A QUESTMAS STORY

UNIT 9

For this project we were told that we had to create a devised piece that represented Christmas as we were supposed perform it within Christmas time. We were told to think about Christmas so firstly we did so exercises that not only got us to think "Christmas" but also warmed us up both vocally and physically. The warm up was simple we each had a partner and we had to think about what our idea of Christmas is to us and the components of Christmas, in addition we had to tell our memories of our Christmas to our partners but to make it more fun we had to tell our stories to each other at the same time and try and make our partners try and hear our stories, we then had to say our stories using different emotions and feelings. This allowed us to open up our minds and it helped think about Christmas even if you’re in the month of September and not December. Throughout the beginning we began doing these exercises in addition to writing down ideas of Christmas at the same time that we could try to put in our devised play, we got into groups and began writing down ideas all of us decided to think of something original and although it didn't scream out Christmas it still had the feeling of it. We continued to so this for the rest of the week until we were told that we should put our ideas and create scenes or a scene that represented all the ideas we came up with. We were split into 3 groups who did their own thing and we're all completely different. One group had the idea of inventing Christmas or naming Jesus Christ, they had the idea of finding a book that transported them back to when Jesus was born and they accidentally named Jesus Christ. I like that idea I thought it was new bold and really exciting. There was another group that choose to create a piece based on a series, their scene was a bit confusing but I believed that it was about testing children by putting them in a room to see what would happen, to me it was strange mainly because I didn't fully understand it but I thought it was creative. And the final group which was my group decided to create a scene based on if Santa Claus became evil and didn't care about Christmas anymore and how 5 children would step up and find out why this was happening. I really liked our idea but I thought it needed a bit of tweaking to it as there were a lot of plot holes. The director looked at all of them and decided to mash them all up into one huge piece. The main idea was going to be based on the fact that our play was set in a distant future where Christmas was banned and wasn't celebrated anymore, it was up to 5 children and a dog to try and get to the bottom of why this has happened, however while searching for answers they end up finding a huge book that would send them traveling through different Christmases or events that relate to Christmas. We all decided that we wanted to create a pantomime, go for a comedic genre as the plays we did in the past were all dramas so we wanted to do something different.

Within the first weeks we began by devising scenes from what we already knew about the play, we started out just like every day by doing our warm ups and exercises which really puts you in the mood for acting and gets you ready. We then got into groups and began creating scenes from the knowledge we gathered from the play. The director gave us different ideas that he thought would work in the play but we were all different groups so we came up with different things, the first scene involved a parent wanting to give his/her child a Christmas present but the child knew that Christmas was banned so the child doesn't accept it and tries to hide it but it becomes too late as there were guards already following the parent and they take the parent away for celebrating Christmas. I thought this idea was good it worked very effectively it presented the fact that Christmas was banned and it showed the punishment for celebrating Christmas. In my group we had a few problems one was which the scene was supposed to be serious yet funny so we kept on laughing and were introduced with the problem of laughing, however as actors we are able to overcome this barrier and continue with the scene which is what we did. The second scene was the children breaking into a facility to try and investigate why the parent was taken. My group decided get inspired with the movie mission impossible and but to make it comedic we all decided to do different things like one of us jumping whilst pretending to avoid lasers one of us on the floor rolling and crawling on the floor. I really thought that it was a funny scene but it really made you understand that they were children breaking into a facility which is a crazy and impossible thing. Another scene was the children running away from guards and trying to avoid getting caught. With this scene my group did the same thing as the "breaking in" scene we all ran away differently which showed the personality of each child and guard. We then decided to step it up and make one of the children get caught but this scene was more over the top, we acted in slow motion and I just thought it was really hilarious and worked with the scene.

Throughout the weeks we just began devising scenes until we got a solid idea of the whole play. By the end of the week the director Rob gave us our first draft of the script it wasn't much but it was still a good work in progress it had a clear underlining of the story, it contained lines here and there but we still worked on it. The script was something a few of us did in an another class with the help of the production arts students. We used the lines that people improvised while devising different scenes in class. It had the beginning a bit of the middle and that was about it for now. As we came gradually towards the end of the first three weeks’ people had already some lines but the director Rob still hadn't decided on a cast yet people still took part in reading certain lines for the characters that were already created so that we could have a brief idea of what the play was going to look like and where it was going.

FIRST SCRIPT 

           

DEVELOPING SCRIPT (WORKING ON IT)

FINAL SCRIPT

Throughout the weeks we began linking all the scenes together that we devised and adding them to the script as all we had was ACT 1. From that we created a new script, it wasn't the final script as there was still a lot more that needed to be added in, some of the scenes needed to be longer and also be polished as they weren't really fitting with the play in general. When we finally got the full story completed we were cast, there was five children and a dog, the evil one and his henchmen (acolytes) the parents, the police, the Victorian people alongside Charles Dickens and the soldiers of World War 1. Everyone got a character however I was part of the ensemble and had to multi role I had to be a soldier in WW1, a citizen from the Victorian era, a normal citizen and a soldier of the evil one. Although it sounded like a lot, I didn't have any lines in the play and just had to be in the background and mouth words to make the scenes come alive as much as I enjoyed doing that I did prefer to have had some lines in the play and actually have a character to play. But from what I know about the acting life is that you have to always be happy and grateful for the character you get as you might not always get to play the certain character you want to play, or you might not get the role you wanted. So as far as rehearsals went all I had to do was watch the people on stage act for most of the play. But this didn't mean that I didn't have to do research, because I was playing different roles I still had to learn and about some of the few characters I had to play. One of bits of research I did was learn to sing Silent Night in German, I was told by the director that soldiers were going to be split into German and British and I was chosen as a German Soldier. Some of us including me learnt the words which wasn’t easy but in the end we didn’t even use it in the play and we instead just hummed to the song of silent night. When we were near to the performance date we had to do different jobs that involved props, a couple of people and I had to paint some wooded objects that were meant to symbolize guns in black and also draw a map as it was needed. As well as that we had to make a sign that said Police Station this was for the police station scene and to make it more obvious to the audience we added the sign in the background.

Performance week was finally here and we had everything prepared, it was time for our technical rehearsal, we performed for a small audience of the first years, however some of the Cast wasn’t in but we still had to do with what and who we had because everyone knows ‘the show must go on’. I took the responsibility to help out my colleagues by standing for some of the people who weren’t in. I thought that was bad as it was to not have everyone in, the people who were in still gave a good performance as we got some good feedback from our audience. They said that it was very comedic and hilarious, they understood our story and got the concept behind it. On the day of the performance everyone was pretty nervous. Everything was set up, we got all the props and costumes sorted, and we finally got to see the big book which was one of the main focuses in the story. Before one more rehearsal I was tasked to sort out the front of house, I got one of my colleagues Kenya to help me. We wanted to infuse so much of the idea of Christmas that we decided to add Christmas ornaments and lights all around it, in addition we added the poster created by Danielle B which I thought looked really good. This was kind of relaxing because it made me less nervous and more excited to perform after 7 weeks. I sorted out all my things, I got all my costumes and any props necessary, for the beginning I wore black clothing and a plain woolly hat with my black leather gloves to show I was a soldier and I used a stick painted black to represent a gun. Then I changed by putting on a hoodie and gloves to show I was in the market and it was cold, after that I changed for Act 2 where I wore old Victorian clothing, I pretended to be a butler and wore an old blazer and fancy shoes. And finally I wore a blazer to act as a German soldier for the WW1 scene. When performing I did my cues and also helped other people if needed with costumes or props. I thought that the performance was good and I really enjoyed it, I also think that the audience enjoyed it as they were engaged with the play and laughed when there was a joke. Although there wasn't such a big audience, I thought we did well and everyone enjoyed it.

To evaluate the past 7 weeks of rehearsals and performance, I thought that everything went as planned we did as we set out to do which was create a devised play that presented the concept of Christmas and the idea of Christmas. I believe that our performance went well, everyone was amazing and gave out a fantastic performance. We all helped out each other in the day of the performance with costumes, props and cues. Everyone knew there lines and choreography especially in the chase scene. The only thing that I could have done was maybe have lines and take part more, even though I did scenes that some people didn't like the slow motion football in the WW1 scene, I would have liked to have been a character in the play and have lines. I don't think there was any improvement that could have been made as I believe that every one really shined in this performance.

A QUEST-MAS STORY
PICTURES OF PERFORMANCE 

ESSAY

In this essay I will be discussing how much are actors/actresses willing to pay for the price of fame and fortune!!!

Throughout this essay I'll be talking and explaining very dramatic and extreme measures actors and actresses are willing to take in order to secure or become a certain role within the industry. Actors and actresses who we all love watching and admire on films do things that we never knew about. When we watch a film/movie we see that the person becomes the character very in depth, we believe it to be because of all the techniques and things they studied in a drama school or in their training however that might not be the case sometimes. There have been times in the past within the golden age of Hollywood and also the present where professional actors have been deemed to go further than others in order to become a certain character in a movie, or just to simply maintain their fame. In addition to that I will speak of the pros and cons of going the extra dangerous mile for said roles, and how they might lead to certain conditions such as injuries or illnesses.

In the past there weren't as many movie stars as there are today. There may not have been a huge number of actors from all over the world but there were a number of few actors and actresses in Hollywood, California, this is now known as the golden age. The golden age of Hollywood is when movie stars were first created which was within 1920s onward which as we know was filled with gangsters, mafia, drugs and quite a lot of violence. However, the actors and actresses weren't very extreme but the conditions that they had to follow were kind of hazardous. It wasn't every single person who worked for Hollywood it was just some. Judy Garland and Mickey Rooney were apparently given sleeping pills by their superiors to work long hours although it might have just been sleeping pills there is the fact that it could have led to an overdose and could have left them in very serious conditions. As well as that Judy Garland has said that she was given a very strict diet of soup, coffee and cigarettes to stay thin, this was because within those times actors/actresses had to look a certain way and had to uphold an image of thin and slim equals beautiful like models. In my opinion I believe this to be dangerous because it could lead to a lot of things hopefully it didn't but she could have gotten diseases like anorexia or even death from starvation. This wasn't a good diet at all but this is what people back in the day did to uphold their status, their image. Judy Garland was also given amphetamines and barbiturates to make it through long working days the fact that she accepted these terms and conditions just shows that she was willing to do what it took to just become famous and be the star that she was back in the day. Fortunately, it didn’t lead to worse fates as there had been a lot of deaths because if drug usage, such as Wallace Reid who died because of a morphine addition, Barbara La Marr died as result to drug and alcohol addiction and Jeanne Eagles died of a drug overdose Hollywood also made their actors/actresses do whatever they wanted, for example if you were an actor/actress your manager would tell you who you could or couldn’t get married to because it could make your image look bad which reflected on you and them, like Mikey Rooney was told by studio head Louis B. Mayer that he couldn’t marry Ava Gardner. And what’s worse is that many pregnant actresses would have secret abortions as well just to maintain their status in the industry. This gives an image of how stardom was back in the golden age of Hollywood it showed how some actors and actresses were treated like animals forced to do things that they probably didn’t want to do but yet they did just to be famous and be part of the industry, and although some died go through any serious problems others did. And Although we can’t assume why they got into doing drugs we can try and imply that being treated like they were back in the day would make you want to do anything to forget.  (https://listverse.com/2017/07/18/10-seedy-stories-from-the-golden-age-of-hollywood/, n.d.) the one website I used was this.

The industry hasn’t really changed completely to today, there aren’t as many actors and actresses that have died from addictions or any other horrible conditions as the ones from back in the day but there are still people in the industry that do go over than expected when it comes to being who they are today. Most of the famous faces all of us see today that have wowed us in theatres and in movies do things and go the distance to be the amazing actors and actresses we see now. We see them becoming different characters and taking on different personas all the time but some of us don’t really know how they do it. Take for example the actor Daniel Day-Lewis in the 1989 film “My left foot” the actor plays Christy Brown who is a man born with cerebral palsy in a large, poor Irish family. The movie was awarded with the “Academy Award for Best Actor” but did he become this amazing actor some of us know now. The actor Daniel Day-Lewis took it upon himself to become a man with cerebral palsy, he did this by staying in character for most of the time meaning staying on a wheelchair all the time so he could experience this character in more depth, he was fed by someone else as he refused to do so. You might think what’s the harm in doing this? This resulted in the actor getting left with two broken ribs, which is very a server condition but nonetheless he survived and presented an amazing performance. Another example of this happening is Natalie Portman in 2010s “Black Swan” the film follows the story of a girl called Nina, a ballerina in a New York City ballet company whose life, like all those in her profession, is completely consumed with dance. Natalie had to portray the life of a ballerina however she took it far by going on a diet and rehearsing ballet for eight hours a day which resulted in her losing 20 pounds but also dislocating a rib. The actresses commented on this and said “There were some nights that I thought I literally was going to die” This is a leading example of how far actors/actresses are willing to go to, that they would endanger their own lives just to execute a fantastic performance and win awards like she won an Academy Award for Best Actress for her role. There are many more people that cause themselves to get conditions that will affect them terribly another example is the actor Heath Ledger in 2008s The Dark Knight. Heath played one of the characters based on DC comics character The Joker, one of Batman's villains. The character of The Joker, is the main antagonist of The Dark Knight. He was a mastermind that presented himself as an "agent of chaos” the character is described to be insane and mental. Heath Ledger took it upon himself to act as this character and become him in order to master the character, Ledger did this by putting himself in danger of becoming crazy “I sat around in a hotel room in London for about a month, locked myself away, formed a little diary and experimented with voices, it was important to try to find a somewhat iconic voice and laugh.” Because of this Ledger soon started to take drugs and a few months after filming The Dark Knight Ledger was reported dead due to drug overdose, there are some people who say that Ledger died because of this role where he pushed himself way too far which lead him to death. The actor won an Oscar for Best Actor but unfortunately he didn’t receive the award as this was after he died of a drug overdose. This is a huge example and even if he didn't die due to what he did, he could have caused himself to obtain mental conditions and develop mental health problems from it. I believe that this is a reaction of someone's extreme actions and sums up that there are times where even going far is maybe way too much for someone. Others could argue that sometimes you have to put yourself in dangerous circumstances in order to succeed and master a role and become an amazing actor, however I would argue that there is a limit on where you put yourself, even if it's to master a character. There is way more examples those are extreme weight loss or gain for a role by multiple actors such as Christian Bale in The Machinist, 50 Cent, in ‘Get Rich or Die Tryin’, Charlize Theronand in Monster and way more. Another horrible example was Jamie Fox in the film ‘Ray’ where he wore prosthetic eyelids for 14 hours a day to play the part of the blind pianist Ray Charles. (https://www.vogue.com/article/actors-who-go-to-extreme-lengths, n.d.) This is the one website I used all the quotes and research.

If you were to compare both the past and the present you could understand that things have changed, before actors and actresses went to the extremes because of their managers or agents but now they take it upon themselves to push themselves way too far. This is due to the fact that in past there weren't as many actors and actresses as there are nowadays which meant that they were very special to managers and agents and had to be kept a close eye, in my opinion I believe that they were like slaves to work for the industry and that the industry owned them which meant they were allowed to tell their clients which were the actors whatever they wanted and enforce them with any rule they seemed fit. Although managers still are harsh on some actors in the present they aren't as harsh as they were in the past, this is also believed to have been because times changed drastically actors now can do as they choose and their managers or agent just helps them in process. One huge difference is that actors and actresses became known globally, even though there were people who were acting all around the world they weren't as known as the ones in Hollywood. Hollywood had access to cameras and other film equipment and they could broadcast it to some places which is why a lot of people refer it to the golden age of Hollywood only and not the world but compared to the present people all over the world have access to cameras and can make films and broadcast it globally and become known and famous. You might think what does this have to do with going to the extremes and technically because people want to become famous and known globally they would anything to make it especially go as far as harming and injuring themselves just make a name for themselves. This represents how things haven't changed as well, actors and actresses will do whatever it takes to make it in the industry, secure their place there and make a name for themselves only in the present actors take it upon themselves and instead listening to their managers and agents to make themselves known.

Throughout this essay I've explained all the reasons why I believed it's bad to go to the extremes but there are reasons for going far and pushing yourself. Within certain characters comes something special or unique like a talent that a certain character might have if its playing a musical instrument or a sport. Looking from a different angle Natalie Portman did learn ballet and a certain ballet dance which she can remember. Another example would be Margot Robbie in the film ‘I, Tonya’ where she had to take on the character of the Olympic ice skater Tonya Harding. In order to master the role, she took it upon herself to learn ice skating, she trained five months, five days a week, four hours a day learning to ice skate. Although she ended up getting a herniated disk in her neck she still managed to learn a new skill which she knows how to do. What we can learn from this is that even though you injure yourself by pushing yourself while learning something you never knew how to do you can still benefit from it, one reason is mastering a new skill which you have for life. As well as that Margot Robbie learnt to hold her breath for 5 minutes when acting as Harley Quinn in 2016s Suicide Squad, this is quite a long time as the average person can hold their breath for only 1 minute or maybe even 2 with training. I believe that it’s a very useful skill to have as not many people can do that. A similar example is Ryan Gosling in the film ‘La La Land’ he learnt how to play the piano and dance in order to create a Golden Globe winning performance. As well as that he learnt to build furniture for the role of Noah Calhoun in 2004s ‘The Notebook’. This information presents the good and the positive of pushing yourself, it just shows that sometimes when you go further than your expected you might gain something from it like new skills you have for life, and make you into a stronger actor with abilities some actors don’t have. (https://www.thethings.com/actors-who-learned-new-skills-for-movie-roles/, n.d.)  I used this website for the research in this paragraph

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Source- (https://listverse.com/2017/07/18/10-seedy-stories-from-the-golden-age-of-hollywood/, n.d.)

Source- (https://www.vogue.com/article/actors-who-go-to-extreme-lengths, n.d.)

Source - (https://www.thethings.com/actors-who-learned-new-skills-for-movie-roles/, n.d.)

MONOLOGUES

Monologues

For this assignment we were asked to research and find 2 monologues one classical (Shakespeare) and a contemporary (modern). I had found a contemporary monologue from one of the plays I had studied already which was "Find me by Owen Wymark" this play is about a family and how they coped with their daughter Verity. The play follows the life of verity from when she was young to how she is now. The girl in the play has a mental health condition and this play presents how her and her family cope with said condition. The play is structured in an episodic manner. I chose this play because it represents the struggles of a family who have a daughter with mental health problems and I really like the way that its structured. The monologue that I chose was about how her brother Mark deals with Verity and how he feels. Mark is Verity's older brother but at that moment in the play he is still very young so I decided to present this character as a child complaining about everything. The monologue is structured in an order that explains how he feels towards Verity; this also shows how he's feeling about his family. I decided to make Mark feel left out by being angry at the audience as speaks, I did this because I wanted to make it seem as if he's bothered by the fact that Verity has his parents’ full attention and he feels annoyed at her which explains why he says what he says. I also made the decision to say Marks lines in a mocking way whenever he repeats what Verity says, this is because it represents how he's childish and he doesn't like Verity that much. For my classical, Shakespearean monologue I wanted to choose something completely different, I decided to go with one of my favourite plays by Shakespeare which was A Midsummer Night's Dream. There are so many reasons why I chose to do this play but one of them was because the genre of the play is comedy which is different compared to Find Me which is serious and a drama. The play Midsummer Night's Dream portrays the themes of love, obsession, jealousy and magic which compared to Find Me is different as one is fiction and the other non-fiction. The monologue that I chose was Bottom’s speech in Act 5 Scene 1, at this point in the play the mechanicals who are part of the three groups within the play are performing as a celebration for the Duke and his new wife Hippolyta, the play within the play is about Pyramus and Thisbe a tragedy drama that instead becomes presented as humorous and hysterical due to the actors (one of them being the character Bottom) performing terribly that even the Hippolyta quotes “ Beshrew my heart but I pity the man”. I decided to choose this monologue because it was different to the character of Mark in Find Me as Bottom is a Middle aged man who make the audience laugh due to his ‘awful and bad’ acting. This gave me ideas on how to perform this, I began my research on the internet watching performances on Bottom’s/Pyramus’ speech. I saw that past actors had performed it drunk, dumb or even just stupidly, so I gathered the information and decided to create my performance as just being over the top and very dramatic which worked effectively as my target to make my audience laugh worked.

Through-out the week we had sessions where we would rehearse the monologue in front of everyone in class so that they would give us feedback on what we did right and what we could improve on. I was sort of afraid of performing because I choose to perform my classical monologue which was Bottom's/Pyramus' Speech from Act 5 Scene 1. I performed as I planned however I got muddled up on some of the words nevertheless it worked in my favour as people thought that it was part of how I planned it, being truthful to myself I knew that I still had to work on my lines and make sure that I knew the speech although confusing myself gave me the idea of jumbling my lines on purpose to show that I'm a horrible actor which is what I was going for and wanted to do. The feedback that I got really helped me out and made me more confident in myself. Everyone said that they understood the piece clearly and that I shouldn't change it as it presented an 'over the top' dramatic and bad actor.
Our assignment was to get the monologue recorded so that's what we did. On the day of recording I was extremely nervous as the person who was going to record us was very professional and I didn't want to mess up in front of him. We took a trip to the Westminster Kingsway college in Soho where we met the camera man. We took in turns recording as there wasn't a lot of space for everyone to be there as an audience. When it was my turn to record I was in the recording room with Daniella and Teigan they made me nervous as I didn't know I had a small audience yet they were very helpful and supportive. As I observed their recordings I saw that they were also nervous and which made me feel better as I wasn't the only one with nerves but we all supported each other and made each other feel better. The difficulty when I had mine recorded was that you couldn't move and you had to look directly at the camera as if it was the audience, this was hard for me as I didn't prepare for it however I performed it as I had to. It took quite a few takes but I still completed my performance.

The end result wasn't as bad as I'd hoped it to be, I observed myself to take notes on what I did well and what I could do to improve further. I thought that I had good eye line, voice and somewhat emotion, but I thought I could improve on posture and stop moving a lot. In addition, I also believed that I should have done a different monologue which was serious like perhaps my contemporary monologue suited this recording better. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NUTnkOmC0aY&list=PLX1pQEuh-Ydm80rZOSB45GvOvGFZZssfk&index=11&t=0s

PROS & CONS

The Pros and Cons of going to university/drama school

WHY DRAMA SCHOOL

Going to drama school is choice that an actor in training has, it’s a good place for someone how wants to pursue acting as a career. Drama school spends all its time focusing on the one main subject which in this case is drama and acting, it’s the next step for someone to work with other people and learn different techniques and skills that can help them advance into the industry. Drama schools are like universities as they offer you a degree in acting the only difference is that they normally have an independent building and only study drama related pieces. In my opinion I believe that going to drama school is the next step to take as they focus their whole time into it, although there is a lot of work and hours that go into it, I feel that its beneficial ad it really helps you progress and develop yourself into a better actor. In drama school you take the more practical approach, you have the same number of years 3 but they are split into sections. In the first year you start your training, you start learning about the different techniques and skills that can benefit you and can develop you into a better actor, you can also learn about breathing techniques as its especially important for an actor. In the second year you will still be training until you reach the third year. In the third year you will then use all the training that learned from your two years and apply it into full plays that you will be working on throughout the whole year. A good thing about a drama school is that you put on plays in actual theatres and there is a 95% chance that you might get an agent.

There are pros of going to a drama school

· You get the most valuable degree you could ever get in Performing Arts

· You get the best training any actor could get

· Agents that can lead you top paid acting jobs (which you meet when performing in your final year)

· Opportunities to meet professional people that made it in the industry where you can create very good connections that could help you 

However, there are cons to going to drama school

· You get a lot of work to do and your schedule is extremely busy

· You have to be focused on this full time, (you don't have time for part time paid jobs)

· It costs a lot to get very good training

· It may be difficult to even get accepted as thousands and thousands of people apply but only a handful/few get chosen/accepted

There is an advantage of you going into drama school instead of university, you spend about 30-40 hours invested in the subject whereas in university you spend about 18 hours on subjects that focus on acting.

WHY UNIVERSITY 

University has the program of Performing Arts this is broken down into different subjects linked to that are linked to the program. They have something that offers acting or working in theatre same as any drama school would, they provide students with the same degree of a BA after 3 years just like drama schools do, although the difference between the two are that drama schools offer the highest of training and their degree is far more valuable than one that is from a university because it's considered more rigorous. From my knowledge of studying acting in a university I know that its split into different classes and focuses on more specific things than a drama school does. For example, in a drama school you would focus on Acting studies, Voice Studies, Movement studies and speech in your training, universities offer different classes which breaks down those subjects and you have to choose 5 classes from those and focus on them throughout the year, which in my case I would deem to be harder for an actor as they don't get the right amount of training they need.

 There are pros of going to a University

·  Your schedule isn't that busy meaning you have time for other things 

· You can search for acting jobs as you’re not busy

·  It's much easier to get accepted 

However, there are cons to this as well

· The degrees are considered less valuable than ones from a drama school

· You don't have as many opportunities

· You don't have as good a chance of meeting important people from within the industry

· In the final year you might not get as good a chance of getting talent scouts or agents coming to watch you and wanting to represent you

· You pay the same amount as a drama school but don't get the same amount of training as a drama school

· You might have to do some extra training  

In my opinion, I would recommend going to a drama school if you really want to pursue acting as a career and become an actor. It's more effective and gives you the training you need to advance into the performing arts industry. It also opens up so many opportunities for you in the future and gives you an advantage of having a future within theatre/acting.