What is drama school like?

 Apologies that this blog has been very quiet in the last few months.

As a quick update, I am now a proud student at GSA (Guildford School of Acting) going into week seven of my first year as a BA Actor. It's a proud thing to write, considering that the entire content of this blog up until now has been dedicated to getting in to drama school and questioning the rights and wrongs etc. Now as I am beginning to settle in to the way of life at GSA, I am looking forward to continuing the next chapter of this blog, and my life, and all posts on this can be found under the tab 'Life at Drama School'.

So to begin this new section I thought it would be a good idea to do a post describing a little about what it's actually LIKE once you are here. We spend years of our life dreaming about it, but very few people actually know what it's like once you are here: course structure, lessons etc. and although most places will give you an outline, it's very helpful to hear first hand the true experience of it all. Just to clarify, this is still all very new to me, and this post is definitely not the B all and end all of what all drama schools are like. This is simply a depiction of my lessons and my experiences from just a few weeks at ONE particular drama school, and for many people it could be very different.

At GSA you have classes in VOICE, ACTING and MOVEMENT, something that every drama school does. However, what I did not know what that these are just broad terms for the sort of lessons you do throughout the week. So for example rather than just one general voice class, you have five. The voice classes at GSA are: ensemble singing, acting through song/anatomical voice, practical voice, voice and text, and accent and dialect. Similarly with movement, there is not only one movement class but: actor movement, laban, ballet, historical dance, and physical acting (languages of mime). Finally, there are three types of acting classes: two types of general acting one of which is based more on text, the other more on the actor in a raw sense, and storytelling. Therefore in total there are 13 classes all spread across the week, all of which are taught by different teachers.

This brings me on to what I feel I have learned about what drama school training can offer and why (i feel) it's so sought after. For me at GSA, I absolutely feel like every single part of me as an actor is being worked on so intricately, and by people who know what the fuck they're on about. There is not a single teacher that I have at GSA that does not amaze me with their knowledge. Voice teachers don't just teach you how to sing, they will tell you biologically each and every muscle involved in the singing process, and what ones are used for different types of singing qualities, and how to exercise them. Larynx placement, different ways to breath (as if anyone ever knew there were other ways) the actual scientific process of how a sound is made, and that's all in one lesson. Think of that thirteen times over in a week in all different fields. It is truly an honour to be surrounded by teachers who are not only industry professionals, but experts in their teaching field.

The timetable is undoubtedly full on, but the sheer variety of lessons throughout the day means that you don't notice it a huge amount. Everyday begins with a half an hour 8.30am warm up of intense cardio and stretching and directly after you begin your first lesson. Most lessons are an hour and a half and usually you will have four a day. Some acting lessons are three hours however, so on some days you may only have three lessons, or you finish later. My time table is 8:30am until 4.30pm every weekday with one 6pm exception. This means that my contact hours are around 42 hours a week.

Finally, GSA offer a huge amount of extra bits and pieces to get involved with. The fact that the school shares a campus with the university of Surrey means that you immediately have all of those resources at your fingertips like a library with pretty much every play you could ever need, societies and sales and SU events etc, not to mention student accommodation. But that is truly the tip of the iceberg. GSA organise extra dance classes in everything from ballet and tap to contemporary and extra stage combat classes. There are also so many student led projects like 'GSA lab' where people bring along their own writing to work on with other students, film projects etc. There is also a theatre opposite GSA where all of the third year shows take place, which all students can go and watch for just £2 at an inevitably professional standard. Last but not least GSA itself have their own SU that created their own freshers week full of genuinely hilarious and fun events like scavenger hunts, an icebreaker night of games and challenges, frat parties etc. you name it. The thing that anyone will tell you about GSA is that there is a community atmosphere like no other with everyone is so open to meeting everyone on every course. I never imagined third years would ever even want to talk to me, let alone invite all the freshers to their houses to meet them all. There is a GSA facebook page where people regularly post praise about work that they've seen each other do, lost items, pictures of #thirdyearnaps and #firstyearmassages and so much love its unreal. All of this combines to make an experience like no other, that no prospectus or course outline could give give justice.

Like I say this is just the first few weeks, and already I have covered so much but in such brief detail. There really are so many posts I could do on the subject of structure and experience alone, so don't think that this is it. I hope to write posts as regularly as my timetable will allow about how the process is developing, my feelings about it, and whether my opinions change etc. Any requests would also be happily accepted. I know for sure that when I was going through the application process, I had SO many questions about every tiny detail.

Alan Rickman's advice for young actors (Feb. 28, 2012) | Charlie Rose

Something that I've been meaning to share for so long is Alan Rickman's outlook on the way an actor can improve. This is amazing inspiration for anyone who is trying to get into drama school, taking gap years, or just someone in the industry seeking motivation.

GETTING IN TO DRAMA SCHOOL

This is by no means a bragging post, but just a quick and very exciting one to say that I got into drama school this year! I am very excited to have received a place at GSA on their BA acting course ready to start this September. 

This has been a very interesting year for me, as it was a big step to admit that university was not the right path, and pluck up the courage to take another year to do what was in my heart. We are raised in this culture where university seems to be the norm, and anyone who tries to stray from that is almost alienated. Having an already confirmed place at university last year, it was a huge thing to decline, and enter a world outside of education, very last minute, with no money, and have another crack. 

Living a year at home has been quite challenging, especially living so far from London, where a lot of auditions take place. Not only that, but I live in a very small town where there isn't a huge amount of theatre culture, and it's very easy to feel quite isolated from what you are trying to achieve. I urge anyone who takes a gap year and lives in a similar place to me, to surround yourself with culture: watch videos, live streamings, read books and plays, and keep your mind active and remembering what you are trying to achieve. Through doing this, I have learned so much and become a much better informed person. I have also had to push myself to get involved in local groups and theatres which has lead to me landing the main role with my local theatre royal group, and becoming a director at my local theatre group. All of this has meant that I have become more confident in myself as an actor, and I was able to go into my auditions this year with the mentality that I deserve a place. There is definitely something about being out of education and having time to fill yourself, that gives you a certain confidence, as you are forcing yourself to get involved in new things, otherwise you would just be bored. I urge anyone who has failed to get into drama school to take some time to relax, and reflect, and find new ways to inform yourself and nurture your talents. Trust me, it will go SO FAST that you almost want to take more years to find newer and bigger things to get involved in. I can finally understand those people who take years and years to get into drama school and never lose their passion. If you want it enough, you will always get there. 

I cant wait to begin training, and continue my blog throughout (I hope) to keep a track of all the wonderful things i'm learning, and hopefully help other people interested in training. 

Art Scene festival - Ghent

Last month I was very lucky to go to a theatre festival in beautiful Ghent, Belgium, to showcase a play that I directed. A few months ago, I wrote a post about the fact that I had the opportunity to be the assistant director of a show for the national theatre connections competition, talking about how much of an exciting opportunity it was, and how you should push yourself to do things no matter how little they are. 6 months down the line, and this role has given me more than I could have hoped for, being performed at many different venues all leading us to this wonderful youth theatre festival in Belgium.
The Art scene festival was four days long, and was comprised of youth theatre groups from all over the world coming to perform a short 40 minute show, performances of which were spread across the few days.
There were workshops run by professionals every morning for the kids to take part in, and after lunch, we would all watch about three/four shows. The amazing thing was that the festival is held in a beautiful theatre in Ghent called the Tinnenpot which has multiple theatres within the building, for example a standard tiered seated auditorium, a circus space with seating in the round, black box spaces, balcony theatres, and most interestingly, an all while theatre space. This meant that we could see the shows in all different spaces, and experience so much in a day without even leaving the building. At the end of the day there was then a huge forum where everyone sat and asked the cast and directors of each show all about the rehearsal period the general creative process. It was such a wonderful thing to see so many people from all different countries coming together through theatre.

It's not just the wonderful experience of the festival that made me want to write this post, but actually the fact that I was given this experience because I pushed myself. This all began with me trying something a little different by becoming an assistant director at my local theatre group, which wasn't massive. But slowly, I began to take on a bit more responsibility within the group, teaching them ensemble exercises and establishing ensemble workshop rehearsals. The main director and I became very collaborative in the process, until I was running rehearsals on my own . Sixth months from when we started the project, we have performed in many different venues, finishing our run at this festival in Ghent. Whilst being there I met with a lot of the other directors and organisers of the festival too who found what I do with the group very interesting, and now I have even been asked to come and work on the English equivalent of the festival to be a workshop leader. When I first started directing, I wasn't sure I had enough experience to be of use, yet once I started to set my mind to keeping track of all of the ensemble exercises I was taught at the National Youth theatre, or at drama school auditions, I realised I could construct useful workshops of my own, taking exercises from different places, or adapting them in some way. As long as you deliver everything with absolute confidence, and a strong idea of what you are trying to achieve, you are set. I think this festival was the pinnacle in me realising this, and the capabilities I had when speaking with different directors. I also found myself teaching a lot of the kids attending the festival lots of concentration games, and after two days, I has all of them playing them in the breaks of their own accord, and really enjoying them, all because I was confident enough to believe they could be of benefit. 

I thank festivals like this, that can enrich young people by allowing them to travel to different countries and showcase their work, and help us to realise that theatre has no language. It was so much fun to see the kids in my group experiencing different cultures for the first time, and mixing with young actors of all nationalities, who were all united through their work. 

GSA Final recall

I finished this year's auditions where I started, at GSA, the final recall audition. I think I waffled on a shit load about the vibes at GSA and how I really liked it first time, so I wont go on too much, but just as a quick note, I loved GSA just as much second time round. There seems to be a really nice community atmosphere there which you don't get very much at drama school.

The structure of the final recall day is pretty simple. You go in at the allotted time you are given, so get there a little before hand. In the group there are about 12-15ish people, and the first section of the day, is a simple warm up. Before I get into the ins and outs of the day, its is mega important to say, never fear going to GSA (bars). Before we started the warm up, we were waiting for a load of people to go to the toilet and stuff, and we had a five minute gap of the head of acting say how awkward the silence was, and consequently try and make a load of shit jokes which he then laughed at how bad they were. It is honestly the most friendly laid back school I've been to. Anyway, the warm up mainly consisted of walking around the space and getting to grips with your body and concentration, and doing a lot of vocal exercises to warm up our voices. There was a quick bit of engaging with your character and getting into the mindset, and then after about 15/20 minutes, we stopped, and everyone was asked to sit in two rows on the floor facing each-other, and this marked the beginning of hearing our classical speeches. GSA only ask you to prepare two monologues (one contemporary, one classical) just the same as their first round. The audition worked exactly as it did in the first round too, as we were asked to one by one get up and do our classical speech without announcing it or establishing any sort of order and keep going until everyone was finished. For more details on that you can take a look at my first round GSA post. Once this section was finished, everyone was given a half an hour break before the next bit.

The next section of the day was where we did a bit of physical workshopping. Nothing too strenuous, just a bit of walk around the space stuff and some concentration games. The main one was the pretty standard game of 'stop, go' where you're told to stop and go and hop and clap (or something similar) except the words mean the opposite action. I was surprised to find that after forcing this game upon the kids at the drama group I direct hundreds of times and consequently laughing at how shit they are at it, I was absolute pants at this game. After this we got into the zone of our second character, however instead of actually performing our contemporary in the usual way, we played an improvisation game. This was probably the most challenging bit of the day, because this was our only chance to showcase our second piece and to show a contrast to our classical, yet it required a bit of imagination. Basically, everyone stood in a circle, and two people were in the centre at all times, whom of which had to have a conversation as their contemporary character, yet they could ONLY use the text from their contemporary speech. When you thought it was the right time to jump in you could. Sometimes the tone of the other person's speech could completely change the tone of your own and you would have to adapt to that, and generally it was a way to see if you could think on your feet and break your monologue out of it's original patterns. Again after this section, everyone was given a little break.

The final section was for selective interviews, where the panel asked a few people to stay behind for a little while to possibly see some more monologue work, or maybe just for a chat. This was not a final elimination thing at all, just if the panel wasn't necessarily sure about someone. The student looking after our group assured us this, as he said that in his final recall, no one was asked to stay for an interview, and a lot of them got in. I was asked to stay, and basically they gave an order of who they wanted to see, and we all waited outside the audition room until our turn.

I can honestly say I have never made more of a twat of myself in an interview than I did at GSA. The panel, just wanted to see me for a chat, and ALL they had to ask me was 'why do you want to come to GSA' and I was off. I quite literally waffled for about ten minutes about how I loved the vibes at the school, that I liked the practitioners that they study, and what a contrast they are, how I love ensemble which is one of their key focuses and how I run a lot of ensemble workshops myself... ramble  ramble ramble....and I quite literally stopped breathing. I stopped talking and went 'sorry I think I have stopped breathing, I have just rambled for ten minutes straight without taking a breath' and they all just burst out laughing. As if that wasn't enough I then went on to tell them that I thought I was a bit delirious, because I got up at quarter to four' and they basically looked at each-other, smiled and said 'I think we've heard enough from you eve'. So in my mind I was like fuck, that's that eve, great one. So I got up probably quicker than they were expecting and started to leave, and one of the ladies on the panel started laughing again and said 'oooh she's off again'.............. I  could think of nothing better to do than to CURTSY and said 'thank you for having me' which made them laugh even more, and then I left.

I'm fucking ecstatic to say that clearly GSA love insane people, because I have received a place on their BA Acting course for this year, thus concluding every drama school audition I will ever have to do, not to mention these long ass posts explaining them that not a huge amount of people read.

Central final recall

I had my very first final recall a few weeks ago, at the central school of speech and drama, something which I thoroughly enjoyed, and which completely changed the opinion I had of the school.When you visit a school for a preliminary audition, it's quite hard to gauge a proper opinion, as you are more often than not, there for a morning, a few hours and sometimes only a few minutes. My opinion of central has always been a little torn, as they provide very little information about their course online, and although the musical theatre and CDT courses seem to be a little more obvious in what the course holds, their BA acting course is a bit less well explained. Because of this, I had trouble in establishing how contemporary the school was, and whether it was the right training for me. I also used to be a bit skeptical of their system in entering every applicant for all of the acting courses even if you don't want to be considered. Now after going through the whole of the central process, it has turned out to be one of my favourite school (maybe because they're one of the only ones that gave me a final recall, but ahhhhh well).
As I have found with the couple of final recalls I have done, the day was a lot less high pressure than I was expecting. There is no doubt that central has a generally friendly atmosphere at all times, but at the finals there seemed to be a little more mutual respect between the panel and auditionees, and I felt pretty comfortable throughout the session. The structure of the final recall day is as follows, there is an opening warm up lead by one of the first year movement coaches, and first year vocal coach. This is  not assessed, and is a really good way of getting in the zone. After the initial warm up, their is an improvisation exercise, and from what I gather, this exercise has been the same for a few years. All of the girls sit in a line facing the boys (there are about 15-20 in a recall session) and everyone is given a bit of paper with a situation on it, which is the basis for a scene. All of the girls have the same thing written, and all of the boys have the same thing written. In our situation, all of the girls were called Amy, and she was late meeting her boyfriend outside the cinema. There were a few basic facts about their relationship, but ultimately it was Amy's intention to try and break up with Steve when she got to meet him. Steve on the other hand has the intention to propose to Amy on the same night. The exercise worked so that two people started in the middle and the scene played out, and when you wanted to take the place of your character, you just said stop. The idea of the exercise wasn't to go in with an idea of what you were going to say, but to feed off of the other person and react to them with your intentions in mind.

After this, the group was split in two. One half had to stay and work on monologues, and the rest left for a break. This lasted for about an hour and forty five minutes, and then the groups swapped. In your workshop, the hardest thing is actually keeping yourself totally focused. Each person is worked on individually and you are asked which classical speeches off of the setlist you have prepared. The panel decide which of the two monologues they would like to hear, and most of the time, you will do it once through to begin with. Then the panel work on developing your speech to bring out a little more of what they didn't think came out, and a bit more subtext. Quite a few people were also asked a lot to do with the play, when in the play the speech takes place, and what characters you are speaking to etc. Even though Central have a setlist, they very much expect you to have read the plays. The exercises developed sometimes involved other people, for example everyone walking around the space to make the character nervous. Others were things to bring out  little more truth in the characters emotional state. One guy who did the King Lear speech 'I heard myself proclaimed' was asked to be chased by all of us up sever flights of stairs in order to find the panic in the opening of the speech. Interestingly there were also a couple of people in my group who spoke fluent French, and in order for them to find the true feelings of the speech, they were asked to so their speeches in French. This meant that in order for an audience who were not fluent to understand, a definitive feeling had to be set through the intonation and tone of voice. Each person was worked on for about 10-15 minutes.

Once each group had finished their monologues, a final few people were taken through to the last round, which is an interview. People not asked to stay for an interview are no longer being considered for a place. Out of my final recall group of about 18, only 6 of us were taken through to the interview. This only lasts for about five minutes and is just a casual chat with one of the tutors to find out a bit about you. I was surprised to find that rather than asking me about theatre and my hobbies etc, the guy was more interested in my home life and personal issues. This seemed to be like a bit of a test on whether or not I could be open about some of the more personal things that have happened to me. I was completely open and talked to the guy about everything he asked and he seemed pretty pleased. He also seemed to analyse my behavior alot, saying how I hold my emotions very much on the surface, or that I had 'reactive skin'. I have no idea whether those were good things or not, but I tried to just be myself. The day lasted about 5 and a half hours, but If you are picked to be in the first monologue set then you will be done significantly earlier.

Overall I was pretty chuffed with the way my first final recall went, and I was filled with a lot of confidence going into my other finals. I am very happy to say that I am holding a place on central's reserve list for their BA acting course, and although I don't have a definitive place there, it is certainly reassuring to know I am good enough to be on the course.

Guildhall audition - 2016

Second year auditioning at Guildhall, pretty much the same shit.
Guildhall hold their auditions in their student union bar, and although the actual school just down the road is absolutely gorgeous, there are weird vibes at the audition which I have felt two years in a row. The room you are asked to wait in is a pretty dark and dingy underground space with no windows, a bar, pool tables, and big leather sofas. It has literally no reflection on the school, but i can't help but feel like the whole place is a little scary mary. None the less, the audition at Guildhall is pretty standard, and pretty good for your money.

Once everyone has arrived, you are hoarded into a little side room with a big table and chairs. There are usually about 12-20 people auditioning on any one day, and the beginning is just a chat to reassure everyone, to fill in speeches forms, and also to be given a number label. After about 15 minutes, you are taken into another room just off from the bar where a beginning physical workshop takes place. Guildhall assure you this isn't assessed, but judging from the type of exercises you are asked to do, I find it hard to believe their isn't a tiny bit of perusing going on. Rather than just warming up, there are actual games, like two people have to run around, and without any signal, they have to stop at the same time and deliver the first line of their speech to each other. Or walking around the space and everyone stopping at once, various team games etc. I think they must at least like to see how confident you are in your body and how you can work within a group. I dunno if its true or what, but I find it weird that they call it a workshop, rather than a warm up, if its not assessed. Also, I did a similar workshop last year, and i'm almost sure they didn't say it wasn't assessed then, but I cant be positive. Either way, as always with an audition, I just tried to throw myself into everything as you only can do. A lot of the exercise seemed to be about truthfulness, and finding a way to arrive at your line, rather than knowing where you're going with it. This is a big philosophy at Guildhall, as is ensemble work, and the workshop seemed to echo that perfectly. Trying to adhere to both of these things in the morning workshop is the best way to tackle it. It's also important to say that this workshop was lead by two reaaally nice guys, both of which were older graduates of Guildhall.

The workshop lasted about half an hour, and then we were taken back into the room to be told a running order for the afternoon. The person who is first goes in about five minutes after the workshop has ended, but if you are nearing the end of the list, you have a couple of hours to wait in which you are free to go out for a bit. Each person has an individual audition for about ten minutes. For this you are asked to prepare three speeches: a classical, modern, and other of your choice, and a short unaccompanied song.
When I entered the room ready for my audition, I was asked which speech  wanted to do first, this is a given at Guildhall, so make sure you do the one you really want them to see. I got through my whole speech (Paulina 'The Winters tale') without being interrupted. Also, they are pretty big on eye contact, and if you have a speech directed at a person, they will ask you to use a student, who will give you expressions to play off. I remember being totally thrown off by this last year as I had my speech set a certain way, so when the student reacted in a way that I hadn't envisaged my character would, I had to break the tone of the piece which didn't really flow. This year however, I was totally prepared, and its a good thing to go in with a piece which isn't worked into the ground, so that you are free to do it in different ways. Then I was told which speech they wanted me to do next, and luckily they chose my favourite contemporary. This time I was stopped a little more. Once again I was asked to use eye contact, and seeing as this piece is directed at the audience i used the panel to look at too. The piece I was doing (Jess from 'Love and Money'), is quite a conflicted speech about life, and whether or not there is a higher power. It has very natural speech patterns, and quite often she cuts herself off or tries to find the right word for what she means. Because of this I was doing a lot of acting in between the lines and the panel asked me to tone that right down and just let the words come to me without 'trying too hard'. They asked me to just direct it at the student again and to just say it to him and let him affect me. I was stopped a couple of times, but I did what I thought they were asking of me and then they said it was enough. I wasn't asked for my song, or any more speeches, and to finish there was a five minute interview about me and what I was up to, blah blah, and that was it.

Once everyone has been auditioned, you all gather back in the room with the table and the panel come out to say who has been successful and they would like to see for a recall. This takes place something like the following week, and in my experience, only about 1-5 people out of each group ever get recalled, and sometimes none. Both years at Guildhall I have been rejected straight up. THEIR LOSS I GUESS.

LAMDA Audition 2016

I said last year that LAMDA was my favorite drama school, as the general atmosphere was really friendly. This was very much the case this year, and I found myself chatting for a long time to all of their current students. Maybe it's just because they are expected to do that, but hey it felt real guys.

LAMDA, are very similar to RADA in the sense that you are given a time slot for your audition, along with another group of people, and once you have done your audition, you are free to go. Unlike RADA however, LAMDA has a monologue session where you simply perform your two speeches, and then you move to another room where you are interviewed. My whole audition lasted about 40 minutes.

My time slot to audition was 3:15, (which was beautiful because I could have a bit more of a lay in). I arrived at ten to three, and in the time between, you are taken to a room to wait. At about twenty past three my group was taken to wait in the common room where you are then taken off individually to audition for a panel. On my panel there was a woman and a man, and the audition took place in quite a big hall. I found this last year with LAMDA: that the rooms the auditions take place in are so big, that it can be quite hard to find yourself. I have no idea if that makes sense, but I have found it hard in both of my auditions at LAMDA to properly get into character. Even so, I feel like my monologues were to a decent standard, although I have found out all too often that that's not always enough. As for the panel, I have found both years that the people don't give too much away at all, not much smiling going on. The only things they asked me were what speeches I was doing for them when I came into the room, and after I was finished and I was walking out, they asked me how old I was. In saying this they were pretty friendly and told me to take my time and to have a good day etc, so they weren't in any way mean, just very panelly.
Anything that I may have lacked in my acting I can only hope I made up for in my interview. I was pleased to see that both of the people interviewing me were young ex graduates, and were really nice to chat to. The whole things felt a lot less like an interview and more of a friendly conversation, which I always take as a good sign. I was also very lucky to find that the guy was from the same area as me, and it turned out that we had both belonged to the same theatre group, and we talked for ages about the directors there and mutual friends etc. I know for a fact that LAMDA have a bit of a soft spot for good old Norwich, which is great because its very rare that any places ever know where Norwich is, or what the art scene is like. I also just let myself enjoy the interview and really be proud of what I have achieved in the last year. I certainly hope that this all worked in my favour, but you can really never be sure.

Either way, I really enjoyed my time at LAMDA the same as I did last year, and I can only hope that that I proceed further in the audition process.

RADA Audition 2016

This week I auditioned at RADA for the second time, and as I am beginning to find with auditions that I have done before, it was very much the same atmosphere as last year. To find more intricate details on RADA, you might want to look at the post from last years audition. In saying this, there was still a slight difference in my audition which is to be expected with different panels and different speeches.
The structure of the day/session is very quick and simple. You are given a time for your audition, this year mine was 1.30, along with about 15 other people, and at the designated time, your group is taken to a room to fill out speech forms. This is just a chance for you to calm down, and just like last year, the staff dealing with us were really nice, and reassured us if we were nervous. After about 20 minutes in this room, you are then taken off in groups of four to wait outside a panel room where you go in alternately. Each audition is only about ten minutes long, and after that you are free to go. It's a pretty quick and underwhelming process for such a high profile school.

My audition was again pretty similar to last year. When I entered the room, the two people on the panel, a man and woman, were very welcoming and both shook my hand. I remember being totally surprised last year when I sat down to have my interview, as it was a bit more of a friendly chat, and that was even more so this year. The woman joked to me about having ginger hair as she did too, and they really only asked me one question which was 'what are you doing on your gap year'. This question just allowed me to ramble on about my year and we had more of a flowing conversation than a series of questions. They also inquired about any shows that I'd been to see that I either loved or hated, and once again that spurred another chat. This year I have worked on being a lot calmer, and have actually tried to enjoy my auditions, as I genuinely love yapping on about my gap year. After a pretty good chat, I was then asked to stand quite far back in the room, and begin my speeches when i'm ready.
Once I finished my speeches I was invited to sit down again and talk about them. This seems to be the structure of the interview, in the sense that the second chat is more directed at your speeches. This year rather than asking me anything about the plot of the play or things about my characters, the woman focused on why I chose characters which were a lot older than me, as my two listed classicals were 'Paulina' from 'The Winter's Tale' and 'Queen Margaret' from 'Henry VI part two'. I understand that doing speeches like this are a risk, especially Paulina which I performed, as she is at least in her sixties. I just replied that I found a lot of power in Paulina, as shes a servant that is not afraid to say what she thinks, and the general fact that older characters have a lot of back story. She seemed fine with my justification, yet I'm not sure she agreed it was right for someone as young and frail looking as me (which is what I am told my cast type is). She told me that people as young as me tend not to understand how older characters might conduct themselves, and seemed to suggest that a calmer apparition might be more appropriate in comparison to the anger filled performance that I gave. Rather than giving me a chance to do the speech in this way however, (as RADA tend not to redirect), I was left with that pointer and was told I was free to go. Although the woman was still perfectly nice, this bit of advice kind of left the audition on a question mark as to whether they liked me. I can only hope they did, but that's just the emotion trauma that is drama school auditions.

Love and Money - Denis Kelley, Norwich Theatre royal Youth company

I'm very happy to have been part of this wonderful production with the Norwich Theatre Royal Youth company. The part of 'Jess' in Dennis Kelly's 'Love and Money' has been a very big part to be trusted with, and in the process of this show I have gained a lot of confidence, been pushed out of my comfort zone, and broken a lot of emotional barriers. I urge anyone to join new groups, expand your circles and try new things!

Central school of speech and drama - 2016 audition and 1st recall

My audition at central was my first time auditioning at a school for the second time, and somehow, this was even more nerve racking than going to a place for the first time. There was something completely weird about going there, and being taken into the same room and doing the exact same thing a whole year later, yet knowing that you are in the exact same position, with the exact same lack of power. 

For anyone that is still yet to audition I will explain a bit about how the day works (this is also written on my post from central 2015 in a little more detail). Central audition around 100 or more people in a day, and in the morning, you are all herded into a big hall to wait. From my knowledge their auditions always start at nine, so be sure to have mega good sleeps. The structure of the day is as follows: The large group are split into smaller groups of about ten, and these groups depend on which of the acting courses you have put first on your application. At central, rather than applying for just BA Acting or Musical theatre, you do one audition and are considered for all three acting courses, central also do an 'Acting Collaborative devised theatre' course. This is where I learned a little more about the audition process, as I thought that everyone auditioning did the same workshop and same monologue session no matter what you had chosen. Last year I was put into a group with all musical theatre people and in my workshop I had to sing, despite the fact I hate musical theatre. This year I put Acting CDT as my first choice and my workshop was totally different. Choose wisely because if you put musical theatre as your second choice even if you don't like musical theatre, you could be considered to sing. 

The day works on a rotational system and you will have a monologue session, a movement/singing workshop (depending on your decisions) and a tour of the school; these can go in any order. I had my monologue session first and then moved on to my workshop before going on a tour. The monologue workshop is a very simple session. Everyone in your group is in the room while you perform, and the atmosphere is about as calm as it could be in a situation like this. Without going into unnecessary detail, you almost always perform two monologues, one of which is a classical speech from the list which Central provide, and the second, a contemporary of your choice. Central are very strict on their timings and will stop you if your contemporary speech exceeds two minutes, this is not a personal thing if they stop you, just a timing thing. 

My acting CDT workshop was very different to my workshop last year, and if you are a straight acting or musical theatre applicant, it would be more useful to read my post from last year's central audition to get a feel for the other type of workshop you could be asked to do. During the workshop, we did some pretty simple beginning exercises to warm up, for example passing a clap around the circle, passing and receiving clicks, adding noises and exaggerating these movements etc. This seemed to be to gaige the enthusiasm of the group and to see how quick and alert people could be. Next we were asked to walk around the space and to do the quite general stop and go, fill the space sort of exercises, which you will come across in many workshops of this nature. This was then developed into an exercise which involved moving to a different space in the room and acknowledging that space, then we had to move to different levels or move at different paces and explore our movements. We then begun our monologues, and were asked to keep what we were doing, but let the words affect how you move. If you were angry or frantic you might run, or a calmer more sinister character might crouch down and barely move at all. We did ,many exercises like this which involved your body, and letting that tell the story and affect your words. The exercise which took up a bulk of the time was one where we pretty much had to depict plastic bags with our bodies. The exercise began by one of the ladies running the workshop telling us to totally let go of the tension in our bodies, and to adopt a sort of lightness. Then she told us to imagine we were plastic bags with no muscles or limbs and to embody that state of lightness. This meant most of us had flopped to the floor by now and slowly the exercise developed so that we were all pretty much flat out on the floor as light plastic bags. We were then told to imagine there is a weight pulling you up, like a breeze which pulls certain parts of your body up, yet also the occasional pull of gravity which pulls you straight down again. We then did this for a little while exploring at what speed our limbs were pulled up and down and how often this occurred, we were told to take risks and be confident with our bodies and allow parts that aren't necessarily as easily controlled to be pulled up. This then went even further, and we had to perform our monologues in this state yet we had to let our bodies bring the words, not the other way round (basically you perform a monologue as a bag...) I think a lot of the workshop revolved around finding out how you can connect your body to your words and also your confidence in doing that. A final exercise involved the same idea of light and heavy. Instead of now embodying these states, we just had to find a way of a lightness or heaviness becoming present in our monologues, that didn't necessarily mean being heavy footed or having an angry facial expression. It just had to be subtly there, and we worked on walking across the room and delivering our monologue while walking and making that transition from heavy to light. 

After all of your morning sessions, you are gathered in the hall to find out if you will progress onto the second part of the day which acts as a sort of recall. If you are sent home, it is very likely your application had now been rejected. If however you are asked to stay, it may be for one, two or three of the acting courses central offer. I was very excited to find out that I would be progressing into the second half of the day, whereas last year I didn't (YES PROGRESS). 

I found that I had been recalled just for acting. This meant that the workshop I did for CDT, hadn't been successful. Some people are recalled for all three of the courses, so if you don't do a workshop that is specifically tailored to CDT applicants, it doesn't necessarily mean you will not be considered for it. Because of this, it means that some people have a very full afternoon and go on to do three workshops similar to the mornings sessions. After waiting nearly two hours, I went for my acting recall and was surprised to find that it was much like the first round. Me and a group pf about eight people went into a room and each of us had to perform the classical monologue that we did not perform in the morning. I only got about half way through when I was stopped and was redirected in another way. I was told to hold back my anger and try and perform the monologue in a way that suggested i didnt want to hurt him, but that I cant help but say the words (Paulina, 'The Winter's Tale). After about four or five lines I was told that was enough. Obviously whatever I did was enough for them to see that I either could or couldn't take redirection, I really hope it's the first.

Central do all of their first round auditions before they decide on final recalls and therefore I believe I will find out in at least another week. In total there are three rounds including the two on the initial audition day, and I can't wait to see if I am to do a final recall! :))

Rose Bruford audition 2016

A couple of weeks ago, I proudly navigated my way to Sidcup in Kent, to audition for Rose Bruford college, one of the six drama schools I have applied for this year. I had never been to Rose Bruford before, and was unsure of what to expect. I definitely didn't envisage a rather large campus (for a drama school), picturesque grounds with lakes and trees, or even the gorgeous and modern facilities and theatre spaces. I think the rather sunny day did it a lot of justice, however I felt mega good vibes getting to Rose Bruford and spending a few hours there.
Upon arrival, you are taken to one of the cafes on campus to wait and prepare. It was about ten minutes after the time that I was told to arrive by, that two students came to collect all of the people auditioning on my morning (about 30), and we were taken on a tour of the campus. As I said, Rose Bruford is quite big in the drama school sense, and we were taken around the two main buildings which consisted of a large theatre, library, many rehearsal spaces and studios and a couple of nice student cafe areas. The school has a really nice modern feel to it, and all of the spaces are embellished with posters and finishing touches which gives the place a very artistic touch. The drama school also has brand new student accommodation which is about a ten minute walk from the main site, which I feel adds quite a big sense of university/student lifestyle. During our tour, the two students showing us around talked in a lot of depth about the sort of study Rose Bruford has to offer, and what the course consists of. I found that the acting course has a really nice structure in the sense that you focus on naturalistic and classical work in the first year to sort of consolidate core acting, and in your second year you move on to a lot more 'outside the box' theatre. I like how there is a section on Le Coq, which allows you to explore clowning and a section on acting for young audiences too. While talking to the students, I really got the feel that Rose Bruford is the sort of school which embraces the individual, and if you are interested in making your own work or don't necessarily have the desire to be a professional actor only, and are also interested in directing or writing, that is totally welcomed. We also sat in on ten minutes of a first year Checkov class, which was interresting to see how they worked.
After your tour, you are taken to another cafe where you wait to do your individual audition, and you are taken off in groups of three. This section is very fast, so make sure you haven't left anything too much to the last minute, as there is not extensive amounts of time to prepare before your individual slot. I was in the third lot of people to be taken, and this was only about 15-20 minutes after being told to wait. Each audition is only about 5 minutes.
When taken to the audition room you have a few minutes wait before you go in. When I entered the room, the lady auditioning me shook my hand and just asked me my age and where I had applied. There was very little talking after that, and no interview, and I was simply asked to do my first monologue, whichever I chose. At most first round Rose Bruford auditions, you only ever do one full monologue and only about a third of your second, so choose wisely which one you do first. I think this method is just to make sure you can act a contrast, which I believed my speeches to be, and once they have established that you can, you are pretty much free to go. She did go back to my first monologue very briefly and redirected it slightly and asked me to take all the anger away (Paulina, The Winter's Tale) and just say the words without feeling. After a few lines of this she told me I was all done, and I was in and out of the room in just over five minutes, and free to go after this. My whole morning started at ten and was done in an hour and a half.
I had felt like the day had gone pretty well, and over all I really enjoyed the morning at Rose Bruford. It's a very relaxed place with really lovely facilities. A lot of people criticise the school for doing such a fast first round audition in which you spend very little time for a lot of money, but I suppose it's all they need to make a judgement. For me it was a no, but I believe there are two more rounds should you be successful after your first audition.

THE REVENANT

I know that 'The Revenant' party was about a month ago, but i'm a busy woman. Obviously I wont rave on about shit that people already know, but woahh I reeeeally loved it, and if you haven't seen it yet and you have the chance to go and see it on the big screen then definitely take the opportunity before it's too late. The cinematography and picturesque scenery is just beyond anything I've ever seen and i'm so glad to have seen it at the cinema, no matter how late. As expected the acting was amazing, and the sheer naturalism is what I feel makes the film so good. Some people have criticised it for having a lack of dialogue, yet should the circumstances the main character is left in be real (and the film is based on a true story), there would be very little room for speech, and Leonardo Dicaprio captured the pain and struggle of the main character so perfectly through everything but words. Similarly, Tom Hardy who plays the rival of the main character literally astounded me with his versatility. His thick Southern American accent was such that you would never guess that he was not american. Having only recently watched him in 'Legend' where he plays a cheeky clean cut English gangster, I found it hard to believe the gritty hardened character he gives in the revenant is even a reflection of the same person. Actors who can switch between infinitely different characters with such fully fledged vocal and physical changes are those to be admired, and I think Tom Hardy's performance in this film places him even more solidly on the actor map.
The other truly amazing thing with this film, and one of the main reasons why I found it so fantastic, is the fact that the actors genuinely traveled and worked in these vast settings in which the film takes place. There were truly rolling around in snow and mud in freezing cold conditions, sometimes totally exposed, and no doubt completely physically tested. They truly swam in the waters and had to walk such long distances in their colloquial heavy furs and that is something to be totally admired. That level of dedication is REAL ACTING and films like the revenant is where acting reaches its summit. If one day I could be in a film which requires even half of the talent needed for this, I would be happy.

National youth Theatre audition masterclass week/preparing for auditions

This post comes a little later than I had first hoped, as I attended one of The National Youth Theatre's audition masterclass weeks on the week beginning 15th February, however with a couple of drama school auditions in between, and a lot of rehearsals etc, it's a few weeks since I did the course. None the less the course was very valuable and is worth a post giving a summary of the week.

Working on your monologue
- Back to the basics: I wouldn't say the course necessarily taught me anything I didn't know before, yet it did remind me that it's never too late to take it back to the basics with a monologue. When I started the course I had a bit of a mind block with all of the four monologues I had been working on for drama school, and couldn't work out why they weren't coming along as well as previous years. Throughout my life I have been very used to working on monologues as I started doing LAMDA exams when I was eight, but since I've been older, and working on monologues on my own without the assistance of a teacher or tutor, I have been a little lost. On the first day of the course we were made to sit down and write the answer to a whole list of questions, all of which were very basic Stanislavsky based questions, which helped you to create a whole back story for your character. These included questions that you may not know the answers to and ones which you are free to make up. For example how old are they? What class? What is their occupation? What is their life story up until this point? The occupation of their parents? Some of these may seem irrelevant, but it honestly helps you to get into the whole mindset of your character, rather that just their mind set in the speech. Then questions to do with the play were asked, for example what has happened in the play up until this point? The scene previous? The line previous? What is their super objective (what they want to achieve in the whole play?) and what is their objective in the monologue? This allows you to get a feel for everything you are feeling at the moment of your monologue, but also of everything your character has been through up until now. Once you have been through all of these questions you can then look back at your monologue and decide whether the answers to all of these questions might affect the way you say a line. You might realise why they are saying something when you hadn't realised before, or you might have decided something has happened in their life that makes your character speak in a certain manner, are they an angry or calm person etc. This is all preeeeety basic stuff, but sometimes, if your having a mind blank, it can help you find new units in your monologue.
- Playing with tone: Again, all of this is very simple stuff, and a lot of drama teachers will make you do these exercises when working on any monologue, but quite often there is a reason for that. We did an exercise I've done many times which involved doing your monologue in different styles and often ones which are a total contrast to the tone of your piece. For example doing the whole piece as if you are addressing a class of children, as if you really need a wee, as if you want to have sex with the person you're talking to etc. I read once that your monologue is like a whole play in two minutes, and in order to keep your audience engaged, you have to change the tone after every line. This exercise helped me to find those levels and places where tones which seem like they wont actually work, fit well. My monologue was Paulina from the winters tale, and although the overriding tone of the piece is anger, I found that doing it as if I was talking to a load of children brought out a patronising tone which actually really worked to undermine the character I was talking to. Doing the piece as if I needed a wee also made me hold back my anger which totally worked at points too. This meant that I could go through my monologue more intricately and find even more levels.
Other basics covered were simple things like looking at punctuation and really using it (especially in classical writing) as well as stressing particular words, not sounding like you're about to say a list when you begin a list, not letting a thought take an hour to come, but at the same time not rushing. Taking all of this into account allows for you to get the initial body of your monologue.

Interview technique
- Something which I really learned to do with Interview technique was that BODY LANGUAGE MATTERS MORE THAN ANYTHING. Apparently genuine scientific experiments have been conducted to find out what affects a person in an audition the most, and nearly sixty percent of the panel's initial judgement of you lies in your body language. If you seem too chilled or too nervous and tense they may not believe you to be serious enough or strong enough for drama school training. If you're posture isn't straight they may think you're not confident in your body as you have to shrink back (something that i'm guilty of). If you're not smiling they may find that you're not happy to be there or even that you're not a friendly person. It is all of these things that a panel notices first and then its what you say and how you act which comes next. This has made me very conscious of how I walk into any audition room for the first time.
- Another thing that we worked on was your actual interview technique and how you answer questions. The facilitator of the course said that from her experience of leading interviews it all comes down to time, and a person that can tell them everything they need to hear in response to a question is a good candidate. Short answers suggest you're uninterested and can be frustrating for a panelist if they are trying to find out things about you quickly. In saying this, going on too long with your answers and not sticking to the point can be just as irritating as not answering at all, as you may not have even given them the information they asked for. In an interview situation, the best thing you can do is answer the question in as much detail as you think is needed without straying from the point. Other things we learned to be effective when being interviewed is to find common ground with the person interviewing you, or relating to them in some way, engaging them: a good thing to think is what can you do for the panel? What do you think you have which can make their day better? Never apologise for yourself, don't say sorry i'm waffling or even sound sorry when you say hello, stay confident in everything you say and know that you deserve to be there.

Motivation
Most importantly, I found the week long course to be really motivational. When you're taking a gap year as I am, it's really easy to forget how many people are working for what you're working for, especially if you live somewhere out of the city or out of London, and you're not constantly surrounded by people who are doing the same thing. Most people in the town that I live in don't know what drama school is. Going away to London for a week and surrounding yourself with like minded people is one of the most motivational things you can do, and it gets you in the mindset. It also just made me do the work needed. If I had taken a week off work to work on my monologues I would never have worked on my technique as much as I did at NYT and I'm so grateful to have done it. It gave me a massive kick up the arse to work hard when i'm at home and most importantly, introduced me to a whole new bunch of awesome people just like me. It reminds you that you're not alone in all the stress and preparation.

NYT Rep Recall

My previous post describes my National Youth Theatre annual casting. As a result of this audition, I was invited to a recall audition for NYT's Rep company, an eight month long free training course which finishes with a three month run of shows at the Ambassadors Theatre (or a theatre similar). I was majorly excited to be recalled, as this is one of the most prestigious things NYT offer to their members, and so many audition each year. As with a lot of recalls, this was a very fast paced process, and I was contacted just a week after my casting audition that I had a recall for that week. The next two stages after this one would also take place the following week!

When auditioning with NYT I always feel a lot more at ease in comparison to drama school. I think It's because there is almost always someone you know there, and the staff that work for NYT are so nice and just want you to do well. I said how in my first audition, it felt very conversational and friendly, and I was put at ease to see that Anna who initially auditioned me was also leading the recall.

The session was three and a half hours long and first consisted of a warm up with two members of the previous year's rep company. We played a simple 'in the pond, out the pond' game, and then moved on to generic concentration walk around the space stuff. This lasted about 40 minutes, and then we moved on to character work-shopping. We had to find a space and tune into our characters, and think about our whole back story: who we are, our age, our life story etc. Then we had to tune into our monologues and think exactly where it was taking place, what time of day it was, how your character is feeling and what has happened right before the point that your character begins to speak. We were asked to have these answers in our heads and then Anna, the facilitator of the recall came around to ask us the answer of these questions, and we had to answer in character. What I did is not recommended however, as I answered these questions in my head and then when she came to me, I answered the first two and then went totally blank. Although I tried hard to stay in character, however I feel she could sense my inner monologue of shit fuck shit shit shit shit...After she had been around everyone, we were asked to keep our thoughts and the feelings present and find a sitting position, still in character. Then each person's name was called and we were to launch into our monologues from there. This was a very basic exercise, but logistically was very difficult. My character, who's feeling extreme anger right at the point of the beginning of her monologue, and has just witnessed the Queen, her best friend, die, the feelings I had to hold here were very intense, especially seeing as I was one of the final people to perform out of about 20 or more. During this hour or so of holding our characters there was also the added pressure of hearing everyone else's monologues before your own, and deciding whether or not you should react, especially when people walked around and looked at you. I felt more pressure when there were funny monologues, as I had to hold back from laughing because it didn't adhere to my character's feelings at that point. Should I have let go, I was worried I would be called to perform and not be in the right emotional place to launch into anger.

After about an hour of hearing monologues, we were given a ten minute break and then we launched straight into finding the place for our second character, answering the same questions. Having chosen my angrier character first, I was relieved to take on a much more calm and inquisitive disposition. We were asked to find a seated position once again yet around the perimeter of the room instead, and this time we were free to walk into the middle to perform. A specific thing that was asked from the panel is that you recognise your audience, and this time, where in the first hour I ignored everyone else and focused on myself and the man I was speaking to, I eased up and looked at everyone in the room, as the nature of my monologue was sort of questioning human existence. One guy even used another guy in the room for the whole of his monologue so to include a member of the audience into his speech. Whilst others were performing their monologues I also allowed myself to listen and react according to how my character feels towards the issues discussed in each monologue. I felt like seeing as I took the opposite approach with each character, one of them must have been acceptable. This was all the recall consisted of, and although what we were asked to do was very simple, it was one of the most challenging things iv'e had to do as it meant holding a character in one place for such a long time.
I wasn't recalled after this stage, but all the same I took a lot away from this recall day, and I think auditioning for the Rep company is something I would really love to return to.

National Youth Theatre casting audition/how NYT works...

The bulk of this post revolves around how my National Youth theatre annual casting audition went this year, but as an introduction I will explain a little bit about being a member of NYT if you don't already know.

You can audition for NYT at any age between 14 and 21, and once you are a member, you stay one until you are 26. I wont go too much into the details of the audition process, as that's a whole post in itself, but once you have undertaken a 2 week or 4 week acting intake course, you are then able to utilise everything NYT offer you. You are given a log in to their members website, which has a whole page external professional industry castings which aren't always advertised to the public. Then there is a page dedicated to everything NYT are offering across the year, for example audition technique master classes, research projects, free tickets to shows etc. To get a part in one of the shows NYT put on for each year, you have to do a day-long annual casting audition, which I am writing about in this post. If you get cast, it is very like on a big stage to an audience of industry professionals, and therefore this annual audition can be majorly important.

The group gets split into two at the beginning of the day. Half of you get to perform your monologues first, and the other half get to do a physical workshop and vocal workshop. If you are lucky you get to do all of the physical and vocal stuff first, which I always feel gets you in the mindset to perform your monologue. As with anything with NYT, the day was very friendly and informal. At the end of the day, they know you are already capable, and just want you to do your best. At no point in the day, did I ever feel like I was being judged, as everyone who works at NYT is totally chill and friendly.

I was one of the lucky ones who got to do the physical bits first, starting with a movement workshop. This consisted of a few ensemble games, for example passing the clap around the circle, and walk around the space concentration stuff (we've all been there). Then we had to get into partners, and work on making our body passive, semi passive and active. This was all to do with control and the confidence to trust and work with another person using your body. In this exercise, your partner had to mold you into different shapes, and if you were passive, you have to let all of your muscles flop and you would fall to the ground if your partner wasn't there to catch you. Semi passive meant you were slightly tensed and you could help your partner slightly, and active was physically moving yourself, trying to get away from your partner. It was mainly experimental and was a good way of seeing people's flexibility, but also their willingness to let their body be manipulated. This exercise was developed further, as we were put into groups, and given a situation which we had to act out using the ideas of passive, semi passive and active. My group was given 'first dance at the school disco' and we all had to explore and decide how you would act if you were in this situation: you might be active and run away because you are scared, or faint of embarrassment which would be passive. We then performed these to the group. The other main section of the workshop was to see how physically able we all were. Kayne, one of the main choreographers at NYT who lead the workshop always puts on really loud fun music, and then demonstrates movements that he wants us to do across the room. These consists of jumps, leaps and kicks, all things which allow him to pick out dancers and really see people's confidence in their bodies. If you're not a dancer, there is no need to be scared about this however! NYT always make a strong point of reassuring everyone that its not a test of your dancing or singing skills or anything like that, it's just to see how free and confident people are with their bodies. I always really enjoy these workshops, and I think that's a good key to doing a strong audition, because it shows your willingness, and that ultimately, you love what you do, no matter if you're balls at dancing.
The second half of the morning was a vocal workshop which was similarly structured: a few warm ups, like scales, humming and facial stretches, as well as a song circle kind of thing. This was a way of letting everyone have their opportunity to sing a couple of lines of a song while everyone else clapped and laid down beats to keep it moving. Once again, some people who weren't very confident did a bit of spoken word, or rapped happy birthday or something, but once again as long as you were confident in what you were doing, it really didn't matter. On a personal level, I was really pleased we did that, as it put me under pressure to sing on my own, which I don't often  do, and I felt really good for it. After this we did some singing in sections, e.g altos, sopranos and bases, exploring rounds and choral sort of singing. We then finally were sent off into groups of about five, and we were all asked to put together a musical arrangement of any kind. As always with NYT, there were lots of different things ut together, and people who play instruments were invited to play in theirs. As for my group, none of us played any instruments and a couple of people weren't entirely confident singers, so we did a totally lame yet obviously outstanding mashup rendition of Justin Bieber's baby. Once again we enjoyed it and were confident and I think if you try your best to show everything you can do, then you've done well.

After the morning sessions, there is an hour lunch break and the two groups swap over. The monologue section is a lot slower moving, as each person is taken individually to audition, and if your nearing the end (as I always am) then you could have well over two hours to wait and prepare. I always take this time to meet some new people and have a good chat, as you never know what you might learn. For someone like me who doesn't live in London, it's great to make the most of the time to hear about plays that people have seen, or workshops or drama school auditions and all things like that, as its a whole hub of experience. Then when it's nearing my time to go into the audition room, I go through my monologue a little to prepare and do some meditation and stretchy related stuff to get me going. My audition this year was soooo much more relaxed than last year, as I felt so much calmer. Over the last year since I have done more shows and workshops with NYT I have come to realise that its a lot more of a friendly conversational place, where staff only want you to succeed. I therefore went into the room excited to chat to the facilitators about everything i've been up to this year. If you show them friendly confidence, they will give it straight back. I then performed my monologue: Paulina from 'The Winter's Tale' which is quite contrasting to my happy self, and generally l felt preeeety good. They just simply chatted to me about my gap year, where I work, what shows I'm in at the minute and just about any skills I have like dancing or singing etc, and that was it. It was just before six when I finished the whole day audition which started at ten. If your monologue is at the beginning of the afternoon however you could only be there until three.
All in all, this year's casting was one of the most enjoyable auditions i've done to date, and I cant wait to hear if i've been successful in this years season of shows :))

Jess - Love and Money By Dennis Kelly

This is just a quick post about the show that I am to be in next month, not only promoting it, but also to express how much I have learned playing the part of Jess in Dennis Kelly's 'Love and Money'.
For anyone who knows Kelly's writing, you will know it is a totally naturalistic and truly intricate style of writing, that completely captures each and every character in a slice of real life. Playing the part of Jess has been the biggest responsibility I have ever been given in a show, as although I have played lead roles, none have been quite so psychologically complex. I have learned to take my acting right back to the basics, creating a whole life story for Jess myself, and researching intensely on her type of mental illness so to capture her exact thought processes. It never hurts to try every line in a whole plethora of ways in order to capture just what works with a certain character, something which has definitely been no mean feat with Jess' concluding nine page monologue, yet definitely one which has taught me no end about this style. I would totally recommend reading and trying some of Dennis Kelly's work if you are someone that finds it hard to find the truth in your performance, as his style is so real! I can't wait to work even harder on this part in the next month.

What happens at auditions - Guildford School of Acting

This is my first post in the series of auditions taking place this year! Any previous to this post were applications for the 2015 pool.

This was the first time I had auditioned for Guildford school of acting in the two years I have been applying, and I was surprised to find it one of the most welcoming drama schools I have been to, and had probably the calmest atmosphere of all! I think its because the GSA building is situated on the outskirts of the University of Surrey campus, and functions as more of a drama school inside a uni than any other school. Maybe this is what makes it seem more relaxed, as its not an independent school in the middle of nowhere, but it has a really fresh feel, with lots of people about. The actual building itself is also really gorgeous and modern, with a Starbucks downstairs, loads of massive windows and really spacious light studios to work in.

On arrival at the school there is a desk at the main entrance where you are signed in, and given a name tag. Guildford ask you to arrive at least 15 minutes before your audition time (i gave it about half an hour), during which time you are free to sit in the starbucks seating area, where there are lots of other auditionees waiting both for acting and musical theatre auditions. Here I considered having a bit of a stretch and warm up, but shortly, ten of us were taken to a studio to begin auditioning for acting BA which consisted of a physical warm up anyway.

Going into the room wasn't nerve racking at all, and I think there's something nice about auditioning with a group of people. I tried my best to talk to everyone as much as possible to put myself at ease, but also to show that I had a bit of a confident social side too, you can never be too sure at which point you're being observed. The panel welcomed us and reassured us all not to be scared, because in all honesty, every drama school just wants you to do well. We then began a vocal warm up, doing  a bit of body shaking and tension releasing, sirens up and down the scales and controlled breathing etc. We then played a couple of games which looked at how we could explore our vocal ranges by saying different words, and how these words affected our voices. This included words like drag, bulge and glorious. We also had to use our bodies during this to see whether moving your body in a certain way would affect your voice. I think this was simply a way to decipher not only people's vocal abilities, like how loud and articulate you could be, but also your confidence to throw your body about while screaming the word bulge, which can actually be quite enjoyable when you let yourself go. When the game opened up and we became free to interact with people, I ended up having a bit of a bulge fight with another boy, to see who could be louder and most weird with the word bulge. There was also a game which involved standing in a circle, and passing vowel sounds to one another.
After the vocal warm up, we did a short ensemble workshop, which began with a very generic walk around the space focus game. This entailed walking to fill the space on the floor, whilst acknowledging different people in the room and keeping totally focused on your surroundings. When the guy said person, you had to hug the next person in you saw like you've never wanted to hug anyone more. When he said spiral you had to spiral onto the floor and when he said favorite, you had to point to your favorite part of the room. Just various things to keep you focused on your movements, and an exercise often used to see who can stay alert and not get tired. The second part of the workshop was a personal exercise for each of us to work on our monologues, and take time to tune into what our character feels. It involved us quietly talking our monologues, and moving to a different place or position when there is a new thought. The man leading the workshop said we weren't judged on this, but that it was a chance to find our character and get in the mindset, which I found really helped.
Finally, we were all asked to perform our monologues, but in a way which was as un-stigmatised as possible. We were all just told to sit in two lines on the floor, and when you felt like it, jump up and perform your monologue, with no need to introduce it, and all applause was saved until the end. This meant that if you didn't feel ready to perform, you could take a minute to get into character. I was the penultimate person to perform, simply because I was worried going nearer the beginning would mean you were easily forgettable. We were also encouraged to use a GSA student to direct our speech to, or even to use each other. As I was performing Paulina from The Winters Tale, I used a student as Polixines (the king my speech was directed at), and I asked all of the other auditionees to stand up to form the lords in the scene. This helped me to find those spontaneous moments of truth in my monologue which can otherwise be lost when performing to a space, something which drama schools really love to see rather than a rigid, over-rehearsed performance. I would encourage anyone else to do the same. The whole audition took less than two hours, the initial workshops taking about an hour, and the ten monologues of the auditionees, about 40 minutes. In some auditions however I believe GSA can sometimes audition 20 or 30 at a time, so be sure to leave enough time for that, and be tacticle when you perform your speech. At the end of the monologue section we were also invited to sit down and ask the students any questions, which was again a very calm and casual part to the audition. After this we were free to go, and I was contacted with a recall three days later!

Overall, Guildford seemed to be the sort of school that is completely supportive of those people auditioning, and really just wanted to see you focus and really give yourself to all of the exercises. They actually have a list up on their website of the qualities they look for in a person, which is again totally helpful on their part, and something I would recommend refreshing your mind on before you enter the room. I really can't wait to return in the next couple of weeks for my recall, I think its another one of my top choices this year.