ALRA (The Academy Of Live And Recording Arts)
On Tuesday the 7th of January I had my first drama school audition, safe to say I was S**tting myself!
So the day started at 9am at their Wigan campus (Trenchfield Mill)- firstly I found it a little hard to find due to the one way road system so if your driving set off early, it's better to be there an hour early than 10 minutes late !
The Audition Itself...
Once you arrive you go into a small room and meet everyone else auditioning. There was around 30 auditionees, ranging from 18 to around 40 (some post grads)! So a big age range, which I thought was good.
Warm up:
After meeting each other, two current students in their first year did a warm up with us. This consisted of everyone picturing a seaweed and then becoming this seaweed physically. This seaweed then progressed to a seaweed washing off the sea bed, then a seaweed when your favourite song comes on - which for me was of course the classic...In Da Club by 50 Cent:- so its safe to say I looked slightly silly as a ganster seaweed. However looking around everyone else looked a little silly, so this was a good ice breaker as we all became comfortable with each other straight away.
Stage One:
We where then handed over to Jane (Head of voice at ALRA) who did a voice workshop with us.
We started the workshop with a breathing exercise in which we learnt how to control our nerves and increase our thinking process through breathing.
We then began to walk around the room and Jane asked us to say the first vowel of one of our monologues out loud. For example mine was 'I'. We then had to act out how this vowel made us feel, this gave me a new prospective to my word 'I'. Instantly I began to feel arragont, self indudlged and powerful.
We where then split up into groups of around 15 in which we performed our contempary peices to a panel of 2, and the rest of the group. We then switched with the other group and performed our classical monologues to a different panel- I felt this was a great aspect to ALRA's audition day as your 'fate' didnt just lie with one or two people but instead felt more fair as there was two different panels.
The first cut of the day was made, in which about 15 people where asked to leave the auditions. However they where then given feedback in a seperate room which again i thought was a good element to the ALRA auditions...Because lets be honest we are paying £40-£50 for some of these auditions so feeback makes it a little less painful!
Stage two:
The next stage consisted of a movement and improvisational workshop.
Firstly Kieran (Head of movement) began to relax the remaining 15 of us with breathing exercises. We where then asked to picture 'water' for me the first thing that came to my head was a waterfall. We where asked to pysically become what we had pictured, through movement. Starting from hands all the way to your whole body. We did the same exercise with the image of fire. I really liked this workshop even though i found it the most challenging. I was able to see my body at its most maximised state and then quickly reduce it by the breathing exercises we where taught. Keiran also highlighted to me the importance of breathing and its effect on a performance.
We then met Andrew (Assistant head of acting). Andrew sat us all in a circle and began to tell a strange... But funny story to us all (I was captivated by the way he expressed this story and actually made you second guess if it was true - but unfortunately a talking gold fish isnt real). He then asked us to repeat the story back to the group, each person telling a section. We where then split in to small groups to create an impro for the story and performed them back to the rest of the panel and group. I found this exercise the most fun of the day as everyone was having a laugh with their ideas and not caring what anyone thought.
We where then taken downstaires while the panel made the final cut of the day. Around 10 of the 15 where asked to leave (and again given feedback) and around 5 of us stayed for the next round... Its safe to say i was nearly weeing with excitment just for getting to this stage.
Interviews!!!
The one I'd been dreading.
Adriana made a point at the start of the day that many auditionees do brilliantly through the day but once they get to interviews, cant string a sentence together. With that in mind I just continued to be myself, as in pressured situation i just ramble on.
I went up for the interview in which everyone id previously met was there: Adrian, Jane, Kieran and Andrew. They all took it in turns to ask me some questions, I also asked what other people where asked at the end so heres a few questions that a suspect other drama schools may ask too:
Why do you want to train here?
What would you do in a gap year?
Fav actor and film?
Fav play and writter ?
What are you reading at the moment?
What was the most recent play you watched?
What role would you love to play?
What did you find challanging about the day?
What did you think went well?
These are just a few questions that where asked to me and the other auditionees.
As you can see these are some nice questions...but at the time you feel like they've just asked you what 5 people you'd save if the world was going the end.
The interviews were then over and the final lot of us all wished each other luck and headed home, ready for the waiting game.
Tips for alra:
Adrian made it clear he wanted everyone to be themselves and I really advise this! As he said 'dont show them what you think they want to see - as your probably wrong anyway' haha i loved this.
Have a laugh and enjoy the day! ALRA's audition process was made really fun and relaxing by the teachers so dont worry about it like I was.
Peaceeeee 👊
