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Acting School concerns

I'm a 17 year old in the U.K, and I'm aspiring to one day become a stage actor. I'd love to go to a famous drama school such as RADA or Mountview, but the problem that I have is that a lot of the institutions require a "simple, unaccompanied song" during the audition. This is an absolute deal breaker for me, since I can not sing at all. I am not being modest when I say that it is painful to listen to me sing.
So my question is, how much weight is placed on the musical aspect in a BA Acting course? Do I have a chance if they hear me sing?
They are training all round stage performers. They arent looking for full 'musical theatre' voices but you must be able to sing to an average level simply because all Drama Schools do do musical work.

If your voice is poor, get some lessons.
Not much - they don't want perfect performers or why go to drama school!

Mountview is an acting school which deals mainly with Musical Theatre so if you did decide to apply for a musical type course then you would have to sing or play an instrument or something. If you're more concerned about acting itself then I would suggest Central, RADA, Guildhall (these three being the top), followed by LAMDA, Bristol Old Vic, Drama Centre and maybe ALRA.

If you're applying to the acting course (which I would recommend you do) then you'll normally be required to do a classical and contemporary monologue ~2 minutes each. Additional skills such as singing and dancing would be a bonus but it normally isn't essential. Also, expect several (short notice) recalls if you're successful.

I'm no expert so I would recommend you reading the prospectus on whichever drama schools you like the look of or, call their admin team - they'll be happy to answer your queries.

Edit - I think you need more reassurance: if you're going to apply to acting courses then acting is what they'll need from you, they want actors, not singers. Besides, the audition process is very rigorous so I doubt you'd even have any time to sing.
(edited 10 years ago)

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