My 2010/2011 "Auditions": A Potted History - Part 4: RADA

RADA: This is it. The big one. The one we’ve all been waiting for. If you know where that quote is from, I salute you.

But really. RADA. Holy moly. The school that even the most un-drama-initiated of acquaintances have some vague knowledge of. And there it was, standing proudly in the middle of Gower Street. I didn’t get much of a view of the place, however, as I had foolishly left very little time to get there and as such ended up running all the way from Goodge Street Station… I was pretty much the last to arrive of the ten or so people waiting in the reception room. I distinctly remember everyone seeming a lot older than me. “But what is age,” I thought to myself, “but an arbitrary marker of the passage of time?” Actually I didn’t really think that, I thought to myself, “Everyone’s much older than me – shit!”, but oh well…

We were taken upstairs, past the bust of Sir Laurence Olivier (who looked me sternly in the eye as if he knew I really shouldn’t be dirtying his floorboards with my unworthy feet), guided by the infamous Sally Power to whom all RADA’s correspondence seems to have to be addressed to, and she lived up to her name by sitting us all down at this great big boardroom desk (I’m sure she must be a set supervisor for “The Apprentice”, or something…) and delivering the scariest speech I’ve ever heard. I genuinely felt like a criminal being condemned to a life sentence by a courtroom judge. She told us about the four rounds of the audition process at the school, and basically nailed home the message that getting in to drama school is difficult, getting into RADA is ten times harder still, and actually trying to earn a living from being an actor afterwards is like trying to survive the Somme with a water pistol.

So, with that morale-boosting start to events over with, I waited for a few minutes before I, along with a couple of others, was called over by a current student who we followed out of the main building and down the road to RADA’s “other” building. Once past the reception, the rooms all seemed to have this slightly odd, open feel to them – they reminded me a bit of Japan; I really felt like I was in the set of “You Only Live Twice” – that was the sort of thing that I’m talking about… I waited in the corridor while the first girl went in, and then it was my turn. I was feeling quite good. A new modern speech, a new(-ish) classical speech…

I entered the room, did the usual formalities, and delivered my speeches. As I have said before, I got the feeling last year that my auditions all got better as I went along (although plainly not quite “better” enough), and this was no exception – although, as always, the classical was definitely my weak point. I sat down and had a chat with them. Unlike the tremendously intimidating Sally Power, these two (one male, one female) seemed remarkably amiable and easy to talk to. And the interview went much better than any previous one too (although I suppose, again, that’s not really saying much).

But I left RADA feeling pretty good about myself – a nice, pre-Christmas audition, and my recall letter arriving in the post a couple of days after Christmas would be a lovely late present for me.

Except it didn’t.

In fact, I actually got the RADA rejection letter and the LAMDA rejection letter on exactly the same day as one another. Possibly the worst morning’s post I’ve ever received. But oh well, 2011 would be a new year, with new possibilities… Right? RIGHT?

Only time (and Central School of Speech and Drama) would tell.