From Performance to Presence: Being Yourself ‘In the Spotlight’

By Adam Fitzgerald-Quirk: Programme & Administration Coordinator at Dramatic Resources

After years as a professional actor and voice-over artist, you would think I’d feel at home in the spotlight.

Yet at just after 9am on Thursday 4 June, as I walk into Toynbee Hall in London, I feel an unfamiliar twinge of nerves.

Today, there’s no character to hide behind.

I’m here to take part in Dramatic Resources’ In the Spotlight Open Course, experiencing the work from a participant’s perspective. As a new member of the Dramatic Resources office team, I’ve spent my working days supporting the delivery of programmes. Now I have the chance to understand, from inside the room, what one of those programmes actually asks of the people taking part.

My apprehension begins to ease when I’m welcomed by Helen Chadwick, DR trainer and facilitator for the day. It’s not long before the other participants arrive. Our group spans fundraising and communications, independent consulting, biotech and professional comedy. Add a former actor and voice-over artist turned Programme Coordinator, and we’re an eclectic bunch!

At first there’s the natural reserve of strangers sharing a room. But within 15 minutes, that begins to dissolve. Helen’s opening exercises have us talking and laughing, but they’re doing something clever too: creating enough trust for us to experiment, make mistakes and try again.

As the day develops, so does the work. We explore how pace, posture, movement, use of space and vocal range can affect the way an audience receives us. These are presentation skills, certainly, but this isn’t about polishing a script or learning how to perform the role of a ‘good presenter’.

Instead, the focus is on the individual delivering the message. How can we make what we’re saying more specific to us? What happens when we make a different choice? What helps an audience connect with what we’re trying to communicate?

One exercise brings this to life particularly well. One participant is preparing for a high-stakes presentation the following week, and when Helen asks her to make the message more personal, she draws on a powerful anecdote from her own experience that hadn’t yet found its way into the presentation. It’s a simple shift, but it changes the way the story lands, making the message feel more authentic, memorable and distinctly hers.

What surprises me most is that Helen never asks us to become more like somebody else. At no point are we encouraged to adopt a persona. Instead, we’re asked to notice our habits, make different choices and discover what helps us connect.

As much as I hate to admit it, this feels unexpectedly challenging. During my years as an actor and voice-over artist, stepping into the spotlight usually meant inhabiting a character. I was rarely asked simply to be myself. More often, there was an accent to adopt, an archetype to embody, a script to follow or a well-known celebrity to imitate.

In some ways, a character can be a useful kind of armour. If you’re playing somebody else, you don’t have to worry quite so much about being seen as yourself. 

When it’s my turn to present, I try to put the day’s ideas into practice. I allow pauses. I vary my pace. I take more ownership of the space around me. And with an audience seated in front of me, there’s no character, accent or script to fall back on.

There’s just me.

That’s when the central lesson of the day really begins to sink in. The techniques aren’t about creating a performance. They’re about giving us more choices in how we communicate, so that an audience can see and hear us more clearly. Practice, just as it does in a rehearsal room, gives us more choices in turn. It allows us to communicate with greater intention without losing the qualities that make us ourselves.

By the end of the day, I’m thinking less about how to ‘perform’ in front of an audience and more about how to be present: in my body, in the room, with the people listening, and with the message I actually want to share.

Perhaps being comfortable in the spotlight isn’t about learning how to perform better. Perhaps it’s about feeling comfortable enough to stop performing altogether.

Interested in experiencing the work for yourself? Dramatic Resources runs practical, highly interactive Open Courses in London and online. Visit our Open Courses page to register your interest and be notified about future dates.