by Bel | Feb 6, 2014 | acting classes, acting classes london, audition classes, audition doctor, auditions
Ty Burrell, who plays Phil in the monumentally successful series Modern Family, said this week: “The real job of an actor is auditioning, not acting. That’s really the day-to-day life. You get the call at 2pm and they want you there by 4.30pm…”
Thankfully, auditions for drama school are not as hurried. The weeks or sometimes months that you are afforded in advance to prepare are priceless and it’s important to use the time discerningly.
When asked what he did to prepare for the role of Coriolanus, Tom Hiddleston said: “The first thing I did was to learn the play inside and out. Words are the key to every role, and for Coriolanus they guide the character’s voice, manner, and even his heartbeat. As I studied the play and became more immersed in it, so many questions arose. Why is he so angry? Why does he hate the people so much?”
Audition Doctor sessions are as much about asking questions as answering them. It’s only through combing the text and thorough inquiry that decisions that are rooted in truth can be made with your character.
As Amy Morgan said in Ideastap: “My advice is just always play the truth of what you’re doing…I tend to look at the text and pick out all the factual detail. For anything subjective that you think might be hinted at, it’s good to talk to the other actors and work that stuff out between you…Usually, if I’m not getting something or it doesn’t feel right it’s because I’m trying too hard – I’m trying to make something up that’s not there.”
This is why drama school applicants find Audition Doctor so useful – auditioning for drama school is largely a solitary process. Aside from the group workshops and warm-ups, it’s you preparing monologues alone. Audition Doctor lessons give you the opportunity to have a creative discussion and obtain professional feedback. Many drama schools don’t offer feedback unless you get to a certain stage of recalls. If you aren’t getting to those stages, it goes without saying that feedback would be incredibly useful.
Whatever choices you have made with your speech, auditions require you to reach necessary emotional states. Hiddleston mentioned: “In the end the greatest struggle with this role was to inhabit the essence of his personality. To ensure I can channel the power of his fury every day has been challenging. He is an immensely angry man – there are a couple of lines that illustrate that in the play, one of those is: “there is no more mercy in him than there is milk in a male tiger.” Every night I am professionally required to roar.”
The more you attend Audition Doctor sessions, the easier it becomes to access the emotion and your subsequent performances become less stilted. The confidence that comes from knowing that you can get to that place also gives you the freedom to push things further and make the kind of bolder decisions that panels are looking for.
When asked what she would tell her younger self, Amy Morgan said: “Not to worry so much. When I left drama school I was so worried about being the right actor all the time. You want to be perfect for every part and be the best person in the room at meetings. Now, when I go into meetings and I’m myself, that’s when I tend to get the job.”
Audition Doctor lessons ensure that the speeches you pick are perfect for you. Playing the truth and accessing the vulnerability required for your speech is something that Audition Doctor concentrates on which generally means you don’t feel like you have to be “perfect”. Perfect is not what drama schools are looking for anyway. They’re ultimately looking for someone who can be honest in their performance which is what Audition Doctor lessons are all about.
by Bel | Jan 30, 2014 | acting classes, acting classes london, audition classes, audition doctor, auditions, classes for acting, tilly blackwood
Previous articles have touched upon the relative merits of university drama courses and drama school training. An article in The Times warned its readers about the “hidden truth about university courses; that a few offer a terrific, demanding education while many others are content to allow students to drift through — in a three-year haze” with minimal contact hours that churn out graduates ill-prepared for any industry.
If there is one thing that drama schools cannot be accused of, it’s neglecting to give their students enough contact time. Typically, the exacting timetable consists of 9 hours of contact per day. That’s typically 54 hours a week – in a study conducted by the think-tank – The Higher Education Policy Institute – revealed that the only other university course that requires similar demanding hours was found to be Medicine. Even this notoriously challenging course’s contact hours differed from institution to institution and ranged from 32-50 hours a week.
Faye Marsay, who recently appeared in Fresh Meat, was asked whether her life at drama school resembled the show’s image of relaxed student life: “Drama school was more like twelve hours every day – work, work, work, lines, lines, lines.”
This, along with Brian Cox commenting in The Times that “drama training is the best preparation for anything”, is confirmation that drama school is a far better investment of time and money than a university course if you want to be taken seriously as an actor.
This idea was cemented this week when Sam Troughton lost his voice in the middle of a preview of King Lear at the National Theatre. Paapa Essiedu, a recent graduate of Guildhall, talked of how he had to take over as Troughton’s understudy: “I had about half an hour before I had to go on as Edmund but I was on stage for most of it. I didn’t have any time to prepare. It was one of those things where instinct kicks in and you rely on your training and on any work that you’ve done. And trust yourself to go and do it.”
Olivia Vinall, also starring in King Lear, was asked by Official London Theatre on her first professional job: “My first job was actually before I graduated. I was lucky enough to be in a production of Romeo And Juliet. The principal at Drama Studio at the time let me do it because he thought it would be the best showcase that I could have. From that I got an agent so it was a really good platform.”
In both cases, drama school training has proved to be a necessary foundation for successful performances. Although there are workshops in London such as the one which will be run by Ideastap in February (‘Auditioning technique and monologue advice masterclass’) where actors can ask industry professionals such as casting director Polly Jerrold for tips, there is no substitute for the one-on-one sessions that Audition Doctor offers. Instead of being in a group of 20 where understandably, the advice can only be more generalised, Audition Doctor sessions offer one hour sessions that focus solely on you. From the speeches you choose to group workshop advice, the guidance that Audition Doctor offers is always specific. The result is that you present the best possible you at your audition and consequently significantly increase your chance of securing a place at drama school.
by Bel | Jan 24, 2014 | acting classes, acting classes london, audition classes, audition doctor, auditions, tilly blackwood
Last week, Susan Elkin wrote in The Stage: “I happened to be visiting a prestigious London drama school recently while it was auditioning potential students. The applicants were huddled, anxious and nervous in a stark corridor waiting to go in one by one. Each was wearing a large placard bearing a number as if they were anonymous runners in a race. What price human dignity?”
While this week, when Vicky McClure was asked if auditioning had got any better the longer she’d been in the profession, she replied: “No! I think it’s getting even scarier for me… I lost out on a job just before Christmas and I was devastated. It really knocked me because I did all the prep I could possibly do… and yet you don’t get it, and it’s not because you can’t act, it’s because the chemistry doesn’t work or you’re slightly too short. It does knock you for a bit.”
Auditions, for both professional and aspiring actors, are unavoidable prerequisites for any job. However, much of the time, the outcome in an audition rarely resembles the perhaps stunning rendition you gave in the privacy of your bedroom. As Simon Russell Beale said last week: “I always used to joke that the best performances are done in the bath.”
When auditioning for drama schools, the speeches are key. Although the content is paramount, there are other things that have to be considered. Most drama schools will have guidelines as to the length of your speech. Many panels will simply cut you off if you go over the time, with some even starting a stopwatch as soon as you stand in front of them. Yet it is surprising how often candidates go over the allotted time. When questioned as to why they didn’t adhere to the audition advice (with “advice” read “strict instructions”), an applicant will proclaim that the speech had to end then because of the nature of the monologue’s emotional arc. However, due to the large volume of applicants, the panel simply don’t have the time for protracted monologues. This means that the speeches that you choose are incredibly important as they have to highlight your strengths, as well as showcase your vulnerability and versatility, in a considerably limited amount of time.
It takes students often multiple trips to French’s or Waterstones to find the right speech. However, it is worth it. Audition Doctor lessons are a bonus because they are opportunities to discuss the speech that is right for you specifically. Although a speech may be interesting, it may not suit you at this stage of your development.
Furthermore, Audition Doctor sessions are vital both before and during the lengthy process of auditioning. As candidates get more recalls and reach the final stages of auditions, it becomes even more critical to ensure that you make bold and original choices that also have emotional depth. Audition Doctor sessions offer students the gift of knowing that their best performances will not be in the bath, but in front of the audition panel.
by Bel | Jan 16, 2014 | acting classes, acting classes london, audition classes, audition doctor, auditions, classes for acting, tilly blackwood
Much has been written on the fact that too much time at drama schools is devoted to Shakespeare and not enough given to acting for screen, with heads of acting at top drama schools lamenting the fact that they are training pupils for a fast disappearing theatre industry. However, three of Britain’s arguably biggest television actors are performing in various Shakespeare plays to packed houses in the West End – Jude Law in Henry V, David Tennant in Richard II, and Tom Hiddleston in Coriolanus. The Telegraph mentioned in an article entitled “Why the stars come out for Shakespeare”: To have three such charismatic leading men starring in three relatively underperformed Shakespeare plays at the same moment is a rare treat.” It appears that Shakespeare is still as culturally relevant as ever – enthralling both actors and audiences.
Shakespeare even plays a surprisingly heavy role in the creation of unlikely characters, such as Tom Hiddleston’s character Loki in Thor. In an interview for The Telegraph, it was noted that “Together, Branagh and Hiddleston created a character who was, in many ways, the film’s centre point. ‘We made Loki out of Shakespearean characters,’ Hiddleston says. ‘We talked about King Lear with its two brothers, Macbeth with his ambition, the way Iago spins every situation for self-interest”.
This is why when potential students query the validity of drama school training, it is worthy to remind them that there is no substitute for three years of being surrounded by professionals who have performed Shakespeare themselves. It was Hiddlestone’s years at RADA which gave him the skills to lead him to win an Olivier for Cymbeline. As the interviewer notes of his early career: “While his film career faltered, his reputation in theatre started to gain momentum….and “It wasn’t until Michael Grandage cast him in Othello at the Donmar in 2007 that Hiddleston’s ascent really began. Watching the dress rehearsal was Kenneth Branagh, who was sufficiently impressed to cast Hiddleston as Christian in a Radio 3 production of Cyrano de Bergerac”.
If debating over whether to devote a large proportion of three years to Shakespeare, it’s worth remembering that the Bard still continues to open doors for many actors.
Like Audition Doctor, drama school gives you the time to experiment with language, physicality and voice. It also gives you the space to explore all the ranges of human emotion that future work will require you to express. Attending Audition Doctor or drama school is an acknowledgement that you want to become a better actor, an actor that contributes something to the general debate.As Tom Hiddleston eloquently puts it: “At its absolute best, a play like [Coriolanus] can unite its audience. They can go into the theatre as strangers and leave as a group, having understood and been through something important together. If I am somehow contributing to that then surely my work is of some consequence.”
The valuable nature of Audition Doctor is the way which Tilly pushes you to discover the different colours of emotions that will occur during one speech which means performing a speech on the same note will never happen.
As Hiddleston remarks: “We have the capacity to experience every aspect of life, don’t we?’ he asks, looking intently down at the imaginary keyboard on the table in front of him.”There’s love, generosity, hope, kindness, laughter and all the good stuff. And then there’s grief, hatred, jealousy and pain. The way I see it, life is about trying to get to a place where you feel happy with the chords that you are playing. I’m lucky because I can experiment with all the different notes, via my work. And when I hit the right notes, I like to think that I’m conveying some sort of truth.”This is what Tilly gives each students at Audition Doctor – the ability to explore the myraid of notes and deliver the truth – which is arguably all drama school audition panels are looking for.
by Bel | Jan 9, 2014 | acting classes, acting classes london, audition classes, audition doctor, auditions, classes for acting
Susan Elkin, columnist for The Stage, commented on the regularity of students asking her whether university drama courses are a safer choice than conservatoire-style drama schools. This was due in part to the discussions last year of drama schools moving to model themselves more on academic institutions.
Principal of Rose Bruford, Michael Earley, said: “For many years, places like Rose Bruford, RADA and Guildhall have sold themselves as drama schools only. Now, with students paying full fees of £9,000, they really have to look at themselves as universities.” He said this involved “improving facilities and providing more academic teaching alongside vocational training, such as essay writing and critical thinking.”
However, Susan Elkin, with her extensive knowledge of drama schools and university courses contends: “Parents tend to like the bets-hedging university idea, but the course may not be sufficiently practical if you really are after hands-on training for industry-readiness. I could, in fact, write a whole column about poor quality university courses whose embittered students have complained to me that they simply aren’t getting the vocational training that they thought they’d signed up to – but I shan’t because the evidence, although powerful and plentiful, is anecdotal.”
Elkin doesn’t dismiss all university drama courses, she recommends one – in Hull. While this may not be immediately appealing, it’s interesting to note that the Culture Secretary awarded the prestigious prize of City of Culture 2017 to the city – pipping Dundee, Leicester and Swansea to the post – so Hull is clearly worth keeping in mind.
In response to Joanna Read, Principal of LAMDA responded in a letter to The Stage entitled “Acting is a craft, not a thesis” in which she stated: “At LAMDA, we believe these are best taught by practical exploration and application. Our training is vocational – because drama is a vocation – and we are training students for careers in the industry. The training is practical because drama is about doing and being….Actors and technicians do not need to write essays to be critical thinkers. The best preparation for these professions is a practical one that explores the craft, technique and art of the disciplines. The truest way of capturing and measuring our students’ achievements, therefore, is practically – on stage, onscreen or behind the scenes – not through an academic paper.”
As Matthew Henley said in The Stage “In a crowded market, performers need to learn how to be seen and heard, and how best to position themselves.” This cannot be learnt at a desk in the library. Going to drama school is about practicing in front of professionals, in front of your peers and eventually performing in front of casting agents. Universities cannot offer nearly the calibre of intensive teaching that drama schools can.
If you want to be a professional actor, Audition Doctor is the place for you. Shakespeare is unavoidable if you want to train professionally, yet many understandably find the language daunting and inaccessible. Audition Doctor sessions are where you are allowed to pick through the language. Elkin also mentioned that those who are overwhelmed by Shakespeare tend to engage in “inaudible high speed gabbling” which she also mentions is a misplaced effort “to make it sound cool.” Audition Doctor ensures that the language is understood before embarking on any acting.
Simon Russell Beale said in his interview this week in The Telegraph that “I always used to joke that the best performances are done in the bath”, but happily for Audition Doctor students, most often, the best performances have proven to be in front of drama school audition panels. Audition Doctor lessons are about failing and exploration – a precursor to what drama school will be like. They are also assurances that auditions will – as Russell Beale states – “just sometimes [go] like a Rolls-Royce.”
by Bel | Jan 2, 2014 | acting classes, acting classes london, audition classes, audition doctor, auditions, classes for acting, tilly blackwood
In The Guardian, Nick Asbury wrote: “Being an actor is hard, both in its delivery and its expectancy. Nothing trains you for standing in front of thousands of people and starting a long Shakespeare speech, or having to get the final take of the day right, because if you don’t it’ll cost thousands in overtime. No one can train you for simply waiting for the phone to ring.”
However, far from advocating the doing away with drama schools altogether, he is urging drama schools to rethink the structure of how they teach their students. He suggests “having shorter courses that last a year, maybe two, that offer technique and confidence and place actors in front of the industry people. Then perhaps we need replenishing and reinvigorating courses throughout the ensuing years.”
He acknowledges the indisputable quality of training and valuable connections that drama schools provide, however, he laments that “It’s getting to the point where they’re simply finishing schools for the wealthy – either that or they saddle people with so much debt that following a stop/start formative acting career is unthinkable. This is repugnant, and against everything the new wave of the 1950s and 60s stood for.”
Susan Elkin in The Stage writes of how “given the phenomenal success of National Youth Theatre’s first full training rep company this year, I think we can expect to see an increasing number of viable alternatives to traditional drama school training.” This is a free form of training, with ” all 15 participants [having secured] good agents and many of them are already in professional work.”
Citing Fourth Monkey Rep Company and Cygnet at Exeter, she writes of her prediction that similar companies will mushroom in 2014 as “more and more people are worried about the huge debt which drama school incurs and fretting about whether or not it represents value for money.”
However, while she concedes that emerging rep companies can provide quality training, she still insists that “drama schools – just 18 are now accredited by DramaUK – are still, obviously a major force to be reckoned with…”
Whether or not to go to drama school has been a hotly debated topic, but the necessity of training – in whatever form – has never been questioned. As Nick Asbury said: “Acting is all about practice and confidence. If you keep working or studying it, you get better. I am a great believer that cream will rise to the top, and if you work hard enough – raise money to do shows, keep on inviting people, get to know people, don’t be an arse and keep your head above water – then you will get jobs and get through doors.”
This is what Audition Doctor offers students – the chance to keep working and studying – whatever stage you are at as an actor. Audition Doctor sessions are hard work but they are opportunities to practice your craft. Furthermore, students have found that the buoying confidence that is engendered from the sessions has led to successful auditions.
However, the gift that Audition Doctor gives is the ability to stop acting. As Olivia Colman said in this week’s Telegraph: “To be honest, I don’t think that much about acting. If you’re genuine and you’re reacting truthfully to what’s being said, you don’t have to do any more. You’re still acting, but really it’s just honesty.”
by Bel | Dec 21, 2013 | acting classes, acting classes london, audition classes, audition doctor, auditions, classes for acting, tilly blackwood
While Audition Doctor has always maintained that training at drama school is the wisest way to enter the acting industry, said establishments have come under fire recently for a myriad of reasons. They have been criticised for being too expensive, not preparing students for television work and failing to teach students how “to remain mentally strong and professionally active when work is not forthcoming and 40 years in a call centre seems to be beckoning”.
A former student wrote in The Stage “Drama school can be an introverted place. You learn, you observe, you grow, but you spend a huge amount of time surrounded by the same 14 to 40 people who know things about you that some of your closest friends may not yet have realised or deem appropriate. It’s a place where you should be focusing on yourself and your personal growth, but this very easily creates a bubble that dulls your awareness of the outside world…There are positive aspects to the effect of the bubble. It allows a student time for self-improvement and growth, a cocoon stage if you will. However, to fully grow as a performer, and mature as a person, an understanding of the wider world is needed and this should never be forgotten.”
In another article, Julius Green, author of “How to produce a West End show” spoke of how graduates are sometimes ill-served by their drama schools: “[Drama schools] could usefully spend a bit less time teaching their students how to find their ‘motivation’ and a bit more teaching them how to fill in a tax return and explaining to them how to go about booking digs. It is a constant source of amazement to me how ill-prepared for the exigencies of life drama school graduates can be.”
While all this is valid, no institution can shoulder the sole responsibility of the careers of all 35 graduates. Their obligation lies in laying the foundation; it is down to the individual to ensure that they build on this foundation and carry their training through. Accredited drama schools already provide their students with a significant amount of direction.
Geoffery Coleman, Head of Acting at the Central School of Speech and Drama states: “Typically, students might have sessions with agents, accountants, casting directors, producers, Equity, Spotlight, voice-over companies, corporate performance companies, radio/film/TV/theatre actors, and many other sectors within the industry.”
Seeking out someone like Audition Doctor is your responsibility if you keep failing to land auditions. Gaining a fresh professional perspective is indispensable – especially if you’ve just come out of drama school and have only had the instruction of a certain group of teachers and have acted with the same 14-40 people spoken of earlier.
Everyone in the Industry is adapting to suit the ever-changing nature of the profession all the time – even drama schools. Though the fact that drama schools are thinking of expanding their curriculum to teach students how to fill out a tax returns is undoubtedly useful, it is not why anyone wants to go/ is at drama school. They go to become better artists.
As Coleman said: “We realise a vision of training artists. I want to engender in all our graduates the sense that they are shape-changers, not commodities, and that through their performance they can change people’s lives…We train artists, not passive vessels or mere pretenders.”
Lessons at Audition Doctor are about training artists – whatever stage you are at as an actor. They are a bubble in the good sense; they provide counsel and encourage self-development. Furthermore, Tilly ensures that you aren’t a pretender and are always honest in your acting.
by Bel | Dec 12, 2013 | acting classes, acting classes london, audition classes, audition doctor, auditions, classes for acting
Audition Doctor always maintains that the most important decision you make when applying for drama schools is choosing your speeches. While the scope of modern speeches is pretty much boundless, the choice of Shakespeare and Elizabethan monologues to pick from is far more limited – especially if you are female. It’s also worthy to note that although female candidates far outnumber male applicants for drama school, the vast majority of monologues in the literary canon have been written for male characters.
Speaking to The Guardian in an article entitled “Theatre’s women of substance”, Kate Fleetwood said:
“A great female role is one that drives the narrative. Back in 2007, I played Lady Macbeth in a production directed by my husband, Rupert Goold. It was an enormous role for me. She drives the play by being the force behind Macbeth, motivating him to act: ‘Be a man. Be a man,’ she’s continually saying. She may not have the power to express what she wants in public, but she’s the power behind the throne. She’s much, much stronger than him. It’s a massive gamut, emotionally, too; to go from isolated army wife to a woman aligning herself with the spirits, forcing her husband on, then realising her actions have driven her mad, she’s gone too far. Shakespeare is brilliant at writing complex roles for women. There just aren’t enough of them.”
The likelihood of you playing the same character as the person who goes in before you is high. If you are applying to the Central School of Speech and Drama which has a set list for all candidates to choose from, you know for certain that the panel will see thousands of Juliets, Hermiones and Rosalinds. The need to differentiate yourself is paramount. Thousands will utter the same words but it is those that make interesting and informed decisions with the text that will make it through to the next stage. Although the choice of speech is evidently an important one, even more important are the choices that you make within it.
In the same article, Janet Suzman was also asked to comment on what were the great parts for women:
“There are some great roles for women – St Joan, Cleopatra, The Good Woman of Szechuan – but nothing equivalent to the great male parts. People talk of Hedda Gabler as the female Hamlet – and even though she doesn’t have the long soliloquies or the same interiority, we watch her make her choices and meet her fate, just as Hamlet does. She’s in every scene in the play, and she’s got plenty of hidden depths. With utmost economy, Ibsen gives us an extraordinarily fucked-up character. She’s cruel, she’s cowardly and yet you feel for her. Hedda’s bound to domesticity, trapped in a marriage she can’t stand, and she longs for freedom. In that respect, she’s a very modern woman.”
Finding the “interiority” of a character is what Audition Doctor excels at. It’s finding the different shades of emotion and hidden motivations that will mean that the panel will genuinely be seeing Juliet for the first time – because it will be yourJuliet and not anyone else’s.
by Bel | Dec 5, 2013 | acting classes, acting classes london, audition classes, audition doctor, auditions, classes for acting, tilly blackwood
The Stage recently reported on the success of the NYT’s rep season. This new form of training actors is the brainchild of the NYT director, Paul Roseby, who was also responsible for controversial remarks earlier in the year questioning the benefits of three year drama school training. The program trained and rehearsed 15 actors intensively since spring and then brought their three plays into the West End programmed alongside STOMP at The Ambassadors Theatre.
Roseby’s concerns with drama school training wasn’t the quality of the teaching but the consequences of beginning with a £27,000 student debt in an industry synonymous with instability.
Roseby’s pioneering new form of training is evidence of the importance he places on training actors properly for the profession they want to enter. Roseby said that “All fifteen [of the NYT rep company] are now either signed with agents, including Markham and Froggatt, Troika and Independent and United Agents, or they are in discussions with them.” It’s clear only after some form of rigorous training that students feel prepared to perform a showcase. Drama school showcases are still currently the main viable opportunity for getting signed by an agent.
Last September, The Stage hosted a discussion on how the nature of casting and by extension, the wider industry, had changed enormously over the last 20 years. Henry Bird reported: “With reality TV shows turning untrained amateurs into West End stars, and people getting cast on the street for spots in TV adverts, an outsider could be forgiven for thinking that breaking into acting has become easier. Of course, the acting industry is actually more competitive than ever. It seems that in acting, as is so often the case, it ain’t what you know, it’s who you know. Or rather, which casting directors your agent knows.”
John Barr got his first big role, in Jesus Christ Superstar, in 1981 through an open audition that he saw advertised in The Stage. That was just how it was done then, he says. “We all did those open calls for years. I remember when Cats was being cast, walking by theatres and seeing all these dancers warming up. It’s not like that anymore. It’s done through casting directors now.”
Although casting directors now hold the most power in the industry, agents still play an important role as the link between actor and casting director. It is often a closed circle, however, which can be frustrating for those at the start of their careers.”
Although the financial debt incurred from drama school may cause applicants to think twice about applying, agents still highly prize the calibre of student that drama schools unfailingly produce.
Audition Doctor has proved time and time again that sessions are vital to securing recalls for auditions. There are normally 4 stages to an audition and Audition Doctor lessons are essential the further along you get. Although there are significantly fewer applicants, the recalls require even more of you. Audition Doctor ensures that you are able to bring new colours into speeches that the audition panel have probably already seen you do multiple times. It’s at this stage in the audition that the competition is at its height and Audition Doctor ensures you always enter fighting fit.
by Bel | Dec 1, 2013 | acting classes, acting classes london, audition classes, audition doctor, auditions, classes for acting, tilly blackwood
Whenever advice is proffered by teachers at drama school before auditions, they always encourage the following: Be open to suggestion, be willing to be vulnerable and be receptive to your fellow actors.
It’s difficult to follow such advice when experiencing the often fraught atmosphere of an audition. Frequently, lines that you were so sure of weeks before are inexplicably wiped from the brain as you engage in a group exercise.
Drama school auditions cannot be predicted and it’s essential to know that you will be entering them in a prepared state. No matter how connected you feel to your speeches and how impressive you believe your performance to be, it will all go out the window if you don’t have a measured and practiced state of mind.
This is why Audition Doctor is an essential prerequisite to any audition. Aside from cultivating the character’s psychological state, Audition Doctor prepares you for how you choose to present your own personality. It is this that the panel, more than anything, want to see in a candidate. (“We want to see you“) After all, it is you that they are interested in; it is your character that they will be training.
Being open to vulnerability and having the ability to listen are characteristics that have to be acquired and practiced. This is what Audition Doctor sessions allow you to cultivate.
Furthermore, much as Audition Doctor is about building up particular qualities that are useful in auditions, lessons are also about removing any extraneous “acting” that acts as a hindrance to truthfully portraying any character.
When Judi Dench was interviewed in The Sunday Times, the article mentioned that “at the Central School of Speech & Drama, her group were given the task of preparing a mime by the old actor Walter Hudd. They were to take a few weeks. Dench forgot about it and had to improvise on the day. She came up with a very minimalist performance. “I did it on the hoof, I hadn’t thought about it. Everybody else did very complicated pieces. Walter just said after mine, ‘That’s how you do it.’ And that was it, it was really accidental. He made me think.”
Audition Doctor sessions are about stripping away the unnecessary complications and blending improvisation with informed decisions as a result of exploring the text. It’s this that drama schools are looking for – the ability to use the text as a springboard for a variety of different possibilities and to find the truth in each decision and situation. If taken on as a student, Audition Doctor lessons are a rare opportunity that give you the time and space to allow you to do just that.
