Early get up to catch the train down to London , but I didn't mind too much as this was officially my last audition! It was lovely going down to Swiss Cottage again, it's such a gorgeous area and every student walking past always gives you a smile. There were 16 of us all together, we met in the reception with the lovely student helpers and made our way to the audition room to meet Wendy, the head of MT at Central. The atmosphere was nice and relaxed and she talked us through the outline of the day before we went into a vocal and physical warm up. I enjoyed the warm ups, it was a good opportunity to shake the nerves off and have a bit of fun throwing yourself in without any pressure. Then we went down to a practice room and waited to be called in one by one for our singing assessment. After speaking to the other auditionees, I realized I was the only acting student who stumbled into the MT recall by surprise rather than intentionally applying for it, but it's all about the acting at Central so that comforted me. When it was my turn, I went down into the studio with one of the student helpers and gave my sheet music to Wendy. We had been asked to bring an upbeat and slow song, and she gave me a choice of which one I wanted to start with, so I chose my fun favourite In Short. I started to sing it but she soon stopped me and directed me to sing more truthfully, using my own experiences to help me. She also criticized all the notes I had made on my sheet music - the only copy I could get hold of - oops! I think her exact words were 'in future don't scribble all over your music,' It didn't throw me off though, in fact, I prefer straight talking teachers as I learn more from them. I then sang Worse Things from Grease, trying to take her direction from before to sing it as myself. She didn't stop me this time, and I think I sang and performed this the best I ever have done which I am proud of! After this, I was asked whether I had received any singing lessons before, what I considered my voice to be and what I have been working on to get better - I blagged my way through a brief technical description of my voice based off the assignments I have done for my singing unit for college. Because I said I was a soprano, she asked me to do some scales to see my full range. And then off I went back to the practice room for a really long wait for the dance call. Luckily the auditionees and student helpers were all friendly and full of funny stories to pass the time with so we had a laugh and got on well whilst we waited. The dance call was relatively informal - we were taught a fairly easy routine to Uptown Funk. The only struggle I had was how quickly she taught the routine, but that's probably because I'm quite out of practice. She split us into groups of 3 to perform the routine and then asked us to improvise to the music according to how it made us feel, which was a lot of fun! I remember having a cheeky little rave with another guy in my group.
Once that was over, I popped across to Costa for a drink and ate my lunch. I was 5th to go in for the acting round, to which the panel was joined by an acting teacher. I was asked for my contemporary monologue and then my classical - I had 2 classicals so asked which they'd like to see and the acting teacher said 'Juliet' - my top choice! They both went well I think, but the teacher said nothing other than 'interesting interpretation' once I'd finished Juliet. Either they were appalled and shocked or very impressed, I really couldn't say which. I then pulled up and chair and Wendy asked me why do I want to be an actor and whose work I admire. And that was that. Next person straight in.
I'm happy that I did the best I could have done so now the decision is down to whether they think I'm right for them. If it's a no then I will happily take my East 15 place. I'll just have to wait and see! All in all a good day, I think they saw an accurate view of me and what I can do which is what an audition is all about.
Handy Acting Tips: Using music to inspire new emotion
So I have my final recall for Royal Central School of Music and Drama next week, and I have been worrying about how I can present my monologues in a truthful, honest way. Last time I was there, I felt really in tune with my speeches and performed them the best I ever have. However, the pressure is on for my final round and the last thing I want is my nerves making me strain the words out and messing them up. I have been working my monologues (Juliet and Cressida as my Shakespeares and Educating Rita and Stella from Whale Music as my contemporaries) for ages now, and they are not feeling very fresh when I rehearse. However, I had a eureka moment as I was watching Masterchef last night. Hear me out! They were announcing the winner and dragging it out as usual, and in the background a beautiful acoustic cover of 'Take me on' was being played. I wasn't even listening to who they crowned champion because I was so absorbed in how emotional and powerful this song was. Out of nowhere, I thought oh my godness, this is exactly how Cressida feels in her speech telling Troilus she loves him. I had a sudden vision in my head of the scene in a film with that song running underneath it as she puts her heart on the line. I then made a mental note to try saying the monologue with this music playing quietly in the background, and when I did, sure as anything it struck a chord I have never been able to engage with before! I am definitely going to summon this track into my head as I perform this on Thursday, perhaps even listen to it before I go in.
I then got spotify up and searched through my playlists to find songs to emotionally inspire me. The songs had to be very well known and meaningful to me to have any kind of effect, and the experiment did take some trial and error. However, I managed to pull together a list of music to help me work with all of my monologues. The thought of doing these monologues for Central seems a lot more exciting now I have this strategy in place! I will post how it goes - it would be fabulous if anything came of it, but I rest assured that I still have a place at East 15 awaiting. What will be will be, I've just got to give every opportunity my best shot. Positive vibes!
DRAMA SCHOOLS: MY INSIGHT
Ok, everyone has their own opinions on where is the best drama school. There are so many, and they are all so different. But here is my opinion on where offers you the fairest and best audition:
Guildford School of Acting - You get a 1 hour movement workshop that for me, was the most challenging, exciting class I had done in a while! I was asked to be a dirty shirt getting the stains scrubbed off me at one point, and I felt so liberated as I threw myself round the floor wriggling wildly! We were only asked to perform one speech, which we could choose our better one, and the vibe was good as you got up and did your thing when it felt right without having to formally introduce yourself to the panel and bore everyone with the name of your speech. We also got a fantastic warm up into our monologues, a sort of walk round the room and inhale the air of your character kind of thing. I felt like this was a step up point in my audition process as this warm up helped me perform my monologue the best I had done it before that point, and I remember going out on a high because I felt I had done well. A couple of weeks later I was disappointing to see I had been rejected but anyhow, I was happy that my audition fee had given me a good experience that I look back upon with a smile.
East 15 - Finally, I thought, somewhere where they actually work with you!! After a quick warm up, my group each went up to perform their Shakespeare monologues. What I loved about East 15 was Jerry, the teacher marking us. She questioned our choices and challenged us with creative directions which we had to think spontaneously and respond to. She was so blunt with us, she yelled at one point to me, 'take off your cardigan, it ages you!' This made me genuinely laugh and I feel like she appreciated that I could take her critique with good humour. Some people were also asked to try out new things with their contemporary speech, and even more wild things were thrown out this time. I will never forget the look on some poor lad's face as the teacher said to him 'I want you to pretend you are one of Madonna's backing dancers.' 'Do you want me to say my monologue still, I take it?' He asked. 'No. I just want you to dance' was the response. HYSTERICAL. Not for the faint hearted, but hey, neither is drama school itself!
Royal Central School of Speech and Drama - Ok so I admit the acting course is auditioned through a simple get up and do your speech audition, but I felt like Central gave me the chance to prove myself properly. If you don't already know, Central audition you for 3 strands of the acting course - acting, musical theatre and collaborative and devised theatre. They do ask your preference, but it is down to them which one they want to put you forward for. You are asked to prepare and perform an unaccompanied song as well as your monologues, and they also giver you a fun workshop where you work in teams to put new twists on your speeches in a physical theatre context. After the audition morning I felt satisfied that they had seen an accurate perception of me at work and in performance mode.
There is no place I love more than the stage - here are some photos of performances I have been in over the last couple of years. I am an aspiring actress training at The Hammond in Chester, and will be moving away to drama school in September for degree level training.
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