Because the experience of going to a drama school audition can be scary, the natural instinct is to throw more energy into your performance, or keep one eye constantly on the panelists, r even resort to default reactions or phrases so we end up saying, “sorry” a million times!

The truth is, these people are normal people like the rest of us, who, often have actually found themselves in the same position some time before. The most important thing to keep in mind is that they want you to be good.

Think about it – the job of a drama school audition panelist is to find a class of young actors that best suit the training based on the specific needs of the course. Now I don’t think there’s any possible way that anyone could ‘show’ how suitable they are through the performance of a speech or song. BUT, the more able you are to walk into a room with the understanding that everyone else in there is just as normal as you and not resort to letting nerves get the best of you, the better the panellists will be able to determine whether your are right for the course.

I know it’s easier said than done to just drop the nerves and be normal when the audition experience is such an abnormal situation, but I promise you, the more honest and truthful you are is an acting auditionee, the easier you’ll find it to be more honest and truthful in you pieces.

I’ve spent the last few months getting some industry experience, as well as information to help inform what goes into the Crash Course, which should be complete just in time for this year’s  round of drama school auditions, so watch this space in the coming weeks!

In the mean time, you can register your interest in receiving the free Crash Course and also contact me with any questions/suggestions for articles on the website. I’ll be tweeting more frequently now too.

Now, let’s get some conversation going – where have you applied to audition this year?

• Choosing the right drama schools for you
• Applying for drama school (UCAS, The Application form & Personal statement)
• Receiving the audition brief
• Choosing audition material
• Preparing your modern speech
• Rehearsing your modern speech
• Preparing your Classical speech
• Rehearsing your Classical speech
• Preparing your song(s)
• Rehearsing your song(s)
• Preparing for the interview
• Devising tips
• The audition
• The interview
• Forgetting what just happened
• After you receive the dreaded letter

Interested? To be the first to receive the course, send me a blank email with COURSE in the subject line by clicking here.

…Not as hard as it could’ve done.

It’s impossible to ignore the piece’s justified appropriateness, considering the economy’s current state and to be fair to Lucy Prebble’s play, the message is delivered with punch and wit.

Where this production fell a little short for me, was with certain key performances that for different reasons where simply not believable. While the contract between actors and audience is a little more complex and humane than a test of believability, you sometimes can’t help but notice personal acting glitches when they are literally shoved in your face.

One example of this would be some of the vocal technique. It must be said that most of the cast could be heard perfectly throughout, Jason Langley in particular making the effort of filling a four-tier theatre seem effortless. Some of the leads, (who weren’t bad enough to be named and shamed by a fairly long way) unfortunately made this simple task seem uncomfortably effortful and quite simply at times being too much for the underlying intention of the text. The same ratio between good and bad goes for the American accents, including the biggest crime of all – sticking an intrusive “r” at the end of “America”.

Admittedly, though, I wasn’t listening to the radio and Rupert Goold’s stage was, as ever, completely owned by the actors including the often difficult transitions seem like a F1 car racing by – fast and cool. Anthony Ward’s set mirrored the stainless steel stock exchange feel that our corporate world often adopts – incorrectly or not. This, coupled with Jon Driscoll’s spot-on video and projection design created the perfect atmosphere for the audience to recognize the world we were entering into (and indeed, the difficulty of escaping it at times.) No wonder Goold nabbed him again for Mike Bartlett’s Earthquakes in London.

It’s a shame to see ENRON leave the West End, but just like the recession [we hope] everything has it’s time and place before it moves on. While this piece is rooted with relevancy, the jury’s out on whether it’s given us enough to learn from our economical mistakes permanently.

Richard.

The Royal Court Bookshop

The National Theatre Bookshop

Bushgreen

Bush Shop

Bush Library

Samuel French

Amazon Bookshop (Used and New play texts cost next to nothing!)

If you feel you can add to this list let me know, so that we can all help each other out.

If you haven’t done so already, sign up to my free Audition Crash Course to receive detailed guidance from the start of your application right through to the end of your audition. It’s free!

Richard.

• Keep your CV to black and white
• Use an easily readable font
• Make your name big and bold at the top.
• Provide more than one method of contact.
• Put appearance features like height, eye and hair colour etc. near the top.
• If applicable, put professional credits nearer to the top than amateur credits
• Your credits should take up most of the CV, but don’t make them looked cramped. Keep them neat and in tables.
• When writing your accents, music, dance and other skills, be honest! If you can’t do any of it without thinking about it, don’t put it down.
• Keep your CV to one page of A4 or similar
• Have I mentioned – Be honest?!

All of these pointers are merely based on my experiences and many, many, many drafts of my own CV! Only take them on board if you agree with them. I cannot stress how important it is to be honest. Embellishing the truth on your CV eventually makes you seem untrustworthy and unprofessional.

For your perusal, here’s a demo CV I’ve mocked up in .PDF format.

Any further questions, just email or tweet me and I’ll do my best to answer them.

Richard.

…It was brilliant.

[Show synopsis can be found by clicking here]

Let me just state that I am not a reviewer of any kind. I am a fan of theatre, here, purely to share my educated thoughts on a show. From the moment I entered the Cottlesloe Theatre I felt excited and ready for an experience. This eagerness to enjoy only intensified as the three-and-a-bit-hour time line of sixty years commenced. My focus was immediately tossed from end-to-end of the theatre with fast paced dialogue being darted across the space, split scenes galore, impressively rapid set changes and a performance to Coldplay’s Viva La Vida that still fills me with pure ecstasy just thinking about it.

Miriam Buether’s vibrant set compliments Rupert Goold’s direction almost seamlessly with the shallow in-the-wall set pieces only restricting the actors’ movements occasionally. The bar seating and standing areas anchor the juicy orange catwalk down perfectly with actors appearing amongst the crowd and sitting with us at times.

Howard Harrison had his work cut out to light the stage satisfyingly, but from where I was sat it seemed genuinely flawless. Dark in the right places, though never too dark. Add to this, Jon Driscoll and Gemma Carrington’s projection design filling in every nook and gap with insightful and pertinent images at every opportunity, and my eyes never felt bored.

Noticeable acting performances go to Lia Williams (voice support to die for and a clearly generous scene partner), Tom Goodman-Hill (pin-point comic timing) and Jessica Raine, who gave me great depth with what is potentially a broken-record character on paper. One other mention has to go to the exciting Bryonny Hannah, who’s physicality is questionably more convincing than a genuine fourteen-year-old lad. A masterclass in characterisation and enjoyment of the language that Bartlett offers the actors.

I could go on forever, dissecting each element of the performance, but there are only two things that really need to be said about this show:

• Rupert Goold proves again that he is a master in manipulating time and space, each time unafraid of the monstrous tasks put in front of him.
• Mike Bartlett has found a new way to deliver the seemingly trendy recurring message that the world is ending by focusing on the human aspect of the earth’s predicament.

Has Bartlett found the key to saving the planet? Maybe or maybe not. When all is said and done though, this piece of theatre is definitely worth a watch.

Plays until 22nd September 2010 at the National Theatre. Click here for more information on Earthquakes in London.

Under 26? Then go free with Entry Pass!

Richard.

Tone tone tone

The first thing the panelists will listen for in your singing voice is the ability to sustain a clear tone without decoration, such a vibrato. Many people make the mistake of assuming that lots of quick vibrato demonstrates a good voice with the most amount of control. This is actually extremely far from the truth. Vibrato is something that can be taught through technique and experience, but a clear and strong tone is often either present in your voice, or not. So when singing your song, less is more – Sing it, but don’t over-sing it!

Respect the composers

This isn’t as big an issue as it used to be, but some accompanists still like to stick to the tradition of using the original scores to songs. To avoid a possibly awkward situation, always bring the original book that your music is from if you can help it. If you’re worried about the page turning being a problem, (which it really can be!) then bring a photocopy as an alternative. That way, you’re giving your accompanist the choice and often they’ll choose the loose sheets, but subliminally, they’ll pick up on the fact that you have the original book in your possession!

Set the tempo

Before starting, be sure to set the tempo with the accompanist. Sometimes they will beat you to the punch and ask you. Either way, it’s good to be on the same page and get a little rapport going to show the panelists that you can work with someone you’ve just met.

Make any adjustments clear

As well as setting the tempo, you may have cut or adjusted your music for timing or thought-process purposes. It’s always good to let the accompanist and the panelists know this ahead of time so that they can sit back and enjoy your performance without worrying about why a third of the song has disappeared!

Choice is key

There is no doubt that carefully selected material in an audition is half the battle. That said, carefully choosing your material and giving the panelists and accompanist a choice is even better. It demonstrates a willingness to go further than ‘enough’ which makes the difference between a good drama school student and an excellent one.

So there you have it – Obvious and simple as these tips may be, it’s amazing what a difference they can make to how your overall audition appears to the panelists when you leave the room. By taking on these simple pointers in combination, you are guaranteed to leave appearing hard-working and dedicated. What’s more, when you’re in the room, you’ll be able to relax and enjoy performing, safe in the knowledge that you’ve prepared for the audition beyond the requirements, which won’t go unnoticed by the representatives of the drama school!

Do you have additional tips based on your experiences? Post them here or email me if you have specific questions you’d like answered.

Richard.

One scheme that still isn’t that well known, but is brilliant and offers free theatre for under 26s is the Night Less Ordinary scheme. The scheme is in place nationwide at venues such as the Everyman and Playhouse in Liverpool, the National Theatre, the Bush Theatre, the Donmar Warehouse, the Royal Court Theatre and the Young Vic to name [seriously!] just a few.

You can head over to the official A Night Less Ordinary website to view all theatres on the scheme.

Beyond this, many theatres have their own deals on certain shows and seasons. This summer for example, the National Theatre has teamed up with Travelex to provide £10 tickets to the majority of their shows. The Arcola Theatre simply asks you to pay what you can every Tuesday!

You may also be surprised to find that sites such as lastminute.com do great theatre deals. They have options to make a day and night of it with meal, show and hotel combos. The Dress Circle do evenings too, where you’ll get freebies such a programmes and complimentary drinks before the show. Other websites have membership shemes where you pay and annual fee and receive exclusive discounts and free tickets – Whatsonstage.com is one example.

OK, so I think you’re getting the hint. There are tonnes of offers, deals, freebies, clubs and the like out there. You just have to open your eyes and look for them. Don’t be scared to pick up the phone to the theatre box office and ask for the cheap deals on tickets. At the end of the day, they want bums on seats.

I’m going to start doing my bit and posting some links to deals and the like around the website. I promise though, that I’ll be leaving some of the best stones unturned for you to find. So get looking and leave a comment here if you’ve found a great deal.

Richard.

In return, I will link to your site for 30 days at no cost at all – no catch! It could be your business site, a Twitter or Facebook account or somewhere else – As long as it’s clean and relates in some way to what this site is about, there’s a free slot waiting for you!

Just send me an email answering the following two questions and include your advertising link. That’s it! Here are the two questions:

What is your idea of a perfect audition experience?

What is your idea of a good drama school?

Answers may be featured on the site if they fit and these mentions could be anonymous or named. Just let me know when you email me. I look forward to hearing your answers!

Richard.