Actor Musician - Drama School

Hi,just doing some early research and preparation for next years auditions, I want to pursue the Actor Musicianship course offered by GSA, Mountview and Rose Bruford and was wondering if anyone knew any information about the song they ask for -most ask for musical theatre which is great and I have lots of experience in, however as a classically trained soprano a lot of my repertoire tends to be more operatic-style musical theatre (e.g Children of the Wind - Rags which I'm doing for my grade 8 this term). Do you know if these schools would be less amicable to this, or prefer a more 'music theatre' style - if so, do you have any suggestions of songs that are difficult/ show a high standard (e.g. in range) as I've found a lot of really lovely pieces, but I really want one that can showcase what I am capable of without deviating too much from the style? Many thanks -

Hannah
xx

Hi Hannah,

I auditioned for Actor Muso at both GSA and RB this year and found that they were very different courses so do a bit of research and think about what you want from the the course. GSA seemed to style itself as a "quadruple threat course" (Musical Theatre + Musician) but there was slightly less of a weighting on the dance part. They also really encourage you to play or pick up a second instrument! RB definitely seemed to be an Actor (Musician) course. In the first round you only do a monologue and a short "musicality workshop" which centres around clapping. In regards to the song, the most important thing is that you act through it. Choose any MT song you feel comfortable singing and you believe you can give a performance through. They definitely won't complain if you show off your amazing range but that's not what they're looking at primarily. If you want a couple of suggestions or some advice feel free to inbox me. Good luck!

Thank you very much, I think GSA would be my dream and I play tenor and French horn and a little bit of trombone so could probably pick up most brass instruments with time - what do you play? I haven't found anyone else looking at the same course so far so this is very exciting! Are you at one of them currently?

Yes, it is such a tough industry! Good luck on your foundation course responses. Are those in Actor-muso as well? I'm in year 12 so will be auditioning next year, but I'm doing the audition skills summer course at GSA this year, so hopefully will get the opportunity to ask a few more questions there, though I've also been emailing the course director about a couple of things.