The acting profession is famously brutal. As with all art, it is subjective. Consequently, the reactions of an audience or drama school audition panel will inevitably vary. What will speak deeply to one person will leave another cold. Feelings cannot be quantified, nor can a performance be numerically appraised like a quarterly profit and loss statement. Like a professional actor auditioning for a job, whether or not you get a place at drama school hinges on factors that you are powerless to control.
In an interview in The Times, Ruth Wilson spoke about how no one in the Industry was exempt from the harsh realities of the profession: “You get rejected on a daily basis,” she says, “and it’s usually for things out of your control. You don’t have blonde hair, or you’re too big, or you’re not quite pretty enough.” How did you react to being told you weren’t pretty enough? “I’d get angry and say, ‘I AM!’ And force people to think otherwise about me.”
Nothing and no one can change certain unalienable facts about yourself; dyeing your hair a different colour or changing your body shape will inevitably only make you “unsuitable” for the next job. However, Audition Doctor can force a drama school audition panel to think differently about you. Whatever your background, acting is about transcending the trappings of your own existence. Going to Audition Doctor will make you stand out as Tilly will guarantee that you don’t take the easiest option. Daring and interesting choices are made within the speech that eschews a lazy performance.
Furthermore, the success of your drama school audition is not dependent on how “original” your Shakespeare speech is. The drama school panel will have seen a thousand Ophelias, Cressidas and Helenas, but Audition Doctor gives you the luxury of exploring how to inhabit the character and make it your Ophelia. In RADA’s advice on choice of audition speeches, it stipulates: “Don’t mimic the performance of someone else you’ve seen act the speech; we want actors not impersonators.” Sessions at Audition Doctor ensure that the Ophelia you portray, is wholly yours and not a cringeworthy reproduction. The audition panel at drama school don’t want you to replicate Jean Simmons or Helena Bonham-Carter and thankfully Audition Doctor ensures you don’t.