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.
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