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.

How to stop screwing yourself over | Mel Robbins | TEDxSF

If you haven't heard of 'TED talks', they are basically a serious of lectures organised by a company called TED, and they range from music to cooking to science etc! I find the motivational ones especially useful when it comes to preparing for auditions, and this one especially really made me realise how simple the goals I want to achieve are and how easy it is to go out and get them. It sounds cheesy, I know, but we've all been there and sometimes you just need a shove in the right direction. TED talks are also just a generally awesome source for educating yourself on various issues and helping to gain more cultural understandings, pivitol stuff when it comes to theatre.

LEGEND - Directed by Brian Helgeland

In the past few weeks I have been making a much bigger effort to watch more films, in order to expand my knowledge in screen acting and generally gain a bit more of an umbrella of knowledge revolving around film.
This post is generally a minor fangirly ramble about the AMAZING and complex acting of Tom Hardy. The film tells the true story of the Kray twins, the notorious gangsters of 1960's London. Despite the fact that the two are twins, they have extremely different apparition. Reggie the main protagonist in the film is quite the cheeky chappy, with an intimidating edge, yet Ronnie, his double only in looks, is not sound of mind, often appearing extremely serious yet unknowingly comical, and very brash and out of control in his anger.  The two characters are extremely different, and Tom Hardy plays them BOTH too well for my liking.
I think the reason this stands out as a creditable performance, is not just the fact that he acted two characters well, but the sheer physical embodiment and physical difference between the two. When playing Ronnie, Hardy speaks through his nose, holding so much more tension in his face and jaw, that it is hard to believe he is the same person when playing the relaxed and smooth speaking Reggie. The deep and murmury voice of Ronnie is of stark contrast to the lighter higher voice of his twin. Everything down to the quirks and ticks of each character was so real, that I didn't actually believe it was the same person playing the roles. It is the professional vocal work and sheer embodiment of Hardy into the roles that is the difference between  having drama school training and not.