Guildhall 2nd Round

Not sure how long or useful this entry will be.

The honest truth is Guildhall 2nd round is really no different to 1st round. The main differences were:

-We were in the new building this time instead of the basement of the old building (gorgeous space)
-I actually had seen one of the Guildhall alumni with us before (she was in the BBC TV show Bad Education)

That's it really.

I was number 6 to go into to do my speeches. I really enjoyed working with the two teachers on the panel. I felt challenged and pushed and honestly, I can see how and why Guildhall produces such good actors.The lady who did most of my directing was extremely impressive and I really enjoyed having to alter the starting point from which I took my Emilia speech (that was her redirection request).

Honestly , I think the best advice is to go to the toilets and run your speeches maybe 2-3 times before you go into the room just so you are well placed to say your speeches when it counts. You will definitely feel the nerves more in this round because they warn you beforehand, it may not be talent, it may just be that you don't fit the school's type. I couldn't tell you what that type is so, well, I was holding my breath until after they read the list of final recalls.

So after my audition, I waited a while (because there were 6 other people after me to be seen).

Once everyone had been seen, we waited about 10 minutes and then they came in and told us 6 of us had made it through and I was one of the 6 thankfully.

My final recall round auditions will be sometime in the week of the 18th-23rd May for a day and a half.

I have been looking into people's final recall round experiences of Guildhall as I have no idea what to expect so at this point I would point your attention to this blog

http://anotherlondonactor.blogspot.co.uk/

It is a really well detailed entry and hopefully I will be as fortunate as he was.

Until end of May people!

A
xoxo

So... I promised you all Guildhall......and so I shall deliver.

This post will be a little different from my last two for one simple reason....I am still in the process of auditioning....GULP!

But I can at least tell you about the first two rounds and about the school.

One word.....Amazing.... Guildhall is the school of dreams with a record to prove it, having alumni like Ewan McGregor, Daniel Craig, Michelle Dockery, Lily James (if you go 'who?' for that name.....you'll be knowing her name soon enough I assure you).

The newness of the names I have mentioned only goes to show and prove how well thought of the school is in this time and age.

It is also statistically the hardest school to get into so please all say a prayer for me.

My first round was at the old building (Guildhall has a new building....go if you can...its really nice)...in the basement. I was one of a group of 12 people in for the morning first round audition slot and to be honest it was lovely to chat to everyone etc., but one could feel the underlying tension in the air because, like I said, Guildhall is amazing and the thought of going there literally would make me feel as if I had won the lottery, no jokes.

Anyway, we were taken to a studio by two recent graduates and we were introduced to the two teachers who would make up our panel. They were very nice, chatted to us, tried to help us shed our nerves a bit, and then they warmed us up. I really enjoyed this because we were encouraged from the word go to have eye contact, to not have any inhibitions and really get into it. I felt like I was actually a student there.

After the warm-up, they told us what would happen. We would be taken to a waiting room from which we would go into the panel one by one. I was number 9 of 12  so.... I spent a lot of time walking around and practising/repractising speeches in the toilet.....

But whenever I was in the waiting room, there was always a fun conversation going on  I could join  or talk to the alumni about what they are doing now.

Oh! Three things that make the Guildhall experience a bit different to other drama schools. You know you have to have a modern and a classical speech for most drama schools? Guildhall tends to ask for a 3rd contrasting speech so I had to find some new tricks, quick. Also they ask for you to prepare an unaccompanied song. This wasn't as hard as I had just finished performing in a Sondheim revue so had a few song choices there thankfully.

Lastly, a bit like Mountview, Guildhall will tell you your results that same day in person, if you are happy to wait until everyone in your group has been seen. I have heard of Guildhall rounds where no-one was recalled, so this is the most daunting part of the process, that wait.

Anyway, it came to my turn. My alumni took me outside the studio and we waited for the person before me to come out. There is nothing more daunting, than wanting a school and waiting for your turn to prove you are worthy to go there. To me that 2 minute wait felt like an eternity and that is the moment I felt deeply nervous.

But once I went into the room, I felt better....I mean...I can only do what I do and I have to trust I have prepared.

So I did my first speech, which was the classical Emilia, then my second which was the Psycho Trudy. They didn't ask me for a third speech but instead chose to direct me on ...Emilia I think....I forget. To be honest , I didn't think much of my chances leaving that room as I felt as if they hadn't liked my Trudy delivery....call it a sixth sense (or the fact that the speech usually evokes laughter at specific points) but I just knew it didn't do me any favours in my Guildhall first round.

Oooh piece of advise.....if your speech is accented, don't do the accent in your Guildhall audition. They want you to do the speech from a place of honesty so strip all accents out and pretend you are yourself saying the speech. Sounds weird but....its the best advice I'd give anyone going for Guildhall.

I was thankful I was number 9 by the time I came out and was waiting for the results because, bad as waiting to go into the room is, it is ten.........times......worse......waiting for the round to be over and to hear the probable 'no' that you are expecting.

Once everyone had been seen, we waited about 10 minutes and then they came out. They thanked us for coming, explained that it wasn't about talent necessarily but also fit and then told us 3 people were being asked to second round recalls... and would you believe it?

I WAS ONE OF THE THREE!!

Phew!

Onto second round..................

Recall Rounds and the Offer!

I'm back!

It's been a while but I have been relatively busy with some more auditions....I will explain later in this post.

So where did I leave of?

Right, last time I posted I had gotten through my first round auditions for my four schools and going into:

LAMDA- Second First Round- 9^th April 2013

Central-Recall- 9^th January 2013

Mountview-  Recall-16^th January 2013

RADA- Recall-10^th May 2013

 

LAMDA

 

This will be as short as my time for this round was.

Upon returning to LAMDA's hallowed grounds I was taken to the corridor outside the waiting room and was told I had 4 people ahead of me.

 

I went to the bathroom, recited my speeches but honestly, something just felt off; I couldn't connect to my emotions as I felt I had said my speeches too many times. As a result I was simply portraying on my face the emotions I was supposed to feel as opposed to really feeling them and saying my speeches from that level of depth.

 

Suffice it to say, that feeling did not change when I went into the audition panel.

 

It was the same as the first round, two people on a panel at the front of the room, me close to the back so I could 'project'. I still could not connect so when I was done with my speeches, they said thank you and I left.

 

On the 12th April they sent an email informing me I didn't make it through to the recall round.

 

I was honestly okay with this as by the second time I went back there , I had seen other schools and I knew that LAMDA didn't necessarily suit me as the place to get my training. Of course this will differ for everyone but I will say that I was so grateful they didn't waste my time with telling me 'no'.

 

Central

 

Okay in my opinion the Central recall is one of those 'tell-your-grandchildren-it-was-just-quite-surreal' stories.

 

I got in there for 10 am and we had a group of about 15 people in that recall. They warmed us up and then asked us to sit down in a circle.

 

Before we were told what time during the day our individual panels would be we were given a speech. To heaven on high I don't think I could ever forget that speech. It went a little something like this:

 

'Well done for getting this far. We normally get thousands of applicants every year and out of our first round auditions only put 300 through to recalls. Out of those, only 24 will be offered a place on the course (at this point I started to do some rough maths........he was basically saying likelihood is maybe 3 out of the 15 of us might get a 'yes'....the quick breathing began) Of course even though you are offered a place, we cannot guarantee success. Most agents don't come to your showcase because they don't think one year is enough time to study the craft of acting (ahem...take note people) and so be prepared for a very hard road ahead. Now after your individual monologues have been seen we may tell you 'no' on the spot (WHAT??!)  so be prepared for that. Okay! your times to be seen are...'

 

#killmenow.....

 

Anyway after that eh.........inspiring speech.....I was told I would be seen later in the afternoon. I had at least 9 people ahead of me. My main problem with this was that given the warm up in the morning, one has a lot of time to cool down and not be connected before one is seen. Its almost worth lying and saying you have a flight to catch just so they will see you earlier if this is something you can relate to.

 

Anyway when my turn came I did my two speeches (which were Ophelia and Trudy) and got directed especially on the Ophelia speech which is a speech I was never that particularly comfortable with (God only know why I chose to do it!). They then told me to take a seat with them. I seriously thought they were going to say 'no' to me at this point.

 

Instead they told me I was not a 'no' or a 'yes' yet. I was a 'maybe' and that if they offered me a place, I should take some Stanislavski classes before I took up the place.

 

To this I literally thought...'huh?...surely the point of me coming here is to leeeearn that stuff??'

 

I was not filled with the deepest confidence post that round and when I got the email telling me I had been waitlisted.....I thought....meh...I'll survive ;)

 

RADA

 I still love RADA. It is conveniently placed, it looks great building-wise and its really friendly!

 

My recall round was pretty much similar to my first round except they also asked me to sing.

 

You will see less people in your recall though, in terms of other candidates as they give you a specific time meaning that you arrive and one person is in the room being auditioned, one person is sitting outside waiting and you're next.

 

Daunting much? Nah....its good for just running your lines one more time and mmm-aaaahhing your voice into a state of readiness.

 

The panel had three people who were all extremely friendly and kind. They ask you to do your two speeches looking at them, then sing. After which you 'pull up a chair' and have chat. They asked me about me, any shows I had seen recently, other schools I auditioned too and that's about it.

 

I really enjoyed the experience and was pleased with my performances, however I got a letter a few days later saying I was not going through to the next round. I was okay with this (given I already had an offer...scroll on down)...to be honest. Also I have been told innumerous times that, RADA especially of all drama schools, looks for a very specific type of person. You either fit or you don't but just from what I can understand....confidence (a specific type of confidence) has something to do with it.....I could be wrong so don't take my word as the biblical truth.

 

Mountview

 

Okay!! Its after lunch on the same day and I have been told to stay. We, the lucky few, were taken downstairs into a bigger studio (dance studio) and we had an improvisation session. I will be honest, I struggled with this one. We had these 'inventing games' session where you couldn't speak or gesticulate but had to get people to all play the same game ....I gesticulated....sigh....then we had an 'animal catwalk'...which if I hadn't been trying to rack my brains on what to do...would have been hilarious to watch! This dude was a turtle and I truly wanted to cry laughing.

 

Anyhoo after my deep failure on the catwalk as a mouse.......don't judge.......We sat down on the same side as the panel (of four) and watched each others' speeches. After the speeches one of the four people on the panel would direct you.

 

One thing I will say.....DONT FALL ASLEEP!...it is so tempting after an excellent lunch and having seen at least half of the speeches before in the first round.....the chair becomes very comfy and ooph...its tempting.......but I thankfully survived.

 

After doing my speeches, I was told to say my Shakespeare monologue whilst having my tongue in between my teeth...prrrreettty sure its because I'm terrible at enunciation.

 

After the round is complete the panel go out and deliberate. For us this was about a 20 minute wait.....it was agony...But we had some alumni with us whom we could ask questions so this helped.....with the first ten minutes ;)

 

The panel then return and make cuts. 5 of us survived the cut. I was one of them!!

 

The last round is the interview. The Head of Postgraduate acting speaks to us one at a time and it's the equivalent of a chat. In my interview he asked me what I thought I could have done better throughout the day. I said my improv as I thought that wasn't the strongest to say the least. He smiled and told me he was glad I said that as he thought so too.

 

We chatted about a few other things but it was nothing terrible to be honest.

 

My Offer came on the 8th of February by email.

 

I accepted the offer but had to defer it a year due to financial setbacks.

 

Because I had a year therefore, I decided to audition for Guildhall, for which I am still in the running.

 

More on that in the next post!!

 

A

xoxo

My Decision and my first round auditions

It’s done. I am so grateful to God I can finally say, it is done. I got the final letter yesterday and so I can officially say, as of September 2014 (yes 2014 not 2013), I will be going to Mountview to study a postgraduate in Acting for one year.

I feel as if I have been at auditions forever, but I was counting this out yesterday and overall I have had 11 auditions in total: 4 first round auditions, 1 second round audition, 3 recalls, 1 interview stage,1 waiting list place and 1 offer.

What schools resulted in this I hear you say, none other than:

LAMDA: "No" after the second round

RADA: "No" after the recall

Central: "Waiting list" after the recall

Mountview: Offer

I stated this journey in September 2012 and it has been amazing. This is my first year applying to drama schools but I have known I wanted to do this in some form or other since I was 14. I have been performing in musicals, plays, revues , dance shows now for over ten years . For the past two, I have done them alongside working in Deloitte on the Graduate scheme for management consultancy. As a famous actor once said “You gotta play to stay sane”.

I’m pretty sure I’m wrong on the exactness of that quote but it still personifies how performing has always been for me. Its my way of being me in a world where we are constantly squished into pre-produced bottles of acceptance, and expected to learn to exist in these thick Coca-Cola like shells. Unnaturally and without complaint. When one has a calling, this becomes pretty difficult.

So, I hear you asking, if that’s all true, why didn’t you apply to drama school sooner?

Fear, of disappointing  those who have always held me up as the  example student, girl, child. A stubborn desire to finish what I started and finish it well. A need to be a better performer than I was at university. This was something I attained more in the London amateur-dramatic scene, which I would recommend to anyone trying to improve their skills. Not everyone is amazing, but there are those who will keep you on your toes and help you improve by just being better than  you and giving you something to learn from.

Now, I believe that has provided a (relatively) succinct background to me. Let’s move on shall we?

The first thing to know when applying to drama schools, be it for an MA/BA is that you need to pick your school with a purpose in mind. Mine, was to make sure I had a school on my CV that will (hopefully) get me into the auditions I want and  an agent that would be good for me. Agents will come to big-ticket schools. This is why I applied to LAMDA, Central, Mountview and later on RADA.

The first stage is the application form. Usually this should not be too much of a problem so long as you have some performing experience and a good command of the English language. Given I am training to be a consultant, it did not take me long to write a cover letter that I could tweak for all my schools. So suffice it to say, I got auditions for all my schools.

First rounds

LAMDA- 9^th December 2012

Central- 17^th December 2012

Mountview- 16^th January 2013

RADA- 12^th March 2013

LAMDA

LAMDA is based at Baron’s court and I was quite surprised when I walked into the building. To me, it was not what I would have imagined and that kind of disappointed me. But, heck, I thought, its LAMDA. It could be a hobbit hole for all I cared, so long as they would take me. The process for LAMDA can vary . Everyone goes for a first audition, after which, you can be invited straight to recall or you are invited for a second-round  (which is basically your first-round again. They do this when they like you but are not sure, or when one of your speeches isn’t really there, as mine was).

Anyway, I walked in and there were two students there to help me. They took me to a waiting area where I met a lot of BA hopefuls but no MAs. Suffice it to say, I felt a tad old ( me being 23 and the average age of them being 18). But I tried to chat to a few and when that didn’t really work, had a chat with a current student, by the name of Lucas who was very nice. When it is time for your audition, you are taken up in groups of three to a waiting area outside the audition room and told the order you will be seen in. I was the third of three so I just kept chatting/thinking over my speeches.

My chosen speeches for drama school went through changes over the 7 months I have been preparing/auditioning. As you may know, you need to have a classical and modern speech prepared, and it is always advisable to have one or two more classical speeches prepared in case. I prepared four classical speeches.....just to be anal:

-Emilia (Othello)

-Ophelia (Hamlet)

-Lady Macbeth (Macbeth)

-Katharina (Taming of the Shrew)

Katharina was a choice I made later on when I got my first audition date for RADA so let’s ignore it for the time being.

My modern when auditioning for LAMDA was:

-Bride (Blood Wedding)

but that quickly changed to:

-Trudy (The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe)

after I realized how awkward a speech the one from Blood Wedding was.

Which brings me back to the LAMDA audition. When it was my turn, I went into a large room with a panel of two people. They asked me to stand quite far back and address my speeches to a point over their heads so they could study me.

I started with Emilia and then did Bride. I would like to say they went well but by this point I already knew I preferred Emilia to Bride. Once you are done with your speeches, they say thank you and you are free to go.

I got my second-round audition offer  by email three days later.

Central

I love the Central school’s building. I think it looks like a Drama school, in every way. It is based in Swiss Cottage and upon entry, you give your name and wait in the reception area with other hopefuls until someone comes and collects all of you. You are taken first to a room where your Auditioners will come and introduce themselves, and , the thing I loved most, warm you up. You play a lot of acting games and exercises and then they will tell you what will happen next. You will be taken into another waiting room and will be brought back to the first room one by one at which point they will hear and perhaps direct one or both of your speeches. Another thing I loved about this audition is, you are allowed to do two classicals or one classical and one modern. Now this was perfect for me given, as I have said, I did not feel good about the Blood wedding speech by this point and I had not been able to find my new modern by then.( I mean, is it me, or are good modern speeches deeply hard to find?)

Anyway, I was lucky with my first round audition for Central. There are about 15 people auditioning at the same time as you, so depending on order, you could be doing your speeches, 30 minutes after the warm-up, which is great when you are all rearing to go, or you could be doing your speech at 4 in the evening by which time, you are so far from rearing. I was the third person in so I was still quite warm.

In the room, you will have the two Auditioners who warmed you up and up to two students, who you can use if you want to direct your speech at someone (e.g. an imaginary Desdemona). I had a guy in there with me, who made a looovely Desdemona, but I definitely enjoyed the Emilia speech during my audition. My second speech however, Ophelia, was, in hindsight, just something I am not suited for. And also the speech they wanted to direct. Surprise surprise. It was very stop and start and I felt like I had been punched in the gut after I left the room but the student who showed me out told me he thought I was good and advised that if I got a recall I vary Emilia with a more comedic speech.

As a result, Trudy became my modern and second speech.

I also got my invite to recalls by email the next day.

RADA

Three words describe walking into RADA. It is prestigious……beautiful….and daunting. It’s amazing walking into a building with that much history, knowing that Timothy Spall, Imelda Staunton, Ben Whishaw, Andrea Riseborough and so many other have walked through, auditioned, studied and evolved in those four walls.

And to make sure you don’t forget that, they have a picture of all of them in the waiting area!! Talk about mingling with the greats, past, present and future!

My group consisted of about 15 people. We were taken to a boardroom where we were split into three groups of five going to different buildings. My group was thankfully in the same main building so we just went up one flight of stairs and waited. I was the third person in so I ran to the toilets and said my speeches a few times through. Heaven knows what the other people in my group thought I was doing in there…..

The audition room was big like LAMDA’s  but firstly the panel of two sat me down and had an “interview” with me. They talked about my background in life and performing arts, asked me about previous plays/musicals I had seen and what I thought of them. and talked me through what they wanted me to do (stand at the other end of the room and say my speeches in my preferred order). I will say, doing those speeches on that day, felt good. They felt right and well rehearsed but not overly so. 

This brings me to a piece of advise. Never audition first for your preferred school. Try and make it a later audition as you will improve your speeches over the time period you are auditioning for other schools. This way, your speech and its delivery will be closer to their peak when you audition for the school you really want.

Suffice it to say, I was happy to get the invitation to recall by letter, three days later.

Mountview

Mountview is based in Wood Green and upon completing my audition process there, I knew I would love to go to the school. Its facilities are a cross between modern and old, but there is a feeling of joy that permeates its halls to me.

The process was a one-day aspect so I will only talk about the first round part of the day.

When you get into the building, you register and then go upstairs to the café where there were tons of people waiting to audition for different courses. I saw a few people from my Central first round audition there so I felt in a way much more at ease. It was also nice to know some other people there had gotten recalls as well which helped the bonding process. When they are ready for you, you are taken to a room and like Central you are warmed up. There were 30 people in this room, myself included auditioning for Mountview that day. When the warm-up is over, you are split into two groups of 15 and my group stayed in the room we warmed-up in while the other group went to the room next door.

Now here is the difference with the Mountview process. You watch each other. So you get an idea of what speeches are done to death/popular and what aren’t. For one thing, everyone will have a unique modern speech. I don’t know how or why this happens but I suppose everyone goes about finding that speech in a different way. Regardless, we went up in front of a panel of two in name order so I, having a last name that begins with G, was up second to last. But because you are watching each other, it feels as if you are still engaged throughout.

Now I hear you asking, what speeches are popular?

Some examples:

Viola- Twelfth night

Juliet- Romeo and Juliet

Cleopatra- Anthony and Cleopatra (this one was a “phew” moment because I had seriously considered that speech)

Cymbeline is also popular, take heed.

The main thing I loved though about having an audience, was how it affected my speech delivery. I was aware that I had an audience, and so played to it. With Emilia, I was calling on the women to feel my pain and frustration of having no choice but to be bad when the forces that be gave me a husband like Iago. With Trudy, I was painfully aware of my insanity and the call to act normal for all these people with there eyes on me. It was amazing. To me, my audition at Mountview was the best I had ever done my speeches.

After all the people in your group have done their speeches, everyone is brought back together and you are told what happens next. You are all sent away for lunch, and told to come back at a specific time to the same room where someone will come in and read out the names of those who they want to recall for the afternoon.

You’d think none of us would therefore be able to swallow a bite at lunch. But actually , I had a rather yummy burger and waffle with ice cream for dessert in a pub where we all ended up and had a great time.

I was also asked to stay after lunch for the recall round so thankfully that was not the end of my sojourn at Mountview, nor the end of my tale.