Drama School Applicants September 2013 (ENTRY 2014)

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eliza.louise.mc

Hey guys, decided against re-applying this year but feel I should share my experiences of auditioning for BA acting courses last year.

I have a HND in Acting and Performance , and applied to Central, Birmingham, RCS and Drama Centre.

Firstly, I found Central to be pretentious beyond belief, and a load of , excuse my French , *******s. I realise it is a favourite of many but I disliked everything from the audition exercises to the pupils. I found it all to be insufferably middle class.

On the opposite side of the scale, I found Birmingham School of Acting is a greatly underrated place to train. The whole place was extremely relaxed with helpful and energised pupils and a great building. It may be small, but with its links to the Royal Shakespeare Company, it's bloody mighty. Check out the website and actually consider it as an option. Also, they offer feedback on the day- invaluable if an early audition.

As a native Glaswegian, I have seen RCS's productions and know a few RCS pupils. Bursting with talent and connections. Scottish females may as well not apply though. Because of the extra funding non-Scottish pupils give to the program, us Scots are far outnumbered at RCS, the females missing out even More than the males. Having said this, would certainly recommend this course and have found their productions and short youth courses are of a very high standard.

Finally, Drama Centre is the love of my life. Got to the final round here, and loved every second of the audition process. The most nerve wracking experience of my 18 years, but the most invaluable audition experience I have ever acquired. Only word of warning is that Annie Tyson, the Head of Acting, is FIERCE!

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Reply 81

Haz23

Hi all

I'm taking the plunge and applying for drama school this year too. It's always been something I've wanted to do but have always been too scared! In my final year at university completing my degree in Performing Arts so I feel a little reassured that I can walk into the audition rooms with some experience under my belt.

Just a couple of random questions; is anyone applying/has applied for Mountview? I'm a little thrown-off by the fact that they want a headshot, I don't have one, and was wondering if it has to be a professional one?

Also, what are people doing about funding if they are successful and get a place?

Reply 82

katetheplate64

So my first audition was supposed to be tomorrow, but thanks to this mega storm that's supposed to hit it looks like I'm probably not going to be able to get there becase they're cancelling all the trains!!! Just called the school and they've said they can reschedule me if I can't get there but how annoying!! I was all psyched up for it. Arrggh weather!!!

Reply 83

eliza.louise.mc

Original post by katetheplate64

What school? xx

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Reply 84

katetheplate64

Oxford. I'm keeping a check on the travel updates but its not looking good. All the roads are flooding now as well!

Reply 85

eliza.louise.mc

Original post by katetheplate64

Oxford. I'm keeping a check on the travel updates but its not looking good. All the roads are flooding now as well!

Oh god! Good luck if you do make it there though xx

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Reply 86

katetheplate64

And that's that... they cancelled my train! Just had to call and cancel, grrrrr! They said they can reschedule on the phone last night so I'm hoping they can. Now I just need to get a refund from the train operator!

Reply 87

eliza.louise.mc

Original post by katetheplate64

I found last year that drama schools were incredibly easygoing with rescheduling, and I was much later in the cycle (applied January, had auditions February to April)

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Reply 88

katetheplate64

Original post by eliza.louise.mc

I found last year that drama schools were incredibly easygoing with rescheduling, and I was much later in the cycle (applied January, had auditions February to April)

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They've offered me another audition in a couple of weeks which is really good of them, they were so nice about it as well. Here's hoping the storm was a coincidence and not an omen!!

Reply 89

danp142

I've decided to apply to the following drama schools this year:

Oxford
Mountview
Lamda
Alra

I chose these because they all have a 1-2 year postgraduate course which seem to accept people without previous drama undergraduate degrees

Was also considering guildhall and drama studio, but I don't think I should stretch myself too much. Need to find those monologues now!

Reply 90

swan stardust

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(edited 9 years ago)

Reply 91

NerdsOfD33

Is anyone doing any audition techniques classes? I'm thinking of doing either the one at ALRA or BSA. :biggrin:

Reply 92

_music<3

Original post by swan stardust

Hello everyone :smile:

could you please tell me whatever you may know about the Giles Foreman Centre for Acting?
Thank you very much :smile:

Hey, I did a summer school course at Giles Foreman for 5 days and I have to say it was so, so amazing. All of the teachers were so friendly and I really felt they were committed to helping us students as much as they could - they also gave us honest feedback and advice. We did classes in Voice, Movement, Meisner, Improv and Acting and used this to perform scenes at the end of the week. Let me know what kind of info you'd like to know about the Giles Foreman Centre and I'd be more than happy to let you know my experiences! :smile:

(edited 10 years ago)

Reply 93

_music<3

Ah guys, just wondering if anyone could help me out quickly with a dilemma I'm having regarding my modern monologue. I've heard that it's generally not a good idea to audition with a monologue regarding sex? I've actually chosen a monologue that deals with a girl revealing that she was sexually abused as a child (but is kind of in denial about it actually being abuse). Its not an explicit or crude monologue (she says S*** once) and it doesn't go into any detail about the abuse. The monologue's purpose is really a sort of explanation for the way she has been behaving during the play. I'm just a bit worried that the fact that it involves sex might make it inappropriate...I'm probably being a bit pedantic, but it'd be really helpful for someone else's opinion on this :redface:

Thanks!

Oh and if anyone wants to see the monologue, ask and I'll PM it!

Reply 94

swan stardust

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(edited 9 years ago)

Reply 95

eliza.louise.mc

[QUOTE=_music
I would not worry about the fact it's about sex. I would just make sure there is nothing in it that could potentially make the auditioner feel uncomfortable

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Reply 96

Michlau

Original post by T-o dore

Hey Doti,

I thought I should just give a different opinion to Powka, because I don't think he's right.

In my class at Guildhall (and in many previous years classes at Guildhall and many other 'top' drama schools in the UK) there are several international students. Obviously you need to be pretty much fluent to be able to read and understand the material, but a slight accent is certainly not a hinderance, and a second language can often make people stand out. Perfect English is not necessary and is something a lot os English people do not have.

So don't listen to Powka when he says your acting will 'suck' if your English is not 'impeccable' - thats just ridiculous.

Hey guys I'm new here. I'm quoting you T-o dore because what you wrote gave me a bit of hope (thank you for that! XD) but my question is for anyone who can help clear my mind really.
I'm italian, I'm 24 and at the end of this year I'm getting my MA degree in law studies here in Italy. As many other people what I've always been truly passiote about though is acting. I've been acting in amateur companies for many years now but the more I was doing it the more I realized that this is all I care about and just acting for fun wasn't enough for me so I decided to apply to drama schools after my graduation. I love my country and I don't have anything against drama schools in Italy but, simply putting it, I'm truly convinced that english drama schools are the best you can get. I do believe UK actors are the most well prepared and disciplined of the whole world so my intention was to apply in UK at schools such as Guildhall (my dream), Central, Mountview and so on.
That being said I've actually been discoureged in doing that by many actors and people in the business I've talked with here in Italy: their common opinion is that people from abroad never get into UK drama schools because "it doesn't matter how well you know the language, the non-brithish accent will always be a problem". In addiction to that, even overcoming this issue and menaging to get into drama schools, foreign actors have to face the problem of not getting as much work as their english collegues (for example I've been told that theatre would definitely be out of the question).

-Is all of this true or italians like me can have a shot in UK? I know the language pretty well and I think I also have a good accent for not being english. My brother lives in London and when I visit him I can see that after being there a while my accent gets really better but still, it doesn't change the fact that I'm italian. XD I gave a lot of thought to my decision of following my dream and I'm convinced to the point of abonding a path (law) for which I studied really hard for many years but I'm not that young anymore and I need someone to advice me on how to do it in an intelligent way. Audictions are pretty expensive in UK as well as in Italy so I can't apply in both countries, I have to pick. Also, many italian drama schools don't accept people over their mid 20s so my shots are very low here in Italy.

-In addiction to my question above: do you think that summer schools could help me acting better in english? And if so, which one would you suggest?

Sorry for writing too much, but I wanted to be specific and give a full idea of my situation, thanks a lot to anyone who will answer! :smile:

Reply 97

_music<3

Original post by swan stardust

Thank you so much for your answer,it was really warm and helpful! :smile:

It's so great that the teachers and the course were amazing!I was thinking about applying to the One year foundation course.Really anything you may know would be brilliant.Thank you so much! :smile:

No probs! I really wanted to do the Foundation course there this year, but couldn't afford it - really good choice though.

Hmm, well during my time there, I found the location to be really good - Soho, so there were theatres everywhere.

Like most drama schools, they said it was important to train in Voice, Movement, Improv and Acting Technique - the teachers are all awesome (I know I said it before :P), some of them also teach at Drama Schools. All of the teachers were all open and friendly, telling us to ask them as much as we wanted to.

On the last day, Giles told us about some of the options we had in order to progress our acting, different paths and places we could study - I really felt like they cared, as cheesy as it sounds, hehe.

I'm not sure what else I can say, but the classes were all really eye-opening and there were a lot of techniques that really open you up as a person and as an actor. Sorry I couldn't give info specifically on the foundation course, but after having such an amazing five days there, I can imagine a year long course must be even better. :smile:

I hope this helps and isn't too repetitive!