My journey in Level 3 began with meeting my new classmates and reuniting with old friends, I started the year with far greater confidence, this gave me increased opportunity to bring everything I have to the performance experience and even helped me to land a lead role as Curtis in the Level 3 end of year musical performance of “Sister Act”. For a first-year student landing a main role was a massive achievement and I worked tirelessly to deliver my best, eventually doing just that. Up until that point I hadn’t considered myself interested in anything musical performance-wise but the experience lit something up inside me and I began to grow a love for a much wider range of performance styles and genres. Being any part of a performance brings me great joy and I wish to do it as often as possible with like-minded performers, wherever I am on stage.

Throughout the year leading up to the musical I was introduced to dancing and singing, I'd no previous experience regarding these parts of performance so it was a new and quite scary experience, I started off with no confidence in my singing but was quickly recognised by our lecturer as one of the strongest male singers, our dance lecturer told me my movement had great potential and I was a fast learner, my confidence regarding these things bounced up and down through the year but my hard work paid off and it moulded me into a better performer in every aspect.

The part of Performing Arts I'm most familiar with, throughout the first year I learnt new methods and techniques such as those of Stanislavsky. Our acting lessons started with a lecturer-directed performance of 'The Cherry Orchard' in which I played 'Gayev', afterward we moved onto student-made personal projects; I starred in two, one as 'Jan' in a gender-swapped rendition of a scene from 'Grease' and in a stage piece titled 'Swords and Zombies' as the main villain. The year ended with us working with the Year 2 students on a rendition of 'Sister Act', In which I played 'Curtis'. Through the year we focused on countless different styles of acting such as comedic, dramatic, theatre and musical theatre.

I started the year with no confidence in my singing ability but it quickly bloomed, we started off by only singing songs from an array of musicals but soon began learning a Medley from 'West Side Story", I was appointed a small solo in this because our lecturer had identified me as one of the strongest male singers.

Due to practice in further medleys and songs in the year my singing ability grew. I was given the role of 'Curtis' in the end-of-year performance of 'Sister Act' so I was expected to sing a solo in front of an audience, I worked past the nerves quickly and had great fun performing the song better than I'd ever expected.

Dance was something else I had no confidence in, everybody sings their favourite songs every once in a while but I'd never even thought of really trying to dance, discovering it has been fantastic and it's a fun and rewarding part of performance. No two people look the same doing the same dance, there's always something personal you give to a dance and having the movement skills I've been taught with it will help me immensely throughout my career, either on stage or on screen

I was told early on in the year that I had great potential in my dancing and I learnt quickly, learning contemporary and street movements for a great leap forward. Dance even taught me a sort of awareness of how I move while I'm playing a character, knowing to focus on every part of my body to make sure I'm giving the best performance I can.

Year 2's acting modules were a lot more student-focused, doing workshops on specifics such as auditions, dramatic acting and TV acting. In the year I performed as Marty McFly in my own project; 'Back to the Future on-stage', as Batman in Mike Dullforce's stage play 'Mad Love' and as 'Fowl Man' in Hannah Fox's satirical superhero mockumentary titled 'The Courageous Cathedral'.

During the year I also began attending University auditions, working toward my future in the industry. With experience from doing workshops and mock auditions at college I felt much more confident and able to put myself forward.

With a newfound love and ability for singing I was challenged this year, singing a medley from 'Wicked', songs from other musicals such as 'When you're an Addams' and a 'Les Miserables' medley. It felt great expanding my range and improving my voice.

Part way through the year I also taught myself to sing while playing the guitar. In my project; 'Back to the Future on-stage' I played and sang 'Johnny B. Goode' in front of an audience, now this was my first time playing guitar with an audience so I was nervous and didn't do it to the best of my ability but it was a great, fun learning experience.

As well as practicing dance in styles we were familiar with we also learnt new things such as dancing with a partner, we did this using the Cha-Cha-Cha and the Jive, keeping in time and matching my footwork with someone else was difficult but I quickly grew to enjoy it.

We also started off with learning ballet, it wasn't something I was used to and I found it hard at first but there's something very satisfying and elegant about it. I've had issues with my balance during dance for most of it but this has been a great way for me to work on it.