I’d like to start by offering some thoughts on the whole drama school audition process in general. I hope this doesn’t seem like a rant, but the whole thing is so filled with bullshit (excuse my French) that it’s extremely easy to feel incredibly overwhelmed by it all. I must stress, by the way, that I don’t actually hate the drama schools, as it might seem at times that I do, because if I did I certainly wouldn’t be auditioning for them! (Or perhaps I’m crazy. Or a masochist. Or both.) There’s no doubt that some of the best actors in the world have come out of these very schools that I am talking about, so they’re definitely doing something right, and my brief experiences of spending any time at the schools (apart from some of the auditions themselves, which have the potential to be pretty horrible), such as the two-week summer course at LAMDA I did last August, have been unreservedly positive experiences, and a lot of them do seem like forward-thinking and exciting places to learn. But anyway, here you go (remember, I never said this would be concise…):
- There are lots of people who audition. WE KNOW! STOP TELLING US! IT DOESN’T HELP! I’M TALKING TO YOU, RADA! *Ahem* Sorry about that, but I hate it when the schools (RADA being the worst offender here) think that it’s somehow part of their public service to inform us at every opportunity of just how slim the chances of getting into drama school actually are. It’s fine to put the information out there, and in fact it stops people raising their hopes, but when it’s 9am and my stomach’s got eels in it and I’ve just had the most stressful Tube journey of my entire life, trying desperately to run through speeches and ideas and interview answers, and now just want to sit in silence and prepare myself, what I don’t want is somebody doing their best to completely put me out of my comfort zone before I’ve even entered the audition room (in RADA’s case, before I’m even in the right bloody building…). But a lot of the schools do this, so my plan this year is just to stop listening at those moments and try and focus on my own thing rather than what they seem to want us to hear, because of all the things they could be telling us to help us before an audition, that really isn’t one of them.
- Contradiction. That word pretty much sums up the entire process. One school tells you one thing, another tells you something else. One person “in the know” says one thing, another one says something else. Some examples:
“Look the panel in the eye when delivering your speeches, and try to connect with them.”
“Don’t look the panel in the eye, on pain of death.”
“Working with somebody who knows what they’re doing can really help get the best out of you for your speeches.”
“Don’t get somebody to direct your speeches for you, at all, ever.”
“Prepare incredibly thoroughly for the interview, so that you know exactly what to say for any question they might throw at you – they want to see someone who really knows exactly who they are, what their position is, and what they want.”
“Try not to look like you’re got pre-learnt answers in the interview – they want a real person, not a robot.”
“Treat Shakespearean verse like it was any other speech.”
“Don’t breathe in the middle of a line of verse – ever.”
“Shakespearean characters are real people, with real emotions, just like in any modern play, and should be played as such.”
“Shakespearean language is heightened, the characters and situations are extreme, and therefore they require a somewhat heightened level of performance.”
“Apply early – the schools fill up places as they go throughout the audition process.”
“Prepare more thoroughly and apply later on, so you perform to your best ability.”
“The schools have quotas of boys and girls that they have to fill up, as well as having to select a wide range of types of performers, with different physicalities, heights, voices and performance styles, in order to assemble a diverse ‘cast’ for agents to choose from.”
“The schools select only on individual talent, and nothing else.”
“The song is an integral part of the process, and can make or break your audition.”
“It doesn’t matter if you can’t sing brilliantly; they just want to make sure you’re capable of singing something or other, even if it’s not pitch perfect.”
“Try and be extra-friendly to the students helping with the process – they really play a part in choosing potential students and will tell the panel about the auditionees.”
“Don’t try and suck up to the students that are helping – they can see through that from a mile away.”
“Schools regularly take on plenty of 18 year old students.”
“Schools only take on 18 year olds with exceptional talent and normally look for people who are at least a couple of years older.”
“If your speech is engaging enough, it doesn’t matter if it runs over two minutes.”
“They will definitely stop you the moment two minutes is up, even if you’re in mid-flow.”
“Audition for several different schools – each school is different and what one school, and audition panel, might like or want could be completely different to another school or panel.”
“Don’t make it sound like you’ve auditioned for every school under the sun – they want people who are specifically targeting particular schools that they feel a connection with.”
“Take as long as you need to get into character, and do whatever you need in order to do so, even if that means jogging on the spot for ten seconds before you start, or whatever it may be.”
“Don’t take an age to ‘find the character’ and don’t start doing stupid things in the audition room – actors should be able to get into character without taking a really long time over it, and doing silly things to try and help just puts the auditioners off.”
So yes, that’s quite a list of contradictions, and that’s just some of them. How frustrating is that, to have such conflicting advice from two sources that both claim to know what they’re talking about! My answer to it all is just to do what feels right for you, but it’s hardly comforting to know you might be pissing the auditioners off without even realising it…
- There are a load of different types of people auditioning, and sometimes you meet nice people, and sometimes you don’t. Sometimes people are very quiet and insular and don’t want to speak to anybody much, and sometimes people seem incredibly chatty without seeming to care much about preparing themselves for their actual speeches. Sometimes people find a good balance between the two, and sometimes they don’t. Sometimes people turn up and seem to experience a vast pleasure in explaining to everyone in the room in a loud voice about how they got recalls here and there, final rounds there and just got off the set of television programme or feature film X, Y and Z, and yes, darling, look me up on IMDB. I don’t like those people. On the whole, however, I’d say that probably the majority of people you meet are perfectly nice enough and easy to talk to, if you wish to.
- Some people seem to like the group auditions (e.g. Central, RWCMD), and some seem to hate them. Personally, I’m a big fan of them. I think perhaps it helps me in particular because my surname is at the bottom of the alphabet (I’m a “W”). Now normally I hate this, as it means I’m almost always last in everything (and in fact if I do ever become a professional actor I will need to change my surname as there is already an actor with the exact same name as me in Equity, and I will certainly be choosing one much nearer to the top of the alphabet than my current name…), but in these group auditions I find, oddly enough, that it helps me calm down a bit before it’s my turn. I think it’s because it gives me a chance to watch everyone else’s speeches first, which helps to shatter those preconceptions that everyone else is a million times more brilliant than you and that your speeches absolutely pale into insignificance when placed alongside even the weakest moments from anybody else’s, which is something I feel when I do the individual auditions. When I’m sitting there in the “waiting room” at, say, LAMDA or Drama Centre I find I can’t help myself looking at everyone else and making judgements about what they are like, what sort of speeches they will be doing and how much the panel will like them compared to me. In the group auditions, I can see them for myself and it helps give me a sense of perspective on it all and stops me worrying so much, as I’ve already seen everyone else have to go through the ordeal before me, and I’ve realised that, even if some of them might be better than me, they’re not at the standard of professional actors, and that’s why they’re here, auditioning for a drama school – because, just like me, they’re not perfect and they want to be helped to become better.
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