Central was a weird one, and I'm still not sure how I feel about it, even now. The whole audition day from what I remember was quite informal, but also quite intense.
When you enter the building, there are lots of lovely happy students to direct you to the hall in which all of the auditionees congregate. On the day I auditioned there must have been 80ish people auditioning, and the introduction consists of filling in forms of what your audition speeches and songs are, and then a group warm up. I thought this was actually a really nice way to start the day, because there were so many of us, all pretty nervous, and yet we all kind of came together to let it all go. One of the main faculty lead the warm up, and she was really funny and jokey and lead a really long and relieving warm up which honestly made me chill.
After the warm up you are split into groups and depending on which you are in, you either do a group workshop, your audition speeches, or a tour of the building which was what I did. Central was my favourite school facility wise, although most schools don't really show you round, here there was just a really professional yet fresh vibe, with a gorgeous theatre and various rehearsal spaces. During this time the student showing you around will chat to you and ask you questions to perhaps make you feel a little more at ease. I think I may have put my foot in it a little here though, because when talking about the sort of theatre we were all predominantly interested in, I said that musical theatre was my worst nightmare and that I hoped I wouldn't get recalled for the MT course. The guy talked about how most of the training at central was similar no matter if you are doing the musical theatre course, BA acting, or acting CDT. He seemed to insinuate that even if you didnt like singing, and you liked just sole acting, you would have to do singing and dance classes along with the MT's, and from here I gathered that a lot of the students who emerge from central come out with many of the same skills. Me therefore saying that musical theatre was my worst nightmare, could have been taken as though a lot of central's training was my worst nightmare. I don't know if students correspond with any sort of decision made on a recall, or whether this comment actually had any sort of impact on my audition, but either way I could have omitted it.
Secondary to being shown around, we were then taken to do a group workshop in the hall in which we had our introduction. This was one of the less intense group workshops I've had to do, and consisted mainly of concentration games, rather than anything very physical or devised. We had to exercises such as imagining we were balancing a champagne bottle on a tray, simple games and partner concentration things. We also did the generic walking around the space, make eye contact etc to get everything started. I felt pretty relaxed during all this, and I think that's because it didn't really feel very serious. Yes I concentrated and did everything to the best of my ability, but it didn't feel like much of an audition, because it didn't seem to me as though there was much they could assess. I remember feeling like everything we did was a bit of a warm up for the ACTUAL workshop, but yeah.. no, that was it. After this, everyone in the group was asked to sing their acapella song. At central they ask you to have an unaccompanied song prepared, as well as an accompanied musical number. Pieces wise you must have memorized two monologues from their classical list, and a contemporary of your choice. Most people either attempted a musical number with a character, or a pop ballad kinda thing. I sung Titanium by David Guetta, and as I have mentioned in previous posts, I feel in hind sight this is a little too modern without enough character. At this point though, I felt as though I sung the song pretty well, but when hitting the high notes, I was very nervous. It was the first time I had to sing on my own in front of a good few people for a LONG time and think that probably came across in my body language. It didn't help that a lot of the people in my group (all auditioning for musical theatre) were very good singers. Even so I gave it my best, as we all do.
Lastly, we went straight on to the monologue section of the audition, in a different part of the school for a different panel. Again this was performed in front of the other people auditioning with you, and each person performed their pieces in alphabetical order (from what I remember), thus making me last. There isn't really much to say about this section as it was very straight forward: perform two pieces and then sit down. I think It was one of the faster and more pressured atmospheres in which I have performed my pieces, as the two ladies on the panel seemed in quite a rush to get done. Also a very important part to highlight is that central is the only school I auditioned at which did stop me when my piece reached their maximum time,which I THINK is two minutes. Because of this, my piece didn't quite reach the emotive/dramatic climax intended, which could have been a hindrance to me. All the same I felt my pieces were alright and I left feeling like I was one of the better actors in my group. One thing I was a little sad about was that there wasn't any sort of interview or even acknowledgement of each of us as ourselves. Where I believe that a lot of telling signs of good actor comes through in their personality and outlook on life, central disregarded this as being important. In the audition notes it also states very clearly that you are not to wear ANY makeup or any visible jewelry, hindering any sort of personality I feel. I suppose predominantly they wanted to find a raw talent and then tackle personality later.
After an hour lunch on which we were free to leave, we congregated back in the main hall to find out if we had a same day recall which would consist of further workshopping. From the 80+ people who auditioned that day. they recalled maybe 12 of them, none of which were me. Rather than being deflated, I found it more funny about the volume of people who trudged out of the door.
Even though I was a little impartial to central, and wasn't necessarily sad about my rejection, I will still be returning this year. The new, fresh vibe of the building was pretty unforgettable to me and i'm looking forward to not ballsing it up as much this time round.
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