Audition Doctor News
Drama School – One of the Only Places to Learn Your Craft
People deliberating over whether to apply for drama school will wonder whether the tuition fees and length of time spent training will be worth it. This is a profession that deifies youth, where the possibility of steady gainful employment is largely non-existent and...
Audition Doctor Lessons – Tackling the Bard and More
While Adrian Lester has been getting rave reviews in Othello at the National, it seems that someone else in the public eye is also looking to tackle one of the greatest roles in British theatrical history. Mike Tyson has announced that he is temporarily foregoing his...
Acting – Art or Craft?
Watching Christoph Waltz, Colin Firth, Morgan Freeman, Nicholas Cage, Peter Starsgaard and Stanley Tucci debate over whether acting can be defined as art was a lesson in not only how differently actors themselves view their profession, but also how directors and...
Actors – Born or Made?
The one thing journalists love to ask actors is why they got into the profession. This week Hugh Dancy confessed: “I would never have thought of doing this if I hadn’t been forced into it, partly because of boarding [school] and partly because I was unhappy,” he says....
How Not To Audition For Drama School
The Guardian have introduced a new series called 'The Secret Actor' in which a well-known actor reveals the varied experiences of the process of auditioning. The first column was a sobering reminder of how “there is no other profession in which, to nail the offered...
Why Shakespeare?
Acting on stage requires a startling amount of both physical and mental exertion. To be a stage actor is to run a nightly marathon. As Ian McKellen attests: “I'm increasingly feeling that theatre is a young person's game, it takes a lot of energy and concentration –...
Drama School – Backstage Access
When interviewed on the BBC, Juliet Stevenson was asked whether she would have become an actress had she not gone to drama school. She confirmed that she would have done through a more indirect route. Without resorting to over sentimentalising romanticism, she...
Talking About Acting
A lot of actors find it hard to talk about what they do when interviewed. Many worry about sounding pretentious and nebulous when journalists witheringly ask them to comment on “their art”. While some actors firmly leave their characters in the rehearsal room at the...
Audition Doctor Goes Global
You would have thought that a profession whose primary concern is reflecting the complexities and contradictions of the multifaceted nature of human existence would celebrate the diversity of its practitioners. To be an actor (unless you seek to be one of the Hugh...
Theatre Training – The Bedrock Of All Mediums
In today's Guardian, Maxine Peake recalled how, when at drama school, her heroes were not screen stars but theatre actors such as Juliet Stevenson, Alan Rickman and Albert Finney. All of them had illustrious careers at the RSC – Finney famously understudying for...
The Difficulties of Getting Started
Aspiring actors know that the profession they are entering is hard. They've probably been told countless times by friends, family and actors themselves: “If you can do something else - do it.” The stock association of an artistic profession with penury and struggle is...
Drama School Training in England or Abroad?
Along with the NHS, Bond and the Sex Pistols, the general consensus at the 2012 Summer Olympics opening ceremony was that Shakespeare was emblematic of quintessential “Britishness”. As Danny Boyle intended, we saw Kenneth Branagh “ in the person of Isambard Kingdom...
Auditions – A Brutal Necessity
The Guardian recently devoted an article solely to the cutthroat climate that is associated with auditioning. It opened with the true yet now timeworn cliché of a young and hopeful actress “queuing in the rain outside the London Palladium for five hours, waiting to...
Theatre vs Film Courses at Drama School
At some stage during lessons at Audition Doctor, Tilly will inevitably ask you to start to envisage the kind of actor you want to be. Whether you hope your career focuses on treading the boards at The Royal Court or in the movie studios of Hollywood, it's worth noting...
Come to Audition Doctor!
The auditions process for drama schools is a sobering harbinger of the brutality that characterises the acting profession. The need to differentiate yourself from the thousands of other candidates who not only look and sound just like you, but of course who are doing...
What Do Drama Schools Want?
The acting profession is famously brutal. As with all art, it is subjective. Consequently, the reactions of an audience or drama school audition panel will inevitably vary. What will speak deeply to one person will leave another cold. Feelings cannot be quantified,...
Drama School – Not a Talent Show
The Times reported that “in a report published by the Conference of Drama Schools, it was revealed that more than 25,000 applications were made to the 22 accredited drama schools in England and Wales...Which means that they are now twice as difficult to get into as...
Auditioning Speeches for Drama School
Choosing audition speeches for drama school can be a minefield, with different drama schools stipulating varying requirements. They do, however, all maintain that the choice of speeches is the most important aspect of the process. They are the vehicles through which...
Drama at University or Drama School?
There will be many aspiring actors fresh out of school who will consider reading Drama at university - “reading” being the optimum word. It looks like the safest option – a bona fide university degree which you can “fall back on” should times get tough and a chance to...
Training Doesn’t Stop At Drama School
Every so often, Ideastap will interview eminent actors on their careers and their perspectives on the acting profession. This is in the hope that the advice disclosed will provide some solace and useful guidance to those occupying the already overpopulated...
Leading Theatre Critic Praises Drama Schools
Last year, when Michael Billington was asked what the best way to get into the business was, his immediate response was: “I would say if you want to act, design or take on a technical role, it’s vital to get proper training at an accredited school. Only directors seem...
Drama Schools – A Necessity for the Theatre
Drama schools have been often been accused by industry professionals of being overly-traditionalist institutions, entrenched in a by-gone era when actors could just about conceivably dare to sketch out a career trajectory - drama school to regional repertory theatre...
Drama School – Not Such a Gamble
Lyn Gardner’s piece in the Guardian this week on how the Arts Council’s £11.6m budget cut would undoubtedly lead to “cancelled productions, job losses and boarded-up theatres” was a depressing read - one of many recent articles focusing on the Arts’ bleak prospects...
Why Come to Audition Doctor?
In conjunction with last week’s programme ‘Nation’s Best Am Dram’ on Sky Arts 1, the Guardian asked several actors to give advice on how to act. Suggestions ranged from the importance of breath: “If you stop breathing properly, you get a sore throat. And if you stop...