Audition Doctor News
Debate and Enquiry at Audition Doctor
Phoebe Waller-Bridge wrote in the Stage of the pressure young actors feel to unquestioningly take directors’ decisions as gospel. “For years, the gratitude I felt for anyone who had given me an actual job, coupled with the embarrassment of disagreeing with them,...
Distinguishing Yourself from the Other 3000 at Audition Doctor
The Stage published an article this week stating that “Spotlight recently sent a memo to agents informing them that 1,700 new performers are to graduate from Drama UK and the Council for Dance Education and Training accredited schools this summer. This is a staggering...
Danger and Risk at Audition Doctor
In an interview for The Stage, Guildhall acting teacher Ken Rea spoke of the qualities that certain actors possessed that marked them out separately from the swathes of actors he has trained. “They’re unafraid of danger,” he says, mentioning Antony Sher with whom he...
The Relationship Between an Actor and the Text at Audition Doctor
In an interview for BAFTA, Michael Shannon said: “The main thing an actor needs is a great script because you can be the greatest actor in the world but if you don’t have a good script you’re just a mime.” Audition Doctor’s popularity with both professional actors and...
Discovering the New at Audition Doctor
Last week, Juliet Stevenson spoke of her lengthy experience of playing Winnie in Beckett’s Happy Days.
Making Shakespeare Comprehensible at Audition Doctor
One of the many reasons why professional actors and drama school applicants come to Audition Doctor is Shakespeare. Harry Mount wrote in the Telegraph of the ofttimes default tendency to “treat Shakespeare with too much reverence, as an English literature exam...
Making Shakespeare Real at Audition Doctor
Last Sunday Mark Rylance spoke on Desert Island Discs about how “acting is a mixture of reaching out to people, which I would call a kind of electric thing, you have to stir and engage their imagination at times and at other times you have to be more like a magnet and...
Being Disciplined and Free at Audition Doctor
In today’s Guardian, Alan Rickman spoke of how his desire to act in Shakespeare plays had always been present: “You test yourself against great writing…What one’s aiming at is suitably impossible with great writing, which is to be absolutely disciplined and absolutely...
Artistic Nuance and Flexibility at Audition Doctor
Headlong's Artistic Director, Jeremy Herrin, whose production of The Nether is in the West End, gave his advice on auditioning in this week’s Ideastap magazine: “Choose a piece that suits you in a profound way: either you might plausibly be cast in the part or know...
Self-Discipline at Audition Doctor
All freelancers speak of the importance of self-discipline - reserves of which have to be plentiful particularly during periods of unemployment. For actors, the continual need to exercise technical, creative and literal muscles requires an inordinate amount of...
Creativity and Craft at Audition Doctor
When Rufus Sewell was interviewed by BAFTA, he cited the main reason why he went to drama school was because “[he] had no idea what you were supposed to do.” He said: “I didn’t know any actors. The great thing about drama school was that, as well as three years of...
Just Saying the Words at Audition Doctor
Today’s interview with Frances Barber in the Guardian discussed the unnecessary obligation that actors sometimes feel to “act”. Barber spoke of how the text was compelling enough to sustain a performance and how any extraneous “acting” was unnecessary, particularly in...
Curiosity and Empathy at Audition Doctor
When Eddie Redmayne was asked what advice he would give to those starting out in the acting profession, he emphasised the importance of “finding a sort of constancy and rhythm of your own because it’s a world in which you retain very little control. As an actor,...
Creating Something Artful at Audition Doctor
Ralph Fiennes was recently interviewed and asked if he had a set way of approaching characters. He said: “I don’t have a specific method that there’s a label for, I think different projects require a different way in, and again depending on the director, often they...
The Unswerving Drive for the Truth at Audition Doctor
In the second part of his interview with BAFTA, David Morrissey spoke of the process of preparing for a role and the diverse exigencies that different roles had on actors. He spoke of time being a crucial factor in determining how he prepared. He mentioned that if he...
Using Shakespeare to Your Advantage at Audition Doctor
In an interview on acting for BAFTA, David Morrissey recounted how he ended up at drama school. “I did a TV drama when I was 17. I was very lucky and it was about two Scouse lads who had run away to Wales and funnily enough I was a Scouse lad myself who had been to...
Challenge and Risk at Audition Doctor
In the Telegraph this week, Judi Dench questioned the at times bleak nature of the acting industry towards its newest recruits: ”There are no reps anywhere any more. There's very little work, young actors have to get something and hope that it's a success. They go to...
Unpicking Text and Unpacking Character at Audition Doctor
Drama schools have long been been accused by critics of being middle-class enclaves. This is perhaps understandable with actors such as Benedict Cumberbatch, Tom Hiddleston, who yesterday won the Evening Standard’s Best Actor award, and Damian Lewis recently...
Demystifying Shakespeare at Audition Doctor
Judi Dench recently spoke of how uninspiring teaching led her to a mental stalemate with regards to understanding some of Shakespeare’s plays early on in her career. She credited seeing the plays performed on stage, as opposed to reading “six lines each in turn,...
Engaging the Heart and Mind at Audition Doctor
Maya Angelou said: “I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” It appears to be this sentiment that has been the driving force behind the the Guardian and the Royal Court’s...
Preparation at Audition Doctor
Preparation is the primary reason why both professional actors and drama school applicants come to Audition Doctor. Preparation is also the topic that journalists love to question actors about. Many avoid discussing how they prepare for a part with one interview with...
Alternative Training at Audition Doctor
At the Cheltenham Literary Festival, The Times reported Judi Dench disagreeing with the commonplace practice of understudies playing the roles of leading stage actors in matinees. She credited her training at drama school as the thing that equipped her with the...
Being Not Doing at Audition Doctor
Ideastap recently published an article by Denis Lawson where he explored the false perception that an actor has to “perform” or “act” in order to affect an audience. He mentioned the instance when Billy Wilder was directing Jack Lemmon: “There was a particular take...
Going Beyond Your Self at Audition Doctor
Harriet Walter wrote of her experience in The Guardian of preparing for the male role of King Henry in the upcoming all-female Donmar production of Henry IV. “People ask us whether we have to do a lot of research or do different things to get into a male character....