Personal Statement
I always love entertaining people around me with all sorts of noises and weird movements. Their laughter had been the greatest thing to hear. That's how I started to like performing since I was young. I went to an international secondary school which I could choose Speech and Drama as a subject. Since then, I've developed more skills with a professional teacher. To be honest, I never thought of going for Performing Arts after graduating from high school. But my Drama teacher, Miss Barclay told me that she sees the potential in me and if I somehow ended up choosing Performing Arts in the future, she could write me a reference to get into a good college.During the final year of key stage 4, I joined an academy outside the school. In high school, we definitely go to all lessons/rehearsals because classes were back to back and we got nowhere to go, being on time is normal for me. But in that academy, especially every Sunday morning, sleepiness came to me eventually, being late and skipping rehearsals are happening. The difficult time catching up for new changes in the show and slowing the pace of others had urged me to change my attitude towards the attendance The changes in my attitude led me to be a more responsible actress.
I've performed some musical shows on big stages with over hundreds of audience, well-known ones including Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, The Muppets movie, Legally Blonde. Besides from musical pieces, I joined drama classes as well, but we don't perform famous pieces from any famous author, we performed pieces written by my own teacher, Mr. Ivan. He is not a writer or an actor, but he writes amazing scripts. I always get to play those characters that suit my personality, which is not challenging at all. He once told me, challenges start in college and university, and this academy is to train for my disciplinary and confidence. Instead of exploring new skills, they want us to build a strong base being a performer. I've also once experienced to perform a 60 minutes play with only one week of time to prepare. A regular Christmas play written by Mr. Ivan and three Christmas songs. It was a really tough week for me as I was in the choir as well as acting. I need to learn all harmony for each song and all my parts from the play. We even did out technical and costumes run four hours before the performance. Everything was a rush but it turned out a marvelous show. Mr. Casey, the founder of the academy, also my vocal tutor, wanted us to believe in ourselves, he said believing in what we can do is the only way to success in every way.
In the academy, we listened to each other's life story to learn about their character not in a play, but in real life. We take turns every time to be the storyteller, we can choose how much of our life we wanted to share with the class, but only truths. We, as a class, is family, we know each other's ups and downs, weaknesses and triggered point, and how capable are them in different fields. The exercise did not teach me any skill that I can put in my acting, but it taught me not to judge a person by not understanding them first. Listening to one another not only aiding me in my life also makes me a more reliable person to others, and I've also learned to see inside people and observe what they need. Everyone can work in a group, just like a big company; but working in a group as a group is different, we listen, we care, we help, and of course, we stay connected.
I started to think performing is just part of me, that's when I decided to come all the way from Malaysia to here, at Westminster Kingsway College. There were better options for me but I chose it because sometimes we tend to learn more from a simpler environment. In the first year, we performed two big plays Romeo and Juliet by Shakespeare and Fugee by Abi Morgan. I was baffled when I got a character, Gregory which only has two lines in the entire play for Romeo and Juliet. I started thinking that was quite unfair because I believe I deserve a better role than that. But I remembered the quote "there are no small parts, only small actors". I began to put in more effort in my tiny bits, trying to show everyone that I am capable of playing any role, I want to make my only scene and lines count, I want to make me important. During a workshop in College, we focused on the ensemble work. We talked about the different places we came from, we talked about where do we want to be in the future, we talked about preferences being outside exploring the world or continue to stay at the play where we started everything.
No matter how far our minds go, we are here, together to go through some amazing processes, to be as a group of actors and actresses performing to each of our upcoming shows. I am able to work alone or in a company, I focus on myself and observe people at the same time. I am not a very active speaker but I really love being that person that brings all of our heart together as a class, reminding each other our passion when we begin to walk to this path. Now that I am going to graduate from this college in six months of time. I need to start preparing for my new adventure in life. Drama School is definitely my choice, I know there are so much more skills that I haven't developed yet, I am more than ready to accept the challenges and struggles forcing me to become a more professional actress, all I need are experiences, I am not afraid of making mistakes because that's the way I can figure out how to solve them. Looking forward to work with a larger group of people, be on a bigger stage under the eyes of the audiences from all over the world courageously and performing gracefully.
Monologue Assessment
The contemporary monologue I choose is Hector's opening speech from THE HISTORY BOY.
Monologue:
Now fades the thunder of the youth of England clearing summer's obligatory hurdles.
Felicitations to you all. Well done, Scripps! Bravo, Dakin! Crowther, congratulations. And Rudge, too. Remarkable. All, all deserve prices. All, all have done that noble and necessary thing, you have satisfied the examiners of the Joint Matriculation Board, and now, proudly jingling your A Levels, those longed-for emblems of your conformity, you come before me once again to resume your education.
Boys, boys, boys. A Levels, are credentials, qualifications, the footing of your CV. Your Cheat's Visa. Time now for the bits in between. You will see from the timetable that our esteemed Headmaster has given these periods the euphemistic title -- of General Studies.
Euphemism, A verbal fig-leaf. The mild or vague expression being General Studies. The harsh or direct one, useless knowledge. The otiose -- the trash, the department of...why bother?
If, heaven forfend, I was ever entrusted with the timetable, I would call these lessons a waste of time. Nothing that happens here has anything to do with getting on, but remember, open quotation marks, 'All knowledge is precious whether or not it serves the slightest human use,' close quotation marks.
Who said? Lockwood? Crowther? Timms? Akthar? 'Loveliest of trees the cherry now.' 'A. E. Housman.'
Characteristic of Hector
A beloved General Studies teacher who believes that the boys should learn literature by heart in order to help them weather life's difficulties that will benefit their development as men. He thinks that exam preparation is the enemy of education, he often has the boys act out scenes or sing songs, and he seems unhampered by the usual school rules. Hector is married to a woman but he is a closeted homosexual. He often takes his male students for rides on his motorcycle, during which he fondles their genitals, and this eventually leads him to lose his job.
Pros and Cons of Higher Education
ProsMore opportunities - Get more opportunities to meet important industry people and create strong connections. Agents from showbiz often look for new 'rising star' from drama school or university, especially those renowned ones because they think these schools produce quality actors. Joanne Baron said "Getting a degree represents a time to mature and grow and take a variety of courses that enhance an actor's skill set."
Personal Development - Get to experience a lot of performing, able to speak publicly. Able to develop the ability to stay calm, problem solver. Less possibility to get hypomnesia (memory loss) as actors always need to memorize their scripts.
Cons
Getting a high paid job is not guaranteed - Some of the very successful actors/actresses you admire might not be what you think they are, some of them get involved in showbiz because of the use of relation. Without the help of someone powerful in the field, they might just be working in the office for the rest of their lives. Other than your talented acting skills, if you can't get an agent to get you job opportunities, you mean nothing after all.
No preparation on the business and marketing side of acting - For people who chooses to go to drama school, they are less lightly to get to learn things about business. Getting a part time job outside is hard for them because drama schools students need to go for rehearsals during their weekends or holidays. When they decided to come out to the world, there will be lots of things connected to business that they're still so unsure of.
information from links below
https://www.backstage.com/magazine/article/pros-cons-performing-arts-degree-according-experts-2566/ https://classroom.synonym.com/pros-cons-drama-school-7947074.html
