What happens at auditions - RADA

This is the second post in a series explaining what happens at drama school auditions. We are now in the midst of audition season, and I am taking the time to remind myself of  exactly what happened at each of my auditions last year, whilst hopefully helping a few other people going into their first year of auditions to get a feel of the day. All posts on this subject can be accessed via the 'drama school auditions' tab.

RADA was my first EVER drama school audition, and kickstarted my year of auditions surprisingly well. I think there is a lot of stigma attached to RADA as it is quite often perceived to be the most prestigious drama school in this country, and therefore people tend to expect a rather daunting audition atmosphere. There is no doubt that the four stage selection process is rather strenuous, and quite rightly requires a lot of dedication, yet at no point during my RADA journey did I feel there was any more expectation or scrutiny imposed on me than anywhere else.

My first round audition was surprisingly quick, and like many drama schools, RADA do their auditions in pools of people, giving a group of about 16 an hour time slot to get their auditions done. Mine was at 11, and arriving 15/20 minutes early, I was reassured to see lots of other people waiting in the very grand foyer of the main school. You very simply had to give your name to reception to sign in and put on a name tag so that the panel would know who you are. Then at 11, me and the other 15ish people were taken into a room to have a quick briefing. The lady leading the audition was clearly very understanding of the nerves in the room and did her very best to reassure everyone that there was nothing to worry about during this audition, and to just be yourself and not to worry etc. I was pretty surprised at this, as for a leading drama school, I expected members of staff to encourage professionalism and expect us to to suck it up basically. Quite the contrary, the lady just chatted very causally to us and asked us to fill out forms with our chosen speeches on. Then we were split into groups of four and taken to different floors where we had to wait outside the studio in which our audition would take place. While sitting in the corridor depending on what order you were going in for your audition, you had a few minutes to prepare for your monologue. I went third and therefore had about half an hour to chat to the guys auditioning with me, have a little stretch and go through my monologues in my head. I actually find it really reassuring to speak to the people around me and see how they're feeling, because it calms you to realise that everyone is nervous, a lot of people are your age and have similar experiences. I found myself always going places and just feeling like everyone around me would be older and more experienced, but once you ease up and chat, it stimulates you artistically to talk to people who are just like you. Seeing that the guy next to me was REALLY nervous actually made me feel more calm because I could see from an outside perspective how it overtakes your personality, and I tried to be as calm as possible when I entered the room and I think this helped me sooo much in my audition (cheers nervous guy).

On entering the audition room you are asked to sit and have a brief chat with the auditioners before doing your speeches. From the onset this was quite causal, and the two people on the panel (a man and a woman) asked me how I was, whether i'd traveled far etc, and then briefly a little bit about what speeches I was going to perform. Then I was asked to stand towards the back of the audition room and perform my speeches when I was ready and in whichever order I wanted. Like a lot of drama schools they stressed for me to really take my time before starting, and I feel as though perhaps I still rushed into my speeches a little due to my inevitable nerves. In saying this, I actually felt as though I performed my speeches at RADA the best out of all of my auditions, as I really held my characters and zoned right out. The speeches I performed were Gordon Steele's 'Like a Virgin' and Hermoine from Shakespeare's 'The Winter's tale'.
After performing I chatted a little more with the auditioners, and again it felt quite causal. They asked where I found my speeches and the generic questions of why I chose them, how I felt about the characters and what happens to them throughout the play. I answered these with a lot of enthusiasm, as I tend to choose speeches I really love and can really get excited about when performing them and talking about them. They also asked me about what I was doing at the moment, at which time I was doing my Alevels, and I talked to them about how I quite enjoyed studying and enjoyed the challenge of the workload etc, which although true, I did tend to tone down quite how stressful Alevels can be at times, in order to appear a little more resilient (not mandatory, but it seemed to be satisfactory to them). Other questions involved what acting I was doing at that time etc, but generally this chat was again quite brief and I was free to go after about 10/15 minutes. Overall my first round had been quite quick and casual and dare I say enjoyable.

I was noted by email that I had a recall about three/four days later and that it would take place the following week, RADA has one of the fastest turnarounds for audition dates.
The second round was a little less busy. I arrived at the foyer of the main building again slightly early for my alloted time slot, yet there was no one else there that seemed to be auditioning. Then a lady came across to ask if I was Eve, and that my audition would be taking place in the adjacent RADA building to which the lady walked me to with her umbrella which was again pretty casual for an audition. I had to wait in a more office type reception where there was again just me, until another guy came in about ten minutes later. Then I was taken into a lift and up to the studio where my recall was taking place and again I waited in the corridor until I was called in. I had a brief chat to the panel about the speeches and song I was performing for them before being asked to start, in whatever order with the song last. This time round I was a lot more nervous, as there was the added pressure of a recall, the fact there were two more people on the panel, and two days previous, I had no voice. Even so, the room in which the audition was taking place had amazing acoustics and even though I was pretty ill on this day (no excuse I really was), I felt my voice sounded pretty good for a non singer. My speeches felt also quite strong too, although perhaps not as good as the first round. RADA ask you to perform the speeches you performed on your first round audition and an unaccompanied song, I sang 'Titanium' - David Guetta, which I thought to be a good match for my voice, but in hind sight this year I would lean more towards a song with a little more character in order to exploit as much as your acting as possible. The question section after I had performed was a little more of the scary RADA I was expecting on my first round. One woman asked every question, and she had a very blank expression on her face which was quite unnerving. I think this may have been a technique of hers bring out nerves in the auditionee, as when you're answering a question, it feels like you haven't said anything of worth as her facial expression didn't change. This prompted me to ramble a tad. There were a lot more questions this time too, including what theatre had I seen recently, who my favourite actors were, a lot about my speeches and what happened to my characters in the end. What writers I liked etc, all of which were asked pretty quickfire and not with much feeling. If I could give any advice to anyone facing a bit of a grilling, I would say just answer your questions confidently and with feeling and STOP. The end of this questions section was the end of my recall. Although I was confident that my speeches were once again strong, a recall is no place to show nerves, and I think that definitely got the better of me. I was rejected by a letter in the post after my recall, but all in all, I certainly enjoyed my RADA experience a lot more that I expected to, and am so excited to go back this year.