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- 9th December 2012
Central- 17th December 2012
Mountview- 16th January 2013
RADA- 12th 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?
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.
