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 :))