How do you define what you do?




In all honesty, I went to the campus session as I was feeling a little lost when it came to writing about my practice for module one. In the session we covered a wide range of topics and discussed the idea of defining what we do as artists. My biggest takeaway was explaining the constant need I feel to put myself in a box as an actor, so that people will understand exactly who I am immediately.

Casting directors, agents, producers, directors, our peers etc etc. Every time we apply to a job we have to describe what makes us right for it, turn it in to bitesize and concise format to make it easy to understand for the person reading our email.

One of the first questions you're asked in any conversation is 'what do you do?' and yet it is one of the hardest to answer. I'm an actor. Writer. Musical Theatre trained. I lead workshops. I work in SEN schools as a teaching assistant. I sing. I do medical roleplay. I present. I hand out leaflets. I do voiceover... the list is mad and endless for all of us. We all have a list as long as our arms of the things we do with our time and those boxes are all part of a whole performer.

Perhaps this is why I'm struggling so much to write about my practice-because I'm still trying to box myself up when actually all of these weird and wonderful jobs I have done and will no
doubt do in the future are part of a whole. Whatever I call myself, it is down to how I feel about my practice and that's fine.

Ending with some blogs that definitely touch on discussing practice and adjusting to the course in case anyone needs to feel inspired!

Liza touches on this in her blog which I find very relatable:
http://actorproducerliza.blogspot.com/2018/10/thoughts-after-campus-session-12-aug.html

Rachel's blog is a great reminder that nobody is alone- we all feel a little lost and have busy lives but
after this campus session I am inspired and I just need to get on! :

https://rawbapp.blogspot.com/2019/09/slow-start.html


We've got this!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Change is inevitable

Image
 As we start the new term and Module 3, I am feeling quite capable and ready to explore my research topic. This post will be a little abstract, a dash fractious and very reflective, but at the end of the day that is strongly encouraged on this course so I’m going with it!  It’s strange that in a time which involves a ‘whole world’ crisis and a more specific crisis in our industry, I feel so strangely equipped to move forward.  Even though everything changed overnight back in March, I recently realised that the friends I had that were used to performer life or freelance life adapted and flourished even amongst the absolute chaos around them. My belief that ‘adaptability’ is the key factor to sustaining a career in the arts (and quite frankly, just as an attitude to life!) feels even more relevant now. After all, performers never know where they’ll be in three months, or six months in- between jobs. They can deal with finding a job in-between, making their money work, start...
Read more

Chapter One: The Journey So Far

Image
Well, hello! 👋 I'm Laura Ferrin (or Laura England on stage, darling) and I'm an outgoing, proud Northerner who trained in musical theatre at Performance Preparation Academy in Guildford. Since graduating from the three year diploma course I have worked across a wide range of mediums within the industry and it's really kept life interesting! It's been a whirlwind few years where I've moved to Spain for half a year to sing in a 1950's rock and roll trio, workshopped new writing, voiced a fictional space engineer called Jemima and written, directed and performed in my own debut play 'Marathon For You' at various points! (venues included: The Hope Mill Theatre, The Kings Arms Salford, The Carriage Works Leeds and The Hen and Chickens for Camden Fringe 2019). For more info you can have a gander at this interview about my motivations behind writing the play as well as some general musings about theatre and Northern/female representation on stage. ↓↓↓ h...
Read more

Quarantine Hustle

Image
Hello everyone! Wanted to separate this blog from the previous as I felt it was important to focus on moving forward and talk about what I’m doing now at this strange time! First up, our friend has set up a pirate radio station called Quarantine FM! Tom and I are contributing our skills on the airwaves, presenting and creating a show called ‘Children’s Corner’. Yesterday we recorded lots of idents introducing the different shows and I was very much getting to grips with editing software - trying to improve my skills which will be needed over the coming months! We already had a fabulous mic but we bought a vocal booth because we wanted to make sure we could record over this quiet period in great quality too. Today we’ve been planning the segments and will be recording later on- which is exciting! We also were forced to cancel our cabaret for the safety of our performers and audience,  but we are hoping to pre- record and stream it tomorrow evening. Of course we will be ...
Read more