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THE ALLEYNIAN 709
OPINION, INTERVIEWS & FEATURES
Some Alleynians are already starting to dip their toes in the world of work, alongside their studies. Here, four of them talk about what they have discovered in the process
Acting
I found out about the Hunt Academy for Young Actors through a friend of mine at JAGS. She said that I should consider joining if I was interested in pursuing acting outside of school, and added that it would help me learn about cinematic acting as well as stage acting. I followed her advice, and found myself joining a group of around ten other people of my age. We instantly went to work, learning to break down scripts and understand characters, as well as discovering how to develop accents which we could pull out of a hat and use for auditions. We also did workshops on improvisation and choreography. Amédée Le Gouellec De Schwarz (Year 11)
So far, I have managed to obtain my Standard American accent, a crucial skill to have in the industry, and I have been offered auditions for many roles, including parts in Netflix Originals dramas. The Hunt Academy has helped me refine my skills as an aspiring actor, giving me the tools I need to be able to embrace every new role to which I am assigned. I intend to continue to work on these skills and eventually hope to use them to earn a place at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art.
Work in progress
Whenever a hotly anticipated album was released, I was quick to head to the leadingmusic critic website, Pitchfork “
Sebastien Grech (Year 12) Music reviewing
The late spring and early summer of 2020 was an odd time. It allowed for long, lethargic lie-ins, combined with video games stretching out into the night, but I found myself wanting to try something new and different as the days wore on. Music writing had appealed to me ever since I had started really paying attention to the music I was listening to. Whenever a hotly anticipated album was released, I was quick to head to the leading music critic website, Pitchfork, comparing their professional opinion with mine. The more I read, the more I became convinced that I could become a music critic myself.
After about a dozen applications to various websites, I received a response from Beats Per Minute, who liked what they saw of my work. Following a trial review, I got on board; to date I have written or contributed to eight pieces. While many Spotify users simply listen for the catchy melody, I enjoy the way in which music critique allows me to delve into the artists’ processes, helping me to gain a wider understanding of this part of the creative arts industry. There is a high degree of satisfaction when you see your piece published on the website.
Sam Stewart (Year 12) Art: the RA exhibition
Young Enterprise composting initiative
Lockdown, Zoom, masks, testing, you name it: an entire year subsumed by Covid. So when it came to creating a business for our Young Enterprise team, you might have thought that we would choose a Covid-orientated concept. This was not the case. In fact, we did the opposite. During our brainstorming sessions, it struck us how focused our world had become on just one problem, and although this focus was of course completely justified, we realised the extent to which other issues, some of which had previously been at the forefront of our minds, had been pushed aside. From then on, we decided to look at issues that had been neglected for the past year, and to work out how we could create something new, ingenious and eco-friendly. Compost. If you save discarded organic food waste, it can be used to create fertilizer to grow plants. We all saw this as an Alexander Sanchez Fretz (Year 12)
I felt incredibly honoured, in late 2020, to learn that I had been selected to display some of my work at the Royal Academy Young Artists’ Summer Exhibition. The Summer Exhibition is one of my favourite annual exhibitions (I had a massive A1 poster of last year’s event hanging on my bedroom wall) so finding that my work had been selected for inclusion in the Young Artists’ Summer Exhibition meant a lot to me. The Summer Exhibition was also instrumental in the conception of this particular art project: the 2018 exhibition contained an artwork which served as a catalyst for my piece, which, in turn, was displayed in the gallery two years later. My piece, Winstanley Estate Block 3 , was created as a microcosm of the area I was documenting, and served as an ode to Brutalism. It was constructed out of 21 concrete blocks, acrylic paint, tissue paper, PVA glue, graffiti and sand.
activity often overlooked by many of our age, yet we realised that it provided such a constructive way of putting waste to effective use, whilst making for a fun activity. We saw a chance to create a kit which would help children and families get involved in composting, and we hoped that it would help them to recognise its benefits, and to become regular composters. We began selling in early March. The responses to the ‘Compost starter kit’ have been very positive, and although lockdown hampered our ability to sell in shops and garden centres, the setup of our online store helped us reach beyond the local community and interact with people all over the country who want to make a positive impact on the environment. You can take a look for yourself at www.compostivity.com .
I gained a lot of new friends and acquaintances throughout the experience, from people working at the Royal Academy to fellow exhibitors. I particularly valued working closely with the curators and gallery hands, and was privileged to feature in a film created to accompany the exhibition. Without a doubt, one of the most enjoyable aspects of the whole experience was being able to chat to the other artists, discussing our viewpoints on work and sharing various ideas we had for forthcoming projects. Overall, the experience provided me with a very solid platform for continuing my artistic practices. It boosted my confidence and enriched my understanding of the art world.
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