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 | Nov 13, 2013 | acting classes, acting classes london, audition classes, audition doctor, auditions, classes for acting, tilly blackwood
In the dramatically titled Guardian piece – Frank Langella: Legend of the Fall, it transpired that acting and writing autobiographies aside, Langella delivers sobering talks to drama school students. “The desire has to be raging in you, because such is the brutality of the profession, and the horrible indignities you have to suffer, you have to really love what you do.”
Simon Hattenstone’s piece paints an Icarus-like figure whose career is chequered with impressive highs as well as crashing lows. Langella talks of having to come to the realisation that he was no longer leading man material with the loss of his hair and how it “heralded a renaissance” in his acting career which goes to show how essential. However, rebirths are generally only afforded to those who have the the skills to adapt to the profession. This is why Susan Elkin states “debunking attitudes [like not needing to train professionally to become an actor] 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.”
It was recently reported in The Stage that professional actors work 11.3 weeks per year on average and 86% of those have been through formal vocational training which points terrifyingly at the assumption that those who haven’t trained must work even less. The reason that many people cite for not wanting to train is that they have no interest in Shakespeare; they want to be film actors and everyone knows that British drama schools are severely lacking in this aspect of training. While this is a legitimate desire, it is naive to believe you will have that much control over your career. Film actors still emphasise that theatre training, especially through Shakespeare texts, was requisite to their subsequent success on screen. Many drama schools are also currently revising their training programmes to incorporate more lessons on screen acting.As for those who want to seek success in America, shunning Shakespeare would be foolhardy. As Neil Constable, the Globe’s chief executive, told The Independent: “There’s more Shakespeare in Broadway than in London, the audiences lap it up. It’s a joy and a pleasure. They know their theatre and know their Shakespeare.”
Drama schools have always been places where students are allowed to experiment in safety. Repeated trial and error has always been the basis for improvement. Getting to know your weaknesses as well as your strengths is necessary before you launch yourself into the profession. Audition Doctor is the step before drama school – the Foundation Course before the BA. Langella spoke of the fact that he has realised above all is the fact that acting is less about “covering up as much as possible; it’s all in the unpeeling. Each decade of my career I’ve tried to reveal more of myself. I want it to be less of a mask.” This is what Audition Doctor concentrates on above all else – paring the performance down to reach the truth of the text and eschewing any “acting”.
As director Marianne Elliot said: “It’s impossible to feel the creative juices flowing if you’re always worried about the end result. I think really, really good work comes out of people being quite open, not stressed, really exploring, trying to be imaginative, without worrying too much about the end result. And being allowed to fail, really being allowed to fail.” Audition Doctor sessions are all about failing – not in the negative sense – but in the Samuel Beckett sense – “Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better.” This is precisely the quality that drama schools are looking for.
by Bel | Oct 31, 2013 | acting classes, acting classes london, audition classes, audition doctor, auditions, classes for acting, tilly blackwood
There has been much debate recently over the usefulness of drama schools. Derek Jacobi averred: “It can teach you movement, it can teach you voice, it can teach you deportment, it can teach you fencing skills, all sorts of things. But I firmly believe that it cannot turn someone who walks into a drama school as a non-actor into an actor.”
Furthermore, Paul Roseby stated: “Drama schools are incredibly expensive and the majority of actors don’t need three years’ training. They need various modular courses every so often to go to. But they don’t need three years. You don’t need to learn how to act, you need to learn how to sell yourself. You can either act or you can’t.”
Drama school is expensive, but it costs no more than a normal degree. While drama school is by no means the only form of training, it is one that is professionally recognised. Additionally, alternative models that allowed Jacobi time and opportunities to hone his craft, such as repertory, no longer exist. Drama schools are still places where those who do have, what Jacobi calls, the “seed, the desire, the will and the talent” to become a professional actor can learn their craft. Although some actors do manage to build successful careers without training, the majority of actors on stage or on television will have had some form of professional training.
Furthermore, Nick Hytner this week confessed that even he found Shakespeare’s plays confusing. Drama school is a place where there are tutors who have extensive experience to unpick language and explore the possibilities of what you, as an actor, are capable of.
Edward Kemp, – Artistic Director of RADA- hit back at Roseby by saying: “These days RADA graduates such as Jessie Buckley can find themselves playing leading roles in major theatres almost upon graduation.” He added that training can give confidence and bring an improved sense of self-image that one could argue were requisite in marketing yourself to the industry.
This is precisely what Audition Doctor affords every one of her students. The way you perform you speeches is absolutely linked to confidence and self-image. Even if you have the will and the talent, a speech cannot be performed at its best if you are self-conscious in anyway. As mercenary as it sounds, an audition is also an opportunity to market yourself to the panel as a student worthy of a place. Audition Doctor sessions strip all the extraneous “acting” and self-conscious ticks which leave you knowing that you will be your greatest asset as opposed to your own obstacle at your audition.
by Bel | Oct 25, 2013 | acting classes, acting classes london, audition classes, audition doctor, auditions, classes for acting, tilly blackwood
The announcement of Rufus Norris as new Artistic Director of the National Theatre coincided with another disclosure. Although it was admittedly not as newsworthy as said appointment, it was no less important for students who are eager to go to drama school.
It was the Telegraph’s article which proclaimed “Shakespeare frightens us, admits Britain’s top actors” and gleefully proceeded to reel off a roster of names that included Michael Gambon, Mark Rylance, Zoe Wannamaker, Christopher Eccleston and Ralph Fiennes.
Many confessed to have no understanding of iambic pentameter, frequently found Shakespearean language “incomprehensible”, “frightening” and having that “familiar feeling on giving up at a Shakespeare play.”
If you want to be a trained actor in this country, there is no escaping Shakespeare or his contemporaries. Every single accredited drama school will require you to perform a monologue from the Elizabethan period as part of your audition. Many candidates hate Shakespeare, however, his work doesn’t appear to be declining in popularity so it’s best that you ensure you aren’t daunted by his work by the time you come to audition.
Many students’ first foray into Shakespearean territory will probably be in an English lesson at school. The teacher probably assigned everyone a part and everyone monotonously intoned the unintelligible text and died a little inside. This is why to become better at speaking Shakespearean verse, you have to go and see it performed precisely by the actors listed above. They often find it baffling and incomprehensible. However, they have all trained and subsequently used the skills learnt at drama school to intelligently unpick the text and transform the unwieldy ye olde language of it all into a reality that an audience recognises and believes.
This week, Ben Kingsley spoke to the Evening Standard about the importance of good actors in bringing the works of the Bard to life: “After leaving the RSC and before I did Gandhi [in 1982], I had the privilege of visiting schools in America with a group of Shakespearean actors. And instead of bashing their way through the text, we walked into the classroom and we performed scenes in the classroom for them. The pupils were slapping their hands on their foreheads and saying, ‘Wow — that’s what he meant!’ A good actor, a focused actor, can unlock a 400 to 500-year-old text and make it hit you as you’ve never heard it before”
This is what Audition Doctor can help with. Having performed Shakespeare professionally, Tilly is aware of the necessity of truly understanding the text. Frequently, she can hear if you, the actor, are saying a line without knowing what it means as the intentions behind what you say become unclear. An audience can hear when actors speak without knowing why. This is the luxury that Audition Doctor affords – the time to sift through all the obsolete language and to find modern equivalents which render your speech coherent. If anything, you at least want the audition panel to understand what you’re saying.
But Audition Doctor lessons give you much more than that. They are the reason why you can go into an audition and know that the panel will listen to you – because you are going to be one of the very few candidates that hasn’t capitulated in the face of the difficult language and truly understands not only what you are saying, but why you are speaking in the first place.
by Bel | Oct 3, 2013 | acting classes, acting classes london, audition classes, audition doctor, auditions, classes for acting, tilly blackwood
When asked what advice he would give for any actor starting out, James McAvoy replied “Advice is difficult for me, because everyone’s journey is so personal and different. Everyone’s style is so personal and different. What makes anyone good is so personal and different. Some people just try to be truthful and are brilliant at it, but I work very differently to that. A lot of the industry is down to luck, and being ready at the right time.”
Being “ready” is vital but, as McAvoy emphasises, whatever your chosen method, it’s up to you to inhabit your character as believably as possible.
“You should do whatever works for you, and trying to be a method actor doesn’t work for me at all. Maybe it will do one day, but I try to keep an eye on what story I’m telling. It’s not just about what character you are and being truthful to that; it’s about keeping your eye on the narrative. I see acting as more about mimicking truthful situations. You’re a storyteller, and naturalism and realism and all that stuff are just a style. I prepare by spending a lot of time working out what story we’re telling exactly.”
When asked what they do to prepare for their part, most actors will cite reading and re-reading the play. Yet it’s surprising how many drama school applicants fail to read the play which their speeches come from. Often when workshopping speeches, the audition panel will ask what has happened in the scene before as a gormless candidate squirms and gabbles something palpably vague. It is mortifying whether or not the panel put it down to nerves and soothes you by saying “don’t worry, take your time”, or in one case, defiantly write the word “NO” across a hapless candidate’s assessment sheet.
The Stage cited the reason as being because “many students and actors are frightened of the verse in Jacobean and Elizabethan plays and, in some cases, of the language itself. Odd when you think about it given that 95% of the vocabulary Shakespeare uses is still in current use and that the heartbeat-like iambic pentameter sits very comfortably in the rhythms of modern English. Think about “I left my brief case on the Northern Line” or “When Susan wants to rant she shouts a lot”.
Evidently, however, the key is striking a balance as the publication simultaneously lamented how many times they had heard actors “gabble [words] so fast that they’re incomprehensible” and were adamant that “you cannot make Shakespeare sound like a bit of dialogue from Eastenders and it’s very misguided of actors and directors to try.”
Making Shakespeare sound both unforced and convincing takes an inordinate amount of preparation.. To be dexterous with Shakespearean language requires you to understand the text. After comprehension comes practice and this is what Audition Doctor sessions afford you. It is uncommon to have an interrupted hour purely to work on Shakespeare, especially if you practice in the comfort of your own home – distractions abound. Having the space to concentrate solely on your speeches with an experienced actor at hand is a rarity which more and more applicants are realising. With the drama school audition season officially beginning, time with Audition Doctor is getting booked up. Those who want a fighting chance this year should book lessons well in advance to ensure availability.
by Bel | Sep 27, 2013 | acting classes, acting classes london, audition classes, audition doctor, auditions, classes for acting, tilly blackwood
It is commonly acknowledged that the final year showcase at drama school is the figurative starting gate to an actor’s career. There are stories of actors whose trajectories segue seamlessly from showcase to well-known agent to BBC1 television series. Rather depressingly, Susan Elkin’s article in The Stage confounds the expectation that drama school showcases are vehicles which celebrate students’ variety and skill.
She criticises the showcase model as a considered and reasonable method of judging talent – “Does this industry really expect to judge a student’s ability, after two or three years of intensive training, based on a stressed, strained, out-of-context two minutes at the Criterion Theatre (or possibly the Soho)? Surely any casting director or agent worth even the tiniest pinch of salt takes him or herself out to the colleges to see the students in action in proper full length shows?”
The problem is that many drama schools do not allow the public to see their students in action until their final year. Michael Billington has spoken about his desire for this to change, arguing that the earlier students are exposed to criticism, the better they are able to understand the profession.
However, drama school is one of the few places where students can experiment. An actor’s profession is by its nature public. Increasingly, there is less time or space to engage in genuine trial and error without it being meticulously documented. (The Telegraph reported today that the “State of Play: Theatre UK” survey revealed that audience members tweeting/using social media during live events was on the rise.) Exposing students who are not – as of yet – fully trained actors may stifle the freedom that closed productions afford them to push their boundaries of perception without the risk of a critic’s review.
However, unfortunately this is the reality of the acting profession. For the vast majority of actors, it is a successful audition rather than the merit of previous work that is the reason why they will land a job. Professional actors, as well as drama school applicants, are judged to be suitable for parts in the frequently small amount of time that an audition takes. The number of actors for each available role has been documented ad infinitum and it goes without saying that there is no time for casting directors to assess the minutiae of every single actor’s CV. An audition is the only way to pass judgement.
Elkin’s article also claims “…if a student is to appear more than once the two pieces should – obviously – be contrasting to demonstrate versatility. And yet, I’ve lost count of the showcases I’ve seen in which a student is effectively typecast in the same role – black guy with racist chip on his shoulder, for example – two or three times. If the purpose of a showcase is to highlight breadth of ability then many fail dismally.”
This is why Audition Doctor is essential for all actors – whatever stage you are in your career. If you are applying to drama school, the reassuring thing about Audition Doctor is that you know the speeches you will work on with Tilly will not only showcase the varied nature of your abilities, but also highlight what comes to you naturally. Entering an audition having confounded the panel’s expectations means there is far less chance you will be typecast.
It must be emphasised that although Audition Doctor gives a huge amount of guidance in choosing speeches, they must be chosen by you. The speeches that will challenge your acting, vulnerability and flexibility will be the ones that excite you and speak to you instinctively. When the right speech is chosen, a large amount of the work is already done. What Audition Doctor is exceptional at is pushing you to discover intentions and choices that you didn’t even know were open to you.
by Bel | Sep 20, 2013 | acting classes, acting classes london, audition classes, audition doctor, auditions, classes for acting, tilly blackwood
Many will have noticed that in the initial letter from various drama schools, aside from delineating the acceptable length of speeches, what timeframe constitutes as “modern”, the precise date and time of your preliminary audition, there will be general advice. Some of it is invaluable – “Don’t imitate a performance you have seen before”, some of it is unrealistic – “Don’t prepare for for your audition by receiving any sort of coaching.”
Coaching comes in all different guises. The vast majority of the applicants will have had been members of the National Youth Theatre, some will have parents who are actors, some will have already had experience in professional productions. The term “coaching” does not only mean attending acting workshops or private lessons. In the hugely competitive world of drama school auditions, it would be unwise to naively walk into an audition thinking that all your other competitors have done to prepare is recite their speeches to a cupboard in their bedroom which “acts as the panel” a couple of times.
In his final interview for Ideastap, Andrew Scott said: “I think often in an audition situation what they want is to see if you are directable. Even if they like what you do, they want to see if you can do other things. That you’re not a one-trick pony.” It’s hard to do this if you are on your own with said cupboard. Experimenting with different intentions for your character’s thoughts is crucial to prove that you are malleable. Thinking of the intention yourself inhibits the spontaneity that comes from just receiving the instruction and throwing yourself into it. Discovering new nuances to a speech often comes from not over-thinking and just trying it out.
Mark Rylance mentioned in his talk at The Old Vic how crucial the rehearsal period is for any actor. Audition Doctor sessions are rehearsals for your drama school audition. Rylance mentioned that he didn’t expect actors to understand every line of a Shakespeare play in the initial stages. However, he did mention how the rehearsal period was integral to unearthing the text, which is precisely what the initial lessons with Audition Doctor focus on. Rylance also stated: “If an actor understands the meaning of the line, but doesn’t understand why he says it, it’s clear to me and it’s clear to the audience.” One can only assume that a drama school audition panel will be just as unequivocally forensic.
Andrew Scott also voiced the opinion: “With character work, if you go too far from yourself, it can over-complicate things. Try just acting it as yourself – don’t put any character on it.” This is much harder than it sounds; there is a natural tendency for most people to “act”, thinking that’s what the panel wants. What Audition Doctor does so brilliantly is strip away any “theatricality” and get to the simplicity which is often more real. Even Mark Rylance mentioned how hard it was not only for an actor but a director to do this. Having played Benedict himself, he fought hard to ensure that he didn’t force his own Benedict onto James Earl-Jones and wanted this Benedict “to be as close to James as possible.”
Like Rylance, drama schools don’t want imitations of previous Beatrices or Benedicts, no matter how marvellous they were. They want to see you. Audition Doctor sessions make sure that you don’t enter thinking that you will only be noticed if you are the “bells-and-whistles-you”, they make you realise that the “you-just-as-you” is far superior.
by Bel | May 16, 2013 | acting classes, acting classes london, audition classes, audition doctor, auditions, classes for acting, tilly blackwood
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 main preoccupations of boxing, raping and cannibalism to try his hand at Othello – or in his words “that black guy”. He articulately predicts that the experience will be simply “awesome”.
“My career as an actor has blossomed,” he said. “I never considered myself a comedian or actor, even though I was in movies and shows helping out friends … a lot of my friends are actors and directors and they say: ‘Mike, we need you to concentrate and take it seriously.’ They say my skills are horrible, but I have the natural timings for it. I am working on my skills.”
Mike’s friends are right. Even though you have all the natural timing in the world, skills need to be sharpened and developed if you want to be taken seriously as an actor. Appearing in Passion Play, Zoe Wanamaker says that returning to the West End is “nerve-racking”; the hardest part is the challenge of trying to attain perfection for six nights a week and two matinees. “You want people to love you and think you’re marvellous and that kind of stuff.”
But the audience can only think you’re marvellous if they trust in your artistic abilities and if you, as an actor, are confident in your proficiency. Drama school is where you acquire the technique which will allow you to begin to master the craft. Although some actors who haven’t been to drama school say that not going has given them the gift of childish amateurism, the verbal, physical and emotional dexterity that actors practice seemingly effortlessly onstage is, in reality, the result of in-depth professional training. Audition Doctor sessions are invaluable in that they give you concentrated blocks of time to focus just on you. Whether you have problems with accessing a particular emotion or are unsure of the emotional journey of the character, Audition Doctor allows you to tackle your own specific queries.
Aside from helping people with public speaking and drama school applicants, Audition Doctor also works with professional actors for auditions. Carey Mulligan spoke about her “crazy” audition for The Great Gatsby in The Telegraph – “It was in a loft somewhere in New York and usually auditions are just a camera, you and the casting director, or whatever. This was at least three cameras, one 3-D camera, one guy walking around with a camera and Baz had a hand-held one. Then there were were two photographers taking pictures of the whole process.”
Auditions can be nerve-wracking and unpredictable which is why coming to Audition Doctor will ensure that you enter the audition space feeling as calm and clear-headed as you can possibly be in the circumstances. As a result, you will not squander your audition no matter how many cameras and eyes are focused on you.
by Bel | May 2, 2013 | acting classes, acting classes london, audition classes, audition doctor, auditions, classes for acting
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. “They had such wonderful facilities at the school … every time I say that, it sounds like I’m talking about the toilets.” Roger Allam talked of how he “became obsessed with drama, stomping around London and paying 10p for standing tickets in the gods, and reading a Great Acting book that he found in the school library. He haunted stage doors and watched actors walking into pubs.” People become actors for various reasons – escapism, “for the girls”, therapy or for the excitement of having the chance to experience lives that are so distinctive from your own. Whatever the reason, Derek Jacobi is of the firm belief that actors are born and not made and that drama schools can only nurture the nascent talent that the student already possesses.
In an interview in The Times, Derek Jacobi and Ian McKellen talked of how they saw themselves in the acting profession: “McKellen casts himself as an actor who has had to labour at his craft, improving on the job over time until he reached his peak in his fifties and beyond. By contrast, he saw the young Jacobi as a natural. “Derek knew instinctively about the blank-verse line at an age when other people were having to learn about it. He was always able to speak Shakespeare. You’ve never thought about it, have you, in the way that Gielgud never had to think about it.”
Jacobi concurs, yet he thinks McKellen’s description of himself as a toiling yeoman, rather than a man with a gift, is disingenuous. “I don’t think a drama school can teach you how to act. That’s something you carry in you, to be honed and developed. And I don’t believe you, Ian, when you say you had to learn it all. I think you were a born actor, but you didn’t know it. I knew I was.”
Though McKellen is synonymous with the craft and has been knighted for his contribution to theatre, it is worthy to note that he still works at improving his craft. Whether he was born an actor or not, there is a constant hard graft to better himself as an artist even at the age of 76. This is the reason as to why Audition Doctor’s students are by no means purely drama school applicants but also working actors. The need to stay fresh and constantly sharpen and develop your skills requires discipline. Working with Audition Doctor means you can feel like if you were called for an audition tomorrow, you wouldn’t feel stale or daunted if you haven’t worked in a while.
There are no guarantees in this business, with Allam conceding that as a young actor: “I assumed in my grandiosity that in the fullness of time the good people of British television and the good people of Hollywood would of course hear of, or see, my brilliance and invite me to be in one of their marvellous films.”
Hugh Dancy is also proof that drama school isn’t for everyone, nor does it preclude you from the frustrations that come with being an actor: “Drama school might have given him a strong sense of purpose, he says, but he also worries that he might have felt that the world owed him a living…When you jump into this business when you’re 22, and you have that feeling, you could be in for a good kicking because it doesn’t always come so easily. I was lucky.”
Even the best in the business are unsure of what or when their next job will be; and if you are born with an “acting gene”, it will be useless if not trained. Whether you choose to go to drama school or not, acting is a vocation which requires practice, effort and of course – luck. Audition Doctor sessions ensure that you are constantly challenged to go to the edge of your limits. Like any muscle, the more you work it, the further the goalposts move and you find yourself being able to go the distant places in your psyche and physicality that you previously thought were out of reach.
by Bel | Sep 27, 2012 | acting classes, acting classes london, audition classes, audition doctor, auditions, classes for acting
The process of getting into an accredited drama school has become synonymous with adjectives such as “tough” and “challenging”. It requires not only creative ingenuity but also pragmatic organisation over a period which can span over six months. The very nature of an audition is stressful, with your performance dependent on innumerable factors which are out of your control- from the time of your audition, your nerves on the day, to whether the Northern line was part suspended due to planned engineering works. However, there are aspects that you yourself can plan that don’t involve Transport for London.
Many drama schools will assign an audition date as early as two weeks after having received your application form. This means you must already be confident enough to perform your audition speeches by the time you send it off. It’s also worth noting that drama schools have different audition requirements, with some stipulating one modern speech and one Shakespeare, others requesting three speeches and some such as The Central School of Speech and Drama providing a list of speeches for candidates to choose from. Reading the small print has never been more critical as I disquietingly discovered at East 15 when asked to do my second modern speech and had only Hermione from ‘The Winter’s Tale’. Despite the audition panel being obliging, this is a situation that could have been easily avoided. Tilly’s peerless acting coaching furnished me with unparalleled positivity and confidence, but it requires a whole other kind of audacity to feel poised and centred when in this position, which even she cannot provide.
Over the course of auditions and hopefully recalls for drama schools, audition panels will give notes as to how they think a speech could be improved or done more interestingly. Often notes from different drama schools will be contradictory as each panel will have varying tastes. This means that your audition speech will evolve even after Tilly’s acting sessions. Personally, I found it helpful to have “top-up” sessions at Audition Doctor, as this gave me time to discuss my audition, and workshop the panel’s suggestions. Furthermore, drama school auditions are staggered over a length of time and acting sessions at Audition Doctor are useful to ensure that the speeches don’t appear to be over-rehearsed and tired but fresh and original.
