post for anyone who is going into their first year of auditions and is a little curious about the format of the day. Yes the drama school themselves will tell you about what will happen, but this is more of a detailed breakdown about exactly what I had to do in each section at each drama school, a little bit about how I was feeling at each point, and generally the feel of each school and how friendly everyone was etc.
^Here's a random google image of nervous looking people to give this post some atmosphere.
DRAMA CENTRE: My audition at drama centre was one of my favorites, much to my own surprise. I say that because when I went for the open day, the whole school seemed quite repressive. All of the students were MUCH older than I was, and after watching an extremely impressive show by the third years, there was a Q&A with members of the cast afterwards which, to me, made the actors appear almost untouchable. They all spoke of how you rarely get in on your first time and how many gap years they all had, almost laughingly, and quite honestly making the younger of the attendees feel quite insignificant. When I therefore turned up for my audition in late May, which is getting towards the end of audition season, I honestly felt like I was going to have no chance, and considered not going. It's important to add that this was the last of my five auditions, and spirits, after all the rejections, were pretty low.
When you arrive at the audition you are told to wait in the reception of the building until your allotted time slot. When your time slot approaches, you are taken upstairs to where the auditions take place, and I was so surprised to see probably another 80 people auditioning all waiting and chatting in the huge corridor/waiting area outside of about six rooms where you audition. Basically the auditions on this day were running quite late and people were grouped into half an hour slots. Even though it was very close to the time slot I was given when I was taken upstairs, I had to wait about 1 1/2 hours before I actually had my audition, giving you plenty of time to prepare and get yourself together. I wouldn't count on this always being the case, but I think generally you have a little bit of time to just chill out and relax (if you can) and maybe chat to some other auditionees. When sitting waiting I always tend to analyse other people unintentionally, and I remember looking around and seeing so many bold and interesting characters and again thinking I had no chance.
By the time I got into my audition I think I was quite chilled because I honestly thought I didn't have much chance. I performed my Monologues: Queen Margaret 'Henry VI' and Angela 'Like a virgin' to a good standard, but I really didn't feel like I had truly embodied my characters. I was quite distracted and when I can usually concentrate 100% on my character and their thoughts, I felt myself drift off slightly when performing and think in my own head, which I think is the worst thing you can do. Therefore when I sat down for the question section of the audition, which was just sitting and talking to the two auditioners on the panel, I was quite uneasy because I had felt like I hadn't given a very good performance. The man on the panel made me feel like I was right too, because when I sat down he said 'What sort of accent was that?' in the sort of tone which suggested he didn't think it was right for my character. I just replied 'er Northern?' (which it was). Then he said 'what kind of Northern?' and I said 'just general northern'...and as you can imagine I literally nearly died inside because it sounded so unprofessional. Then the man quizzed me on where the play was set and I said where I thought it was set, and even though I was quite sure, he still said skeptically 'and you're sure about that?' I wasn't sure whether he had quizzed me in this way because he thought my accent was bad, or whether I appeared nervous, or whether that is just the way they interviews everyone to detect any kind of weakness, but all the same I tried to stay strong on my answers, even if I felt unsure. I think that's the way to tackle persistence like that, just stay confident. The lady on the panel made me feel a little more at ease as she nodded when I spoke as if it was in some way right or that she was satisfied. The man continued in his patronizing way. He asked why they should consider me and why I was different to anyone else. I spoke of the way I believed in political theater and that I act for a reason and purpose. He replied with 'Well where are you gonna get a chance to do political theatre? Is there really a market for that?' And I told him that I would make a market for myself which seemed to do the trick, and the lady said that was a good answer. We talked a little about what I was doing at that point in my life, which was alevels, and I talked of the way I enjoyed learning and that the workload was something I could deal with. I did however say that I hated history and the man was very dissatisfied with this as he talked of the way history is key in theatre. I said how I very much agreed, but that the subjects I studied in history were not very interesting, and once again stuck to my guns.
When I came out of my audition I felt like I might as well go home straight away, because I felt like my monologues weren't 100% AND that the guy hated everything I said. I waited all the same probably for another 40mins before we were told who was through to the next round of the day. There are four rounds to the day, and the way you are told is by them putting up a list of who is through to the next part. Everyone else can go home. I nearly died when I saw that from the 100 people that had auditioned that morning, one of the ten names through to the next round was mine.
The second round (which was the last round for me) was very rewarding. I had to enter the same room after a lunch break, and another hour of preparing, to the same lady who auditioned me in the morning and a different man, as well as a drama centre student. They picked for me the monologue I would work on which was my Queen Margaret speech, and then the round worked on bettering the speech, bringing out more of the feeling and intention. I was glad of this because this speech was a new one for me which I decided to do for my final audition because I was bored of my other classicals. I was in the room for about 20/30 mins and probably did my monologue about five or six times, working on the core intention. I was made to take a chair and believe that it was everything that my character had, and everything that was on the line in the monologue I was performing. I then had to interact with the chair when delivering my monologue, throwing it to the side when at the end of the monologue, she looses all of her dignity and is prepared to fight a war. I then performed it without the chair a few times and a couple of times using the student as the character I was addressing. By then end I felt like my monologue had a lot more body than before, and overall I think that stage of the audition process was seeing how well you would work in the drama centre environment, how you take direction, and how you can adapt your understanding of your character. After I had finished acting there was another brief chat with the panel about what I got from that experience, and how I felt about the monologue after working on it more. I was asked also about the plot of the play because I was surprised to hear that the panel knew very little about the plot of Henry VI, and we just had a general comfortable chat about the fate of my character.
Even though I was sent home after that round, I didn't believe it was because I had done anything wrong. I think they just wanted to see how well I worked in that environment and whether I showed much nervousness. A lot of the time I was told to take my time preparing and to take a couple of breaths before performing. I think they believed I needed another year to become a little more comfortable in an audition, and to not have as many doubts. I think they were probably right to do that.
This post ended out being much longer than expected. I will upload a post on each of my auditions from last year all under the title: What happens at auditions?
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