Part One: Drama Studio London Audition Experience
Getting to Drama Studio London (DSL) was simple. I took the DLR all the way to Bank and then the Central Line all the way to Ealing Broadway. When I got off the tube I walked for 10 mins to DSL and on the way there I was able to eye up the neighbourhood. I already knew Ealing was an affluent area but the actual town centre is so cute with loads of charming shops and boutiques full of families and young professionals. Very picturesque.
I got to DSL at around 9:20 AM and at this time most auditionees had already arrived and were waiting in a room upstairs. The school itself is very small and is in a large house. It has a very homey feel which I liked and along the walls, it had pictures of every year at DSL. I thought that touch was especially pleasant.
The entrance of DSL
The staircase dotted with photo of each year of DSL
In the waiting room there were mostly BA applicants and there were two DSL students floating around chatting to us and handing out prospectuses for us to look at while we waited. The BA students were taken away before the Diploma applicants and around 15 mins later, Diploma applicants were taken downstairs to start the day. There were around 8 of us.
I really don’t like it when schools split up their 1-year applicants and BA applicants during auditions because to me, it implies a disparity in the quality of actors/actresses in the two groups. This is also what Central, Mountview, Arts Ed and Drama Centre does. Maybe it’s their way to break down the groups into more manageable sizes instead of just using alphabetical order or maybe it’s so that they can see the range of actors/actresses they have during the audition process more clearly. I don’t know, but either way, it is disheartening.
We all sat down in a row and a man and a woman introduced themselves to us. One was called Crispin, The Head of Acting at DSL and the other woman (I can’t remember her name) was the head of 3rd year BA and the 1-year Diploma.
There was something about this woman which I very much so admired. She had this elegance, strength and gentleness which was unique to anyone I’d ever met. It made me extremely alert and I was very eager to impress her more so than the other gentleman.
We went around and briefly described what we were doing now and why we chose DSL. The girl next to me went on for ages and I was just thinking what a drag!! When we all finished speaking, Crispin told us what made DSL different from other schools then we had a brief warm before starting impro stuff.
The first task we did was that we had to be waiting in a doctor’s surgery to be seen by a doctor. We were supposed to be waiting for either really good or a really bad thing (so the stakes were supposed to be high). We then had to pretend to be waiters in either a high status or low-status establishment of our choice for a while. After a while, we had to wait in the opposite kind of establishment so if you were waiting in a relaxed café before you would now have to wait in a Michelin star restaurant. The final waiting activity we did was that we were waiting by a phone to receive some really good or really bad news. While we were waiting, we were not supposed to know whether the news would be good or bad.
After the waiting tasks, we all had to choose an animal then pretend to be that animal. Then we played a one-liner improvisation game. One person left the room and another person came out. The person in the room was given a one-liner to say to the person who left upon entering then they had to run with it. I wasn’t happy at all with my impro. I thought this was the one thing that let me down so far.
After impro, it was time for the monologues. We had to choose one monologue to do in front of everyone and I chose my Shakespeare because I felt like it was easier to get behind a happier monologue.
Now that the speeches were over, the panel said that they would be back in 10-15 mins to tell us the result. Relatively short if you ask me. We all chatted nervously and awaited our fate. 10 mins later, we all got into a circle and they went around one by one to tell us the result and then our feedback. I was sitting next to one of the panel members so I was first to receive my verdict…
Comments
Post a Comment