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- 9th April 2013
Central-Recall- 9th January 2013
Mountview- Recall-16th January 2013
RADA- Recall-10th 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
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