Student Blogger: Natalie Liew

One of the many things that we get to partake in as 2nd and 3rd year students is an annual concert called ‘Music & Lyrics’, a paid show where we perform in the Winchester Theatre Royal to the public.

Welcome back for part 2 of How To Build A Portfolio where I take you on my journey through our showreel module and hopefully these blog help you discover what might be helpful for your portfolio too. If you have not read part 1, you can find it here, which details more of the voice aspect of the showreels. This one entails more of the movement aspects such as acting and dancing which are more ensemble/partner-heavy.

Now in March, just a week before Pippin rehearsals begin, we prepare ourselves to film our show reels for our ‘Technique & Repertoire’ module that helps us set up a portfolio to leave with after completing our course!

Two weeks before we returned for classes, we had our Pippin auditions which I must tell you about in this introductory blog, to show you just how intense things have kicked off! And it’s only the start of the chaos.

This year, in our final winter showcase, I am back on the team, this time as a crew member as it is our turn as student representatives to host these sorts of events. I say crew very vaguely because, as a group, we’ve had to take on multiple roles across the entire process.

The realization that we have less than a year left of class, about 8 months to be exact, has stirred the panic of adulthood and the events that go beyond university waiting for us after graduation.

After a week’s worth of organization, meetings and rehearsals, it has only just occurred to me how much I am going to miss all of this.

As summer passes me by and we get closer to starting 3rd year, I cannot help but jump ahead and think about the end of it.

Not a few days ago, my best friend and I, in the straits of Melaka, received an email detailing our summer homework for 3rd year. The email had been titled, ‘Summer Singing Challenge,’ followed by the warning that it was compulsory work. I can only assume that this would be for our repertoire module for next year as we are still awaiting the details of our modules.

As of last week, after our music literacy assessment on a bright Monday, we have come to the end of second year.

Just this weekend, from the 10th to the 11th, we completed the third year’s run of Women On The Verge of a Nervous Breakdown. Show days went by so quickly; some part of me still feels like I have to be there for my 12.30 call time.

It has been a hectic semester, and I have reached that point of the semester where the burnout is blazing.

When I came to the UK to pursue my degree in musical theatre, I never thought I would land myself in so many other things outside of performing on stage. In a whirlwind of events, alongside my assessments, I have landed myself a part in our third year’s final showcase.

Assessment season is upon us. Now that we have reached the time of our spring break, which is three weeks long (!), we don’t have as much time left as we think.

Every semester, my course would host a fund-raiser cabaret where musical theatre students across the years get to perform, and I’ve had the pleasure of seeing them all since I came to university.

Opening two shows back-to-back in a month might be the most tiring thing I’ve ever done, but I’ve never felt more accomplished

I have never been more attached to a show like You’re A Catch, and if I could go back to that week, I would. I’m currently in another show this week for Winchester’s Performing Arts society and even among a different group, I have several cast members singing songs from You’re A Catch that are just constantly stuck in their heads.

Two weeks before classes begin, my cohort returned to the studio for a two-week intensive to workshop a new musical, You’re A Catch! Why Are You Single? By Sarah Wynen.

Welcome to the first blog of 2024! It’ll be a short one but I’ll tell you everything that I’ve been up to since we last left things off.