Leah Hand
Actor, Director, Arts Facilitator
BA Theatre and Performance (in industry), 2021
There's so many other things that have opened up to me from doing something creative.
Leah shares her experiences as a freelancer in the acting industry:
"I took a year in industry placement with Bloomin’Buds and for the first two months of that I went to America and did a show which is obviously an amazing thing to do. I got to work with doing things like singing with old people, creating drama workshops for young children and having those skills, that means now I can go and teach drama so that I wouldn't have been able to do that without Bloomin Buds and getting that experience on my placement. Freelancing can be difficult. Not choosing a career path that's nine to five definitely makes sometimes a struggle, you're thinking is it going to be worth it in the end? I haven't gone to drama school, will I be able to? Then you realise what you’re about to do.The creative arts, it leads to everything. I often do well in interviews and that's through skills I've learned from this course about being confident and knowing how to present yourself. You learn that in the creative sector, so it even passes it on if you did want to go and do a non creative job.If you're watching telly, if you're listening to the radio, if you're reading,if you’re just sitting on a chair, they were all things done by a creative person. So it's very important. I would say to go for it."