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For as long as I can remember, the theatre has fascinated me. The sheer ingenuity with which total strangers can manipulate their voice, body and their very essence to command an audience to care about a character still astounds me today.

I was lucky enough to have opportunities many miss out on as a child. When I was six, I attended my first acting class with Oldham Theatre Workshop and continued to attend, learning both about acting, management and direction, until I started secondary school where my training continued as a subject.

When asked why I want to act, to learn about it and to evaluate the effects I can think of only one answer. To me, acting and performance draws out of those watching and presenting deep rooted emotions and feelings that society does not give us a chance to express. Without it, in my opinion, we simply do not have the opportunity to really feel. I hope that, from this course, I can develop my skills and learn more about the subject in order to give back to society that experience.

In addition to studying Drama at GCSE and A Level where I enjoyed working on both devised and scripted projects, I took part in a number of extra curricular projects throughout my school life. One of the most memorable to me was the Shakespeare Schools Festival at the Manchester Lowery as it gave me, and the group, the chance to speak with and learn from professional actors while enhancing our understanding of Shakespearian language.

Taking a gap year was a difficult choice for me, as I was reluctant to leave my education. Initially, my intention was to continue studying while gaining more life and professional experience, which could then help me in this application to study Drama. However, I decided I was gaining more from working and taking part in professional, and non-professional projects and took the step towards doing that full time while I applied for an Acting degree programme for 2010. Overall, I have found this to be the better choice for me, as the experiences I have gained both on screen and on stage have furthered my understanding of myself as an actor.

Outside of studying and my acting work, I have volunteered at Spring Hill Hospice for three years, working with the residents there to aid them both in respite care, and palliative treatments. In 2008, I also spent a month in Kenya, South Africa, working with the children over there while constructing several extensions to their school. Being there, and experiencing a world so different to the one I was used to gave the chance to evaluate my own emotions and access parts of myself I had previously ignored. The understanding I have gained from these experiences will, I hope, really help me improve my acting and emotional output, and will give me more scope with which to consider scripts and their affects on a diverse society such as ours.

Through this course, I hope to perfect the skills I have already acquired, learn new ways of presenting ideas and develop an overall high quality and strong knowledge of acting, drama theory and performance.