Hello, I’m Noel I’m 20 and I’ve been acting for roughly 10 years with most of the performances I’ve done being during school hours in roles ranging from Joseph (Technicolor dream coat) to the dame Slapan (A muppets Christmas carol). It was quite simple coming to the decision to sign on to this course, as I’ve seen it constantly improving from afar since I was 17 years old and first seriously considering enrolling into further education. Sheffield is a city filled with great connections to theatre and lays claim to remarkable contemporary theatre in Forced Entertainment.
Ever since I was young, I enjoyed making skits and short videos with my friends and family (my most prolific years being from age 9-11) where me and my friends Archie and Fred perfectly hand crafted some top notch incredibly hard to view cringe-worthy cinema that we’d then show to both our mums as they’d politely laugh at all the jokes we wanted them to. All recorded on a range of lacklustre cameras including a Nokia brick, under the watchful direction of me because I was definitely at the time a nightmare to work with demanding the most of my cast (Archie and Fred) while taking on little suggestion or criticism. I can confidently say now though that I have changed in the years since I was 11, and been able to work on my abilities to work with others and take on different roles such as very recently playing Matt Galloway (Laramie Project) in a college performance. Working in this role was unlike anything I had done before as it’s using a style of theatre that I’ve never worked in before (verbatim). The role was more difficult than any other roles I’d done previously as it required much more research into the real person I was playing leaving there much fewer creative liberties and my own interpretations being restricted because I had to accurately portray a real person and their real lived experiences.
A performance that has had a great impact on me was Ewan McGregor’s performance as Mark Renton in Trainspotting. I found it really resonated in me with the clear parallels of the cycle of depression and drug addiction, and how it depicted the constant feeling of guilt and solitude that is only interrupted by momentary bliss. How both depression and drug addiction can corrupt and contort a person’s view of reality, I think this was shown really well in the scene where Mark is at his parent’s house and is trying to get clean after an overdose and starts having disturbing visions all playing on his insecurities and mistakes he’s made during the course of the film. The constant feeling of apathy to those around you and the world around you all playing into further reliances on substancess and increasing the deprivation of the mind.
Comments
I'm looking forward to seeing your work, Noel. I was in Joseph when I was younger (I played Rueben). I'm also a big fan of Forced Entertainment.
Your journey in acting is interesting, especially your early experiences with making skits and short videos with friends and family. It's great to see how your perspective and approach to acting have evolved over the years, particularly in your recent role as Matt Galloway in The Laramie Project. Your reflection on Ewan McGregor's performance in Trainspotting and its impact on you provides valuable insight into your artistic sensibilities. Can you share more about your experiences in college performances and how they have shaped your acting abilities? Are there any specific acting styles or techniques you are eager to explore or master during your course? How do you envision using your passion for acting to create meaningful and thought-provoking performances that resonate with audiences? Feel free to expand further on your experiences, aspirations, or any other aspects of your acting journey that you'd like to share.