by Bel | Aug 29, 2013 | acting classes, acting classes london, audition classes, audition doctor, auditions, classes for acting, tilly blackwood
With September just round the corner, the inevitable preparation for drama school auditions begins. Most preliminary auditions begin in November and beginning the groundwork in September can seem premature to an outsider. However, candidates who have applied before know that it takes time to choose speeches – you may have to prepare as many as five – as each drama school has its own specifications. Furthermore, they must be performance- ready before you send off your application forms. You could be given an audition date with as little as two weeks notice. Many candidates think they are being strategic by not sending their forms out till the mid-January deadline, in the belief that it gives them far more time to perfect their speeches. In reality, this just means that thousands of other candidates who were more organised than you are forging on ahead; they will do their recall auditions while you are being seen for the first time and will have a greater chance of getting a place before you. It won’t matter if you are more talented than them, you might well be put on the waiting list while they start buying their jazz shoes in anticipation of the start of term.
This is why Audition Doctor already has a set of students gearing up for the 2014 intake. Audition Doctor sessions are the most practical way of furthering yourself as a prospective actor – from choosing speeches to your breath and how you hold yourself- Tilly analyses it all. It isn’t only whether you have the emotional capacity that drama schools are looking for, it’s your ability to connect with your breath, your facility with movement and your openness to direction. Many auditionees think that if they choose a speech that involves hysterical shouting or distraught sobbing, they will prove that they have “range”. In reality, there is far more to choosing the right speech which is why Audition Doctor is indispensable Plays are combed through, speeches are discussed in detail and you never feel like you have settled for something mediocre.
Aside from attending Audition Doctor sessions, Tilly always encourages her students to go to the theatre as often as possible. Sam Rockwell mentioned something similar in his interview with the Guardian: “When young actors haven’t seen films or haven’t seen and read plays, it’s irritating to me,” he muses. “Because you have to always remember that everything’s been done – and it’s been done well. You can’t be Robert De Niro or Meryl Streep or Robert Duvall without really hard work. I don’t know if people understand that acting, if done well there’s a lot of homework involved.” He goes onto mention that during his years at drama school in New York he realised “there was a responsibility, that it was more of a calling, not just a way to meet girls, or a lifestyle – it wasn’t about being famous, it was more like Jedi training. If done well, it’s a noble profession. You can affect people.”
Many people think that actors just get up on stage and are hit with a bolt of inspiration. In reality, there have been hours of preparation and rehearsal. Drama school auditions are no different and lessons with Audition Doctor are a mixture of inspiration and preparation. Starting work on your speeches now only means that you are in the best position to succeed.
by Bel | Aug 22, 2013 | acting classes, acting classes london, audition classes, audition doctor, auditions, classes for acting, tilly blackwood
No one in the arts world would deny the advantages of having a commercial success. Money is always short and the profits from lucrative shows often fund less economically viable, yet artistically daring productions. However, England is currently saddled with a Culture Minister who recently asserted that arts funding should be regarded as “venture capital”. Maria Miller’s expectation that art should yield fat fiscal returns is a clear indicator of how there is less patience, time and money for any kind of creativity, let alone any risk-taking, which so often the most compelling art involves.
Drama schools offer fewer bursaries while having no choice but to increase their fees. However, drama school has always been only one (albeit successful) way of entering the Industry. This month, The Stage wrote about how training companies such as Fourth Monkey and Bridge Training Company are on the increase. The launch of the National Youth Theatre’s rep company this year is a sign that industry practitioners are eager to offer students without the financial means an alternative to drama school. NYT’s rep company comprises of 15 NYT members who are given the opportunity to work for nine solid months on productions, as well as given voice and movement lessons. Students also receive bursaries from the Kevin Spacey Foundation, are taught by the likes of Nick Hytner and Michael Grandage and perform their shows in The Ambassadors Theatre in the heart of the West End. It seems that repertory companies might look as if they will return as a reasonable substitute for drama schools.
Training companies such as these are garnering more publicity as they are seen as“effectively an alternative to the third year in drama school”. That, along with “each one [having] a personal mentor from the top reaches of professional theatre” which allows for “masses of networking opportunities” means that aspiring actors will increasingly look to training companies such as these to hone their craft. That and not being £27,000 in debt makes it undoubtedly a more attractive option.
While the competition is not currently as stiff as entry into drama schools, this is set to change. Audition Doctor has noticed an increase in the number of students applying for acting schemes such as these which are advertised on Ideastap. Because the opportunities are usually so unique, competition is fierce, which means more students are coming to Audition Doctor for help. While it seems crude to view yourself as a marketable commodity, you are trying to make it as an actor at a time when the Westminster agenda is at odds with your chosen profession. This means you must make the most of what the Industry is fighting to offer you for free. Audition Doctor sessions mean that you present the best you – the you that is worthy of investment.
by Bel | Aug 15, 2013 | acting classes, acting classes london, audition classes, audition doctor, auditions, classes for acting, tilly blackwood
Much has been made recently of the need for British drama schools to widen their curriculum to accommodate the ever-changing nature of the acting industry. Drama school graduates, such as Tom Hopper, have mentioned that though the training is heavily focused on stage acting, most of the work that they audition for is in TV and film.
“For me, there’s a lack of screen acting at drama schools in the UK. We focus so much on theatre, which is brilliant; the discipline you need for theatre is huge. But we could use some more screen acting. So many auditions you go for when you get out of drama school are screen-based, certainly in my case. I sort of learned as I went along. I did do some screen acting at drama school; only a couple of weeks in three years, which isn’t necessarily a huge amount considering you’re going to be doing quite a lot of it.”
More and more drama schools now offer courses that cover both mediums. Jane Harrison, principal of Arts Educational Schools London, views stage and screen as two different languages: ““And I want our students to be fluent in both French and Spanish as it were”.
However, many drama schools also offer purely screen acting courses. As Audition Doctor says to all her students, going on any course that solely focuses on one medium automatically makes future employment harder. With Max Irons revealing this week that both of his parents encouraged him to be a plumber/carpenter instead of an actor, it makes perfect sense to go to a drama school that gives you the opportunity to be well-versed in all disciplines so you can make some semblance of a living.
Many students that come to Audition Doctor are tempted to do purely screen acting courses, however, as Casting Director – Andy Pryor – stated in The Guardian: “Theatre is where you see people at their best…you often see actors playing very much against type: that way, you get a great idea of their range.” He then went onto explain how spotting Jack Farthing at the Royal Court led to him casting him in a Poliakoff drama, followed by a bigger part in BBC1’s comedy Blandings earlier this year.
Selecting a drama school that equips you with as many skills as possible is an advantageous move career-wise. But many skills can only be learned through experience of being in the profession itself. As Hopper states: “Drama school builds discipline and gives you a structure. If you’re like a sponge and absorb all the information you’re given, you can then take bits from it when you need them. But it doesn’t prepare you for the life of an actor. Work isn’t necessarily going to happen straight away; it’s about sticking to it. There’s a lot of things to deal with, like the psychological element of being in and out of work. You’re self-employed at the end of the day and you have a product to sell, and drama school doesn’t teach you about that.”
Whether you are applying to drama schools or auditioning for jobs, you are marketing yourself as a product and there is a need to ensure that you are psychologically and emotionally prepared.
Paul Clayton claimed recently : “Someone once said to me, “Do one thing every day that might get you a job, and then live your life for the rest of the day.” That’s what being an actor means.” Audition Doctor sessions are demanding, but as a result, have frequently been the thing that have got someone a place at drama school or an acting job. This means whatever the outcome of your audition, you can live the rest of the day free from the anxiety that comes from fearing you haven’t done enough.
by Bel | Aug 8, 2013 | acting classes, acting classes london, audition classes, audition doctor, auditions, classes for acting, the actors centre, tilly blackwood
What’s been clear this week is that while drama school isn’t a panacea to all the insecurities of the profession, actors who haven’t gone accede that the work done there appears to be an indispensable infrastructure upon which to build a solid career.
In a Q and A for “The Cripple of Inishmaan”, Daniel Radcliffe mentioned: “Obviously, drama school isn’t the only option for acting training, but even when you’re one of the most famous actors in the world, lack of it can still make you feel like you’re playing catch up.”
In Time Out, Hayley Atwell spoke of how, despite going to the Guildhall School of Speech and Drama, she was uncertain of how she would fit into the industry: “I came out of drama school wondering whether I could really make a living out of being an actor.” While drama school doesn’t appear to have done Atwell any harm, it is worth noting that although the training there was indisputably helpful , she acknowledged: “It’s not until quite recently that I realised how unformed I was. I felt like a baby, I just wanted to please.”
Radcliffe also spoke of how he compensated not going to drama school with extensive work with acting coaches. Both are examples of how in some instances, the fact of whether or not you went to drama school, is irrelevant. Your personal development as an actor is down to you. Drama school cannot and does not teach you everything. If you feel technically deficient or artistically immature, it is down to you to seek someone such as Audition Doctor to give you a chance of survival in this profession.
Aside from the creative aspect of being an actor, Audition Doctor is getting more students who are earning a crust in the corporate sector. Chair of the Board of the Actors Centre, Paul Clayton, has just published a book entitled “So You Want To Be A Corporate Actor” and gives the example of how corporate acting training is something that should be taught at drama schools but isn’t. Jobs in the business sector can be lucrative and Clayton’s research showed that only 14% learned anything about the corporate sector at drama school, while 63% ended up finding useful work in the sector. Interviewing actors, he found that many felt inexperienced and unschooled when it came to this side of the profession.
This is what makes Audition Doctor unique as Tilly has had experience working both in the creative and business sphere. Whether you are an actor about to do a corporate job or someone working in business whose job involves public speaking, Audition Doctor will prove to be undoubtedly useful. You will soon realise that the more sessions you do with Audition Doctor, the less you feel like you’re playing catchup.
by Bel | Jul 31, 2013 | acting classes, acting classes london, audition classes, audition doctor, auditions, classes for acting, tilly blackwood
Susan Elkin, The Stage’s Education and Training Editor, was asked so often whether drama school was a necessity that she wrote an article arguing why the widely-held misconception of “if you can act or sing, surely you can just stand up and do it” was palpably misguided.
“Debunking attitudes like that is probably one of the most important things I do as The Stage’s Education and Training Editor. After all, however great your footballing potential, you wouldn’t expect to walk in off the streets and immediately play for Manchester United. It takes years of training to achieve the right skills. And you never stop learning. Exactly the same principle applies to performing on stage or screen.”
She goes onto mention how young people often cite actors such as Sheridan Smith as examples of actresses who have been successful without training. However, as Elkin states: “Smith studied singing, dancing and acting part time for many years in her native Lincolnshire and trained extensively in her teens with National Youth Music Theatre. Untrained she clearly was not.”
There are indeed respected actors who haven’t gone to an established drama school. However, many started early and were trained on the job. This was often supplemented by sessions on set with acting coaches. Elkin invites her readers to “take the three leads in the Harry Potter films: Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint and Emma Watson. For nearly 10 years and seven films, starting when they were barely out of primary school, they were trained on set which included many systematic, carefully thought out classes to develop the necessary voice, movement and acting skills. And the same applied to the many other children involved. Those films were, effectively, their training provider.”
Attending a drama school is not the only form of training potential actors can receive. There are amdram productions, schemes such as the National Youth Theatre, joining a theatre company and also training privately with professionals established in the acting profession. Audition Doctor is one such example. Audition Doctor works with many students too young for drama school entry (minimum age is 18). This is an increasingly popular method of giving younger people access to focused quality training.
Elkin is one well-schooled in the requirements of the profession, writing extensively on the ever- changing landscape of drama schools and the wider industry. As she so staunchly says: “No one…makes it in this competitive industry without training at all”, which is an indicator that it makes no sense to hang onto delusions that you will be the exception any longer. It is in your best interests to ensure that you have the tools to not just survive, but also achieve the ambitions you have for yourself as an actor. However pretentious it sounds, this does require a commitment to the art of acting. Like all forms of art, talent only reaches its full potential with the back-up of hard graft and practice. Audition Doctor is an ideal place to begin.
by Bel | Jul 12, 2013 | acting classes, acting classes london, audition classes, audition doctor, auditions, classes for acting, tilly blackwood
Today, Lyn Gardner asked the question: “Would you do your job – the one you’ve been trained to do – for free?” She was referring to the unfair yet widespread practice of professional actors working for free on the London Fringe and other events such as Edinburgh. Having fought off three thousand other candidates to get into drama school, undergone rigorous vocational training, many come out the other end performing for free. One could argue that this is a “work experience” of sorts and the chance to continue to develop the skills that you were taught at drama school. It’s an opportunity to perform roles that you might not have been cast as at drama school and there is always the possibility that influential casting directors will attend, be floored by your performance and catapult you into the world of award-winning feature films.
However, the stiffness of the competition to work for absolutely nothing is both mad and maddening. A current profit-share production of Measure for Measure at the Union Theatre auditioned over 1,000 actors for 10 roles despite the lack of a salary if cast. Gardner cited the reason for this was “because whereas once a small number of drama schools produced a limited number of actors each year, now there are vast numbers of university courses producing graduates who are ready to go straight into the profession. Many, furthermore, are weighed down by student debt.”
There is a sense that the thousands of students coming out of drama-based university courses every year are industry fodder – there aren’t enough parts for everyone who has spent 3 concentrated years receiving focused conservatoire training at drama schools, let alone people who have “studied” acting at university. However, neither is a drama school training a guarantee of skilled artistry. Mark Rylance mentioned that when auditioning actors, “sometimes, people will have had bad training, and I’ll think: I’m going to have to unravel a lot here.”
Whether you are trying to get into drama school or just out of it, you have to be at the top of your game to get anywhere and Audition Doctor ensures that you are match-fit for any audition. Rylance compares auditioning actors to “rather like looking at football players. You have to build the team, the company.” Working for free may be far from ideal but it’s better to be active and build up a range of roles. Working with Audition Doctor means that you don’t feel like the craft that you have spent 3 years honing is put on the back burner and that you are continually stretching your acting chops so you are ready for any audition opportunity that comes your way.
by Bel | Jul 4, 2013 | acting classes, acting classes london, audition classes, audition doctor, auditions, classes for acting
It’s easy to forget when you’re at a drama school audition that your chances of being selected hinge as much on your ability to collaborate and work well within a group, as your individual abilities. This is why the further you get in the audition process, the longer the movement and voice sessions become. Your speeches may be stunningly poignant and render the panel irrevocably moved, however, if you don’t appear to support and use your fellow applicants’ choices as a springboard to go further in your decisions, chances are you won’t be considered. Drama schools are looking to build a company – a group of actors who are independently strong performers but when working together are capable of surpassing their own limitations to create work that is both bold and honest.
In these workshop sessions, they urge you not to “feel like you have to perform. Just do what comes naturally.” Despite this, many candidates choose to overlook this advice and act like they’re in a full-scale West End production of Mamma Mia! the musical.
The Guardian’s Secret Actor contemplated the “look at me “ quality that he thinks all performers possess and declared it a necessary characteristic for all actors – without it “they’d be dentists.” However, there is a fine line between “pure peacockery” and using this attribute as a way to be better in your acting.
“What separates the peacocks from the good guys is the finesse they employ when displaying this element of “look at me”. It’s what separates the self-important Russell Crowes from, say, the self-effacing Bill Patersons.” It’s having to strike the balance between doing enough to be seen by the panel yet not forcing them to look at you because you’re an insufferable show-off.
What Audition Doctor preps you for is not to be that person. There is always one and sometimes horrifyingly, more than one, which inevitably leads to a competition for attention from the panel members. It is mortifying to witness but because of Audition Doctor’s guidance and advice about these workshops, you can go to your audition understanding that interesting and brave choices aren’t necessarily those that cause the most clamour and pandemonium. Audition Doctor is about daring to fail – either loudly or quietly – but always with the intention of pushing artistic limits and striving to reach the seemingly impossible.
by Bel | Jun 26, 2013 | acting classes, acting classes london, audition classes, audition doctor, auditions, classes for acting
The Guardian’s ‘Secret Actor’ column – while entertaining – is sometimes a dispiriting read for someone who wants to enter the profession.
This week featured a self-important “Bardmeister” who vaingloriously lectures younger actors in a rehearsal for a Shakespeare production on the definitive way to perform a speech: “Some of you younger actors may not be familiar with the rhythm required to perform Shakespeare as it should be performed, so this is how it should sound …” At this point, he extends his arm masterfully and clicks his thumb and fingers rhythmically, all the while saying (and I’m trying to get this right): “Ka-ka-ka-ka-ka-ka-ka-ka-ka-ka-ka-ka-ka-ka-ka-ka-ka-ka-ka-ka-ka-ka.”
Although the Secret Actor is clearly ridiculing his buffoonery, it does momentarily strike fear into the drama school candidate that this style of Shakespearean delivery is the rule – with Hitlerian adherence to iambic pentameter and said in the clipped and constipated style of a 1950s newsreader.
However, this is clearly not what an audition panel at drama school are looking for; they don’t want to see a recitation but a living, breathing and believable human being. If Rory Kinnear followed said Bardmeister’s advice, I sincerely doubt Othello would have got the rave reviews it did. The first thing that people say about the production is how accessible the actors made the language and how “it didn’t feel like [they] were listening to Shakespeare at all.”
Audition Doctor sessions do not focus on which beats are stressed or unstressed and Tilly would never instruct you on how any speech should sound – they focus instead on truly understanding the meaning of the speech. The words that end up stressed are those that you have picked organically that best serve your character’s intentions. There is no categorical law on how to say Shakespeare at Audition Doctor; Tilly focuses on finding the emotion and thinking behind the words and working out the technical beats only happens if a line isn’t sitting well with you. But there is no rule.
Last week Rebecca Front commented: “When I look at other people acting I don’t like to see the cogs whirring. That annoys me. I want to see a real person in a real situation.” Although in Audition Doctor lessons , Tilly will sometimes point out technical aspects of your acting (such as voice or breathing problems that you may be having), they aren’t about examining the techniques that Shakespeare uses in the manner of a detached intellectual. Audition Doctor sessions are about being real in a real situation, which is the only thing that drama schools are looking for.
by Bel | Jun 20, 2013 | acting classes, acting classes london, audition classes, audition doctor, auditions, classes for acting, tilly blackwood
When approaching a part, most actors will say that their definitive starting point is the play itself. As Honeysuckle Weeks stated in an article on Ideastap: “A lot of getting into character is about the rhythm of the speech. Look at the grammar and the syntax of how this person speaks. Also, how other characters react. I learned a lot about my character quite late on in the play; don’t make assumptions about a character until you’ve read all the way through.”
In my experience, many drama school applicants have studied English either to A Level or even degree level. While this is an inevitably natural and often successful route into the Industry, it’s worth remembering that drama schools aren’t looking for candidates who approach the creation of a character in a scholarly manner. As one member of a drama school audition panel put it: “Education in this country focuses on here (pointing to his head), acting focuses on here (pointing at his gut).” While noting diphthongs, caesuras and soft endings are useful in an English essay, as Weeks noted: “I certainly think [studying English at Oxford] was helpful, although I learnt more about Shakespeare from performing the plays. Academia is not what theatre is about; it’s about performance, rhythm and sound.”
Recently, Anne-Marie Duff credits getting to grips with the character of Nina in O’Neill’s Strange Interlude at the National as “rising above literalness and “get the smell of it, breathe it in, see if you can exhale it – that is all you can do”.
This is what sessions at Audition Doctor give you the opportunity to do. Initially sessions are about understanding exactly what you are saying; Shakespeare speeches are dissected and discussed. This is generally done prior to line learning because Tilly always stresses that not understanding a line means that you, as an actor, will undoubtedly fail to communicate a line with the intention and conviction required to make any character truthful.
This week, Andrew Scott spoke about how the ease of line learning was often connected to how well you understand the text. “Line learning I always think is about wanting to say the lines. There are lines where you go “God, I know that, that’s really weird, that’s really easy to learn that and there are always lines where you can never remember the line. I always think that’s because you don’t like saying the line. Maybe because you don’t understand it or there’s something that you’re not connecting with.”
However, Audition Doctor sessions are so much more than just getting to grips with the meaning of a play. In her preparation for Strange Interlude, Duff stressed that “The real challenge is to become more yourself as an actor, visiting every corner.” Audition Doctor allows you to realise that your limitations are in no way circumscribed and that exploration and experimentation are key to creating what Duff described as “a panorama of character.” She describes trying to find “the extraordinary colours that [she is] trying to find every day in rehearsal” which is precisely what Audition Doctor is all about.
by Bel | Jun 13, 2013 | acting classes, acting classes london, audition classes, audition doctor, auditions, classes for acting, tilly blackwood
Financial constraints aside, it’s astonishing how many people who want to become actors neither want to train nor go to the theatre, which you would presume are prerequisites to becoming a serious professional. Whether it’s down to arrogance or a misplaced belief that it’s better to “get out there” as soon as possible, it is not giving yourself the opportunity to develop your craft as an artist.
Drama school is where you have the time to probe deeper into your mental landscape and explore the recesses of your psyche which is the starting point for any character you play.
Last week Simon Callow mentioned how drama school was the place where he experienced his own Eureka moment: “I was almost a total write-off at drama school in my first year. I was struggling against a terrible internal block, which refused to allow me any sort of free expression: everything I did was controlled to the last degree. I seemed hell-bent on impressing some invisible admirer. But I knew my work was rubbish — knew, not least, because my teachers, with varying degrees of tact, told me so, over and over again. It took [a] liberating experience to unlock me from the prison. The… shock was administered by the great acting teacher Doreen Cannon, who goaded me to combustion point during an “extreme emotion” exercise. It was the first time, I suspect, ever in my life till that point, that I had dared to give in to an emotion.”
But on a more practical level, drama schools are still the first places that agents go to look for new talent. Ultimately, drama school is the vital starting point to your career; it sends a clear signal to other members of the Industry that your talent and potential has not only been validated but pushed further. Additionally, in an article in the Guardian on “the secretive world of casting directors”, respected casting agents such as Andy Pryor and Stephen Crockett said: “Agents pop up like weeds, frankly. There are only around 50 agencies [that I take] seriously. Essentially, from a casting point of view, you’re going to go with somebody you trust.”
If you want to be put up for great parts, you have to be with a credible agency which will have most probably taken you on based on your third-year showcase at drama school. As one actor asserted: “Casting directors are the gatekeepers. If they don’t know who you are, it can feel impossible to get a decent part.” To underestimate the potency of concentrated focus under the best professionals who understand what the Industry desires is to show yourself to be at best ignorant and at worst conceited.
Despite the paucity of parts and opportunities that are frequently being commented on as a result of funding cuts, there are more applicants to drama school than ever. Some drama schools have had to add further audition stages to make the process even more selective than it already is. Audition Doctor sessions are a guarantee that you do not waste anyone’s time – either yours or the audition panel’s. They see thousands of people and Audition Doctor sessions have proven time and time again that you are actually watched as opposed to merely seen. The idea that you can just learn a speech the night before and do it the next day is laughable. It’s true that they don’t want to see that you’ve been coached to say lines in a certain way but Audition Doctor is in no way, shape or form about that. Lessons are a true delving into what makes you tick as well as the character. Drama schools are looking for someone who is open to exploration and Audition Doctor is absolutely all about that.
