My experience has been quite something. To say the past few months have been a rollercoaster of emotions would be an understatement. So let's start at the beginning. The school I've got into has a rolling applications process for postgrad courses (I'm doing a PGdip/MA) which means that unlike undergrad courses, they don't all get processed at once by something like UCAS and everyone gets herded through the same system like cattle en masse. You can apply whenever during the year and they'll batch together reviewing your auditions and then later, if you're successful, callback auditions which will be spaced out over the year.
Something to note, that I didn't know when I applied and I'm really glad I didn't know because it would have scared me shitless- is that it is harder to get into drama school than it is to get into Oxford or Cambridge, and most people don't get in on the first attempt. I only have a couple of friends who are actors, but one of them took 5 attempts to get into drama school before she got accepted, and she said this was very normal for most of the people she knew.
Most people also apply for multiple drama schools to increase their chance of getting in. I only applied to one, because it was the only one offering the course I wanted to do.
There is a lot of...I guess 'snobbery' or 'elitism' may be the word, around drama schools, but if life has taught me anything, yes, having 'Property of RADA/ Oxbridge' stamped on your rear end may open some doors for you, but most of your success and opportunities come through putting yourself out there, and networking, backed up by your talent, and the recommendations of others, and a healthy dose of luck. Being prepared, being a hard worker, being punctual, and having prior employers say you're solid will get you places. Being a floaty airhead who is consistently late, misses deadlines, doesn't pay attention in meetings and who comes to the interview without their portfolio because they thought 'oxbridge' and 'IQ: 150' would be enough to get them the job will not get you places. You will see that this statement rings true even in my applications process if you keep reading. I didn't apply for RADA/LAMDA or any of the big big holy grail schools. My school is still one of the top ones that frequently comes up in the 'best of' lists, but I don't see the point in studying musical theatre if, like me, you want your career focus to be screen work and audiobook narration. I have absolutely no intention of ever tapdancing my way across a west end stage with a big grin plastered across my face, so spending a huge amount of money and time on training me to do that is a complete waste of resources for both me and the school. I know the direction I want my career to go so I picked a course that supports that. There are thousands of short term courses available for specific things so If I do decide I want to make my niche Shakespeare, I can go to RADA once I graduate and spend a few weeks focussed solely on that and if you're a CV builder, you can still get RADA on there even if it's not your main place to study. Maybe it's because I'm 38 but I'm too old to be messing around with superflous stuff.
How to apply for drama school
I'm sure each drama school has its own approach, so I can't speak for them, but I can tell you what the onboarding process has been for mine. Although my experience has been somewhat unique.
You start out by filling out an application form saying you'd like to apply. You include a mugshot of yourself, and they ask you for some information like name/age/height/gender/pronouns, your experience etc.
Once that's been accepted, the school will send you an email with the audition pack. I had a brief look at some other drama schools to see what their audition requirements are and each one is a little different in terms of what they'll ask for - some will ask for a contemporary monologue, a classical monologue and a song, some will ask for 2 classical monologues not just one, some will ask for movement as well, some will say no song required - so basically what exactly you get asked to do will be different depending on where you apply, and I believe most places have at least 2 rounds of auditions, and round 1 is frequently self tape.
The audition pieces
My drama school required four pieces to be submitted as a self-tape for round one.
I had to perform a contemporary monologue, a classical monologue, a movement piece and a little spiel about myself. Each one is to last around two minutes. If I was successful, I'd be recalled for round 2 after about 28 days. In that I would need to perform my pieces again to them in person, and do some workshops with the other candidates so the teachers see how well I played with others and took direction.
The advice I was given by Admissions at RADA
I didn't apply for RADA because they didn't offer a course I wanted to do, but I did a day experience there last year to see how the teaching quality there compared with the teaching quality of the school I wanted to apply to. (They were just as good, and I was suprised to see one of the teachers split their time between RADA and my school). I had a good chat with admissions afterwards and asked if they had any tips for auditions. The lady told me three things:
Pick something that resonates with you rather than something that you think will impress us.
Read the whole play. We have all seen each monologue thousands of times and it's obvious when people haven't read the play because they miss the entire point of the monologue and it shows up with how they choose to perform it
If you're doing Shakespeare, for the love of god don't do Viola if I have to see that one more time I'll scream.
How I approached my audition pieces
I bought some monologue books. They were all from 'The Good Audition Guides'
which you can buy on Amazon or Waterstones, you can probably even get them at the libary - I managed to get all mine on Ebay for about £3 each. I bought: Contemporary Monologues for Women, Classical Monologues for Women, and Shakespeare Monologues for women. I highly recommend these books because they give you a mini character bio, a what has happened before and some points to consider.
I sat down with a block of sticky tabs and flipped through each book only looking at the ages of the characters, and immediately disregarding anything far too young or far too old. Then I read through every single monologue in the relevant age group, removing tabs from anything that didn't speak to me within the first paragraph, then I whittled it down to my top 5 faves. Then I re-read them aloud again to see:
Did it connect with me on a personal level
Did the character go on a journey within the monologue
Was there a variety of emotion that could be played, or was it quite one dimensional
Was there a moment of realisation or change
The contemporary monologue
I was immediately drawn from the start to Anne from Brontë by Polly Teale, because I felt a very strong connection with the message: Anne was basically questioning what the point of their creativity was. As an intensely dissatisfied corporate graphic designer I had found myself asking those exact questions too: what's the point of having creativity if I don't use it in a way that positively affects others - I spend my time drawing silly little pictures (or in Anne's case writing stories) and for what? money? Making my corporate boss richer? How's that making the world a better place? How is that truly helping anyone? To an extent I was also asking the same question of all creatives: Because what we do seems utterly frivolous to others in the grand scheme of things - even as actors - but creatives have such an important role in lifting people up through sharing stories that it/we should never be undervalued. To me this monologue was a no brainer.
I then got my hands on a copy of the play and read it twice, making sure I paid attention to the events leading up to Ann's monologue, who she was talking to, why she was talking to them and the point she was trying to make with her monologue outside of what I'd already gleaned from the text in the monologues book. This is so important. I've seen this monologue done several times on youtube by other actors and it's really obvious they haven't read the play. They all chose to play it as being angsty tortured artist having an existential crisis. When in reality, there is SO much at play which all feeds into the reason for the monologue occurring in the first place: gender roles, anger, betrayal, resentment, stress, disconnection, disenfranchisement, culture... So I understand now why the woman at RADA stressed reading the play. Because without that context, this piece could equally be performed as if you're skipping down a country lane having a casual chinwag with your best mate on a sunny day swatting away flies and just musing about life. And while in isolation, this wouldn't necessarily be wrong.... it's AN interpretation, but it's not one that actually makes sense within the context of the play and shows you up as being too lazy to do the basic legwork for your audition.
I wasn't happy with any takes I made of my monologues, and this was a last minute, last ditch attempt to nail it. I hadn't slept in two days, I'd had a rotten week, I was dealing with 6 weeks of insomnia, my relationship was on the rocks, and I was fighting the worst bout of depression I'd had in almost a decade. I felt like utter garbage but it actually worked in my favour with this monologue!
Classical monologue
Shakespeare was the one that needed the most work. It was incredibly daunting for me because even though I've got a literature degree under my belt, I chose Comparative Literature over English Lit because it meant I didn't have to do Shakespeare. I had a pretty poor experience with him at school and avoided him ever since. I procrastinated like a beast with this monologue. Just reading the books was a real exercise in grit and there was a lot of groaning and 'uuurrrrrghhh I HATE THIS!!! what are they even saying?!?!' and storming off to take a break. I really struggled to connect with any of them because all the emotions are so overblown - nobody is like 'I'm having a bit of a crap day' it's all 'oh woe is me, why canst the gods not see mine misery and endeth it? I curse the house of the person that hath pisseth me off'. Imogen from Cymbeline was the ONLY one I started reading and the words felt natural. I thought big long walk, tired, fed up, pissed off with men, hungry.. I see you sis. And having just given it all this chat about having struggles getting past the language, Cymbeline is apparently very rarely performed because the language is infamously difficult.
But I read it through about 20 times to make sure I understood what it was saying.
Then I read the play which took me an entire day because of the language barrier. Then I went back to the monologue, wrote down the emotions and thoughts that were swirling around in her head, why she was where she was and where she was going and why she was going there, then broke the script down further so each line was a thought, then made sure I understood exactly what that thought was within the context of the play as a whole. Shakespeare gives a lot of instructions in the text as well which I'm not going to go into right now because time/place etc. This is neither.
Movement
I freaked out when I saw I had to do a movement piece because I am not a dancer. I don't dance if I can possibly avoid it. I do not have a natural connection with my body whatsoever. I don't know how to move. I'm extremely self-conscious, I am not flexible, I am not coordinated, I am not graceful. I pull push doors, bang into door frames, bash my shins on small furniture and fall up the stairs on a regular basis.
You don't have to be a dancer to do a movement piece. You just have to be able to tell a story using your body instead of your words in some way.
I went on youtube to look up movement auditions and saw some guy prancing round his garden doing karate chops like a 5 year old and thought 'oh ok... well if that counts, I'm sure I can figure something out'. For my movement piece I was given a choice of three images, or three pieces of music and had to choose one of them to serve as the inspiration for my audition. The images were..... I don't know what they heck they typed into google to find those. They were bizarre. Two of the pieces of music didn't resonate with me either but the last one was Vivaldi's 'Spring' by Max Richter, which I had fallen in love with a year previously when I heard it on instagram. It was a beautiful May day, and I stuck my earphones in and sat under a tree in the park with my eyes shut and listened to it over and over on repeat and noted down the things I felt and the images I saw in my head.
These are the notes I made:
Two stories being told at the same time
Slow gentle, slightly reluctant lumbering waking up - of the land/people
Very busy and switched on, lots of talking / birds
Different types of awakening: Slow/busy nature: Morning people vs not morning people
Stop motion plants growing from seed on David Attenborough shows
Birds / dawn chorus / morning alarm
Journey: depression into peace
Animal / plant movements echoed by humans: yoga: downward dog, mountain 'root to rise'
spring - new beginnings, hope, morning, growth physically/spiritually, waking up, peace
People go through life with their eyes shut, not really seeing or feeling the world around them. Nature is constantly alert and in tune
Humans, nature, human nature. Human | Nature
I sat with this for a little while and the 'Human | Nature' theme kept coming back to me and I thought about how I could weave these two elements into a little journey. This is the 'script' outline I came up with
Human: Eyes closed. Alarm shock to the system - don't want to get up. [Transition] Having a stretch turns into.... Nature: Eyes closed. Roots stirring underground (stop-motion) Human: Eyes closed. 'root to rise' Forcing self to sleepily get up and face the day Nature: Seed sprouting upward. Eyes open when leaves break through soil and into the sunlight
Human: Very groggy, eyes closed, stumble to feet and stretch - hands to namaste trying to greet the day with an open heart.
Nature: Bluetit, eyes open, alert, curious about the world around it, wanting to know what's going on, busy
Human: Eyes closed. Reluctantly flopping forward to convince themselves to do yoga because it's good for them. Steps into downward dog
[Transition] squat down into a fox position
Nature: Eyes open. Fox taking a minute in the early morning to savour the sunlight on its face, sniff the air and do a little grooming
[Transition] sit back into cross legged meditation pose
Human: Release shoulders from ears, visibly breathe out. Human finds peace.
I felt like a damn fool the entire way through and it really makes me cringe putting this video up, but hopefully it helps someone else who is facing a drama school audition going 'what the hell is a movement piece?!?!' because I feel you. I've been there. This somehow got me a place in one of the top drama schools in London for a postgraduate level degree.
It's funny because reading this you might be like 'so she doesn't like Shakespeare and she doesn't like to dance... why is she putting herself through this?!'
Because you don't grow through staying comfortable, that's why. With something like Shakespeare and Movement, if something makes me squirm and procrastinate it means I need to lean into the discomfort because there's something I need to learn, and I love to be proved wrong. I would love to come away from my course and say with complete honesty that I am a Shakespeare lover.
So I did my audition pieces, I handed them in. The audition guide said it would take about 28 days to hear back. I had an email back very quickly saying they're a bit swamped and would put my tapes in for review in the next couple of weeks. So I counted from that day. 28 days and heard nothing. Gave it a few more days and was having a little bit of a panic because term was due to start it a little over a month and I didn't know what was going on because I hadn't had a rejection and according to my video stats they hadn't even been seen. So I called up and was reassured that they were just a bit behind with viewings, I hadn't been forgotten and I hadn't been rejected. That same afternoon I got an email asking me to come in for a callback - I'd made it to Round 2!! I need to let them know what time from their selection worked best for me and prepare my same two monologues while I await further instructions.
Then the next day I got a call from the admissions office saying 'actually don't worry about coming in for a callback'.
My heart dropped through my stomach.
'We did a little digging and the teachers at the summer school you did with us wrote a really thorough and glowing review of you - how you work with others and take direction so you've already passed that part of the examination so you don't need to come in and do that, they just need to review your mononologues. OH! I didn't realise that I had notes made on me or that that would be used in my application!
No, we've never done that before for anyone else! So do I still need to come in and do the monologues? or...
No, they just want to review your self tapes again. Keep your phone next to you and we'll get back to you in the next couple of days with a decision.
So I spent the next 48 hours on pins feeling like I was about to throw up.
Then I got the call saying they'd be 'delighted to offer' me a place, if I would like to have one.
er YES?
So that's my experience. It's not the usual process for the second half, but if you're applying to Drama School yourself I hope there's something useful in there for you. Either in terms of my script approach, or reassurance that just because you're not a dancer doesn't mean you won't be good enough for a movement audition, or just because you're over 25 it doesn't mean you're too old to apply for drama school, or just because you don't get in on the first attempt it doesn't make you a failure it makes you normal - by all accounts me getting into the single drama school I applied to and not having to do a second audition is the real anomaly.
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