Jacob Thomas PPP Extracts

1. A reflection of a meeting with an agent.

On Tuesday 3rd December at 5:30pm I met with BWH agency at their new premises in Oxford
Circus. I received an email from their office, through Chris Hocking, after Legally Blonde in which I
played Professor Callahan. I had a telephone conversation with Holly Davidson, an agent with
BWH, to book the meeting and received a confirmation email the following day. Once I had the
address for the office I was able to plan the route from ArtsEd. The journey would take 45 minutes
which meant that I had to leave rehearsals at 4:30pm to ensure that I arrived at the meeting in
plenty of time.

When I arrived at the meeting I was greeted by the assistant, my coat was taken and I was offered
a glass of water. I met with Holly Davidson, Lisa Willoughby and Nicole Robinson and was
introduced to the rest of the office. The whole office made me feel so comfortable and at ease
and I believe this is one of the reasons why the meeting went so well.

During the meeting we discussed my plans for the future after leaving drama school and what I
was interested in exploring during my career. They asked me about my experience at drama
school and how I felt I had developed throughout my 4 years of training. I made them aware of an
injury that I had sustained at the end of 2nd year to my left foot and that I was at that time back in
dance classes and learning the routines for my next show, Freaky Friday.

I asked them about the fees that they charge which are, 12.5% for all work apart from
commercials which are 15%.

We spoke about my family and how supportive they have been throughout my training journey.

Towards the end of the meeting I was asked which other agents I had been approached by and
after I had told them, they offered me representation knowing that I wouldn’t be able to sign with
them until after our showcase in March.

The meeting lasted for 1hr30 minutes approximately.

The day after the meeting I emailed the office to thank them for meeting with me and explained
that I was very interested in their offer and would love to stay in contact with them.

After the meeting I have been in contact with the office a few times including speaking to them
when they came and saw “The Wild Party” at ArtsEd.

When the date arrived where we were able to sign with an agency I emailed them to check if the
offer for representation was still available and unfortunately due to the circumstances surrounding
Covid-19 and the theatre industry they were not able to offer me representation at this time. I
replied thanking them for their email and explained that I would still be interested in signing with
them if they had the space in their agency after the pandemic is over and things return to normal.

From this experience I learnt that not everything goes to plan. I made the mistake of thinking that I
had a secure offer from BWH and threw all my eggs in one basket focusing on this agency. When
things didn’t go to plan I was left without another offer. This has made me realise to always keeps
your options open, meet with everyone and take every opportunity that is thrown your way.

2. A reflection of an audition.

On the 16th December 2019 we had a casting director day in which we were auditioned by 5 of
the top west end casting directors in house at ArtsEd. The one that I will be talking about is the
audition for Felicity French and Paul Wooller from Cameron Mackintosh Ltd. The pianist in the
room was Dai Watts who has played for other classes during my time at ArtsEd.

The brief for this audition was to prepare two contrasting MT songs, contemporary or legit. After
thinking about the shows that Cameron has running currently which include Les Misérables, Mary
Poppins and Hamilton, I decided that I would chose a contemporary song which shows of my
high belt quality and a contemporary legit style song which would fit for a show such as Les
Misérables.

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Jacob Thomas PPP Extracts
My first song was “Bigger is better” from Howard Crabtree’s When Pigs Fly. This song is a jazzy,
contemporary song with a high belt for my range (bass/baritone). It is also a form of a character
comedy song which allows me to be confident and show off my voice.

The second song is “Justice Will Be Done” from Claude-Michel Shönberg and Alain Boublil’s
Martin Guerre. I chose this song because it was written by the same composers that wrote Les
Misérables which is a show that I would love to do in my career. It is also in a contemporary legit
style which shows off the lower more baritone quality of my voice. There is also a very different
feel to this song compared to the other as it is more dramatic and proclamatory.

For this audition I wore a pair of checked trousers with a black shirt and a pair of pink shoes. With
this choice I wanted to show both a smart and a more stylish side to me through my clothes.

When I entered the room there was a very calm and friendly atmosphere coming from both the
casting table and the pianist, Dai. I introduced myself and told them my song choices. The panel
chose “Bigger is Better”. I had a quick conversation with Dai about the song and gave him the
tempo and made him aware of any cuts. When I felt that I had explained everything, we sang
through the first couple of lines of the song to double check the tempo and with that I began.

I felt that I sang the song well but feel like I could’ve gone further with my acting choices. Moving
forward, I will spend more time exploring the acting choices and seeing how far I can go with
them rather than spending the majority of the time ensuring that I have all the music elements
perfect. After the audition I wished that the panel had picked the other song as I believe this fits
the Les Misérables style and sound better. Moving forward from this, I will take songs in which
better fit the brief and the style of shows that the particular casting director is casting.

3. An account on your approach to health and fitness, mental wellbeing and personal safety
(e.g., injury prevention) in your first year after graduation.

I have struggled with my health and fitness, mental wellbeing and personal safety throughout my
training which makes my approach to this more vital as I leave the “safety net” of ArtsEd.

Firstly, health and fitness. When I leave ArtsEd I need to ensure that I stay as active as I do during
day to day live at school. This will be harder as I will not be in numerous classes everyday.
Therefore, I will sign up to a local gym and plan two cardio sessions a week which will include
walking/jogging and running on a treadmill, using the exercise bike and others to make up a
dynamic and effective cardio programme. I will also programme in at least one strengthening
session which will include arms, back, legs and chest. There will be a more in depth schedule
attached later on in the PPP folder.

I have two main goals for leaving ArtsEd relating to health and fitness. These are:

1. To lose weight to reach a healthy level and maintain this,

2. To strengthen areas of my body where I have had previous injuries (knee and foot/ankle).

On top of the scheduled gym sessions I will also attend dance classes at dance studios such as
Pineapple which will ensure that I am keeping up my dance ability once out of the daily timetable
of ArtsEd.

Second on the list is nutrition. Making healthy options has always been a struggle for me which
means that any diet plan I create will have to be realistic. I will have the best intentions of sticking
to a 7 day 100% healthy eating plan, however I know that I will be more likely to cheat or give up
on the plan quicker than if I plan in small treats/cheat meals. In my meal plan I will include 3
healthy and balanced meals with the correct proportions of carbohydrates, proteins, fats, sugars
and salt. I will have one day a week which will be a cheat day where I will allow myself a treat meal
like a takeaway with a sweet treat. I will also keep a food diary so I can track exactly what I am
eating each week and make sure that I stick to the meal plan. This will also allow me to note
anything I did not like during the week and track shopping lists etc.

Third is mental wellbeing. There has been a lot of exercises and lessons that I have learn’t
throughout the last 4 years to help with my mental health. I know that I have a strong friendship
group around me that I can talk to whenever I need somebody to listen and not judge. There are
also charities that I can call if I ever feel like I need an unbiased person to listen to my problems
and give me professional advice on steps forward. There is also apps and programmes like head

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Jacob Thomas PPP Extracts
space which allows you 20-30 minutes away from the world whilst being guided through a
meditation.

Finally is personal safety. During my time at ArtsEd, I have sustained 2 major injuries. The first was
patella tendinopathy in my right knee which took 6 months and a deferral to recover. Since this
injury I have been working on strengthening the muscles around the knee and stretching out the
muscles on either side of my thigh to ensure that my knee cap tracks straight. The second injury I
sustained was a fracture to my 5th metatarsal in my left foot which has later resulted in swelling
and damage to the longus and brevis tendons that run along the outside of the foot and into the
ankle. I have worked on strengthening the muscles in my foot, ankle and calf as I was not able to
move the foot for 9-12 weeks. I am currently waiting for a steroid injection to aid in the recovery of
the tendon in my foot which will take 6 weeks to recover from. I will have to ‘keep an eye’ on both
of these injuries as I enter the industry as I would not want to cause lasting damage by not
listening to my body.

In musical theatre, injuries happen all the time for one reason or another and it is our job as
performers to do our best to prevent this from happening. There are many ways to do this
including warming up thoroughly and efficiently, cooling down and allowing your body the time to
rest. These will be core values that I will take with me into the industry and every job that I am
fortunate enough to do.

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