Writing About Acting Skills
When writing about your acting skills, you should do three things:
- Describe the acting skills you used (I frowned and clenched my fists tightly…)
- Explain what emotion or idea you wanted to show (to show I was upset and angry)
- Explain why you wanted to show this (because I had just had an argument with my parents.)
The following example from a Year 11 pupil should help you:
I am going to discuss a scene from the musical ‘Annie’ where I played the characterof Annie when she was meeting the President of the United States of America for the first time. When I first entered the scene, I quickly hid behind Mr Warbucks, peering around him to show I was shy because meeting the President was awe-inspiring for me. I also tried to look amazed at the place I was walking into. I did this by opening my mouth wide, raising my eyebrows and making my eyes wide when looking at all of things in the room. This demonstrated that I’d never seen anything like this before. Also I mimed words such as ‘wow’, over exaggerating the mime and making it slow, showing that I was speechless to see the President and be in a political meeting. When I walked I tried to keep a straight posture to make myself look presentable as I wanted to impress the President. I did this by imagining I had a pile of books on my head and a rod in my back when I walked. I also tried to show a change of posture from when I first walked into the room to being greeted by the President himself. When he spoke to me, I slumped my hip and started to gain a mannerism of fiddling with my fingers to give the impression of shyness and nervousness. I also rested my neck on my shoulder and did a shy smile. When I said ‘Hello’ to the President, I kept my American accent but tried to speak quietly and more softly and avoided making eye contact with the President to show how nervous I was and how intimidated I felt. When I sat down, I tried to show that I was interested in the politics being discussed by leaning forward in my chair with wide eyes and open mouth and when someone different spoke I would stare at them. I think this was comical as I looked out of place.