MA Acting Drama Centre Recall Audition Experience

If you would like to read about my first round click here

I arrived at Drama Centre at 9:30 AM on a Saturday morning a bit worried since I didn’t have a photograph with me (someone had emailed on Wednesday asking me to bring one) and proceeded to wait nervously in the reception after telling the receptionist that I was there for my MA Acting recall audition. I noticed three people waiting with me, one was a girl I had met at my ALRA audition; the other was a girl I had met at my LAMDA first-round audition and the other one was a guy I met at my ArtsEd audition. The two girls were there for their first-round BA Acting audition. I caught up with the two girls and at exactly 10 AM a past student came down and called out the names of the MA Acting recall auditionees.

The security in Central Saint Martins is super strict so the security guard wouldn’t let us through initially since the current student forgot to get our identification stickers. After a bit of a cuffuffle, we finally made it through the gates to the main part of the school.

The current student told us that we would be doing either a movement or voice workshop first so we could leave our bags and coats outside the room on the sofas and enter the studio ready to work. I dutifully took off my shoes off (I was wearing Docs) and stripped my layers back so I was just in sportswear and entered the studio. Upon entering, I noticed there was another group of students already in the room and this group had taken their bags and coats with them and dumped it in the corner of the room. It turned out that half of us left our stuff outside and the other half inside but it didn’t matter too much.

Liana, the movement teacher, gave us a short intro explaining that we would be split into two groups, one doing a voice workshop and the other movement (swapping after) and that the movement workshop would be run by her protégé (yes, you heard me correctly, protégé) who used to be a student on the MA Acting Course where he was a “high flyer” so now he has become her protégé (amazing). My group did the movement workshop first which was super hard. The first bit was the technical stuff. This was the stuff I found challenging. We had to do different movement sequences where we were pulled my muscle groups which we were not used to using rather than being pushed with power. This probably makes no sense but in essence, it was an array of exercises which required SERIOUS CONTROL.

After the technique bit, we moved on to movement through expression rather than technique. I love doing stuff like this so I felt very comfortable. Liana’s protégé played some music and drew different pictures on the board. We then had to move to the music to the essence of the drawing. This went on for quite a while and I was exhausted by the end of it!

After movement, the group went downstairs and did a voice workshop while the other group did the movement workshop. In this workshop, we did various breathing and siren exercises to loosen up the voice. We also played with the first line of our monologue a lot. I didn’t notice the teachers watching as much as I did in the movement workshop. The only time we ever did anything by ourselves was when had to pair up and say one word each of our monologue to our partner alternating. The voice session went very quickly and was over before I knew it. I found myself worried at the end of it that I hadn’t showcased anything but I guess this method of assessing is a lot more subtle than in the movement class.

Once we were through with the movement class, we went back upstairs and Georgina, the course director gave us a short speech about coming to Drama Centre and how we should use this day to our advantage as much as possible to get all the info we require about the school. She really stressed on chatting with the current students. They then read out the order of when we would be auditioning. (Everyone would just be doing their classical speech). 8 people auditioned before lunch and I was not one of them, I had to be back at 1:25 PM for my audition which would probably take place around 2 PM. I met a lovely girl called Alma at this point (HEY ALMA!!) who follows this blog and we both got chatting and joined in on the discussion a current student (Nikoletta I think her name was) was having with the rest of the group. It’s clear that the students at the school are really in love with the course. What stood out for me, in particular, was the way they spoke about the Russia part of the course. They hadn’t been yet but “apparently” when students go to Russia and come back they are completely unrecognisable in their acting. A bit like the difference between someone coming back from the summer in their third year of a BA Acting course. Talk about WOWWWW.

 I went to lunch with Alma, however, I had the lunch from hell because I was using a new card but apparently, I was putting in the incorrect pin so I blocked my own card so had to leave Waitrose with nothing. I didn’t want Alma to know this since it would be weird if she felt obliged to get me something so I just told her I’d eat after my audition which was a lie. Super high-stress lunch break as you can imagine.

Alma and I made it back to the waiting room and at 1:25 the current student read out a group of names including my own which would be auditioning next. We waited at the sofas outside the room and we chatted about all sorts of topics while we waited. When it was my turn to go in, my belly was full of adrenaline so I forgot that I was hungry. The panel was made up of around 6 people and two of them I recognised from my first round audition. Georgina, the course leader, already knew what monologue I would be doing so I went ahead and did it. Liana and Georgina both then redirected my speech asking me to really picture where I was and get across the feeling that I was telling the audience a secret. I tried my absolute best at this moment and then it was over.

On my way out. I got chatting to a guy on the BA Course and he told me about people breaking down all the time in ways you wouldn’t expect. I found this conversation to be so fascinating since he really opened up about how emotionally difficult it could be at Drama School. Upon leaving I told him that I hoped to see him again one day and he looked at me and said with the utmost assurance “I know I will see you here”. He said it like he KNEW. I found that so sweet and refreshing and he was definitely right since today I received a call from Georgina letting me know they would like to offer me a place at Drama Centre!! WOOPEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!