classes included voice, singing, Alexander technique, movement, stage combat, and physical theatre to name a few. Linda Chase even taught us verse and Thai Chai. The core acting theory and practise concluded with an ensemble production of Sophocles’ Antigone.
The second year was more intense, longer hours and more essays. The skills classes continued and new subjects were covered. The most exciting being held at The Circus Space in Rochdale, where I studied trapeze, stilt walking, tightrope walking and juggling. The acting theory and practise went from the Greek classics of the previous year right through into the twentieth century; movements included naturalism, realism, symbolism, and expressionism. Perhaps the most valuable block for me was based on kitchen sink drama, it put all that I had learnt from Stanislavsky’s work into practise - I became easy in my skin, my performance style became less grotesque as I started to trust myself, acting became real for me. The year concluded with a musical ensemble production, we were “all for one and one for all”, in Dumas’ The Three Musketeers. I played Athos, heavily influenced by Oliver Reed's interpretation. After the year ended my education continued during the summer when James MacPherson, my physical theatre teacher, and his company; Artizani, employed me in my first street theatre season. I have been performing static and walkabout street theatre for Artizani and other companies at numerous festivals and events ever since.
In the third year, the group were split, and the students wishing to graduate with honours formed a new fourth year but really it was our third. It was all slightly confusing, however, Mark Langley worked in the capacity of year tutor and kept us all in good order. We studied acting with the esteemed Helen Parry, and devised and performed several projects publicly. The most challenging task in the honours year was the 10,000 word dissertation. I was led towards concentrating on the medium of street theatre after two years work with Artizani. I demonstrated the varying degree of culture, entertainment, and art within the medium by interviewing practitioners and developed a good rapport with some, who still employ me. I even made a Venn diagram.
My actual fourth year, consisted of moving into the new third year, full of strangers, who to their credit welcomed us into their tight knit group with open arms. We produced many plays; classic and contemporary. Perhaps my finest triumph during my time at Arden was during our final musical production of Into The Woods, where my take on the Baker earned me representation by my first agent in 2007.”