Applying for 2013

[dorothy]

She loved the pizza AlisonB. In some ways its probably a bit of a relief its all over for this year. She is fine today and still has lots to look forward to in the coming months until after the summer and then it will be time to start again and I do get to keep her at home which is great as we get on really well. I had to go out and get the pizza in the snow at 11.30pm last night as she didnt get back from Guildford until then. Its only a few minutes walk away though and she was raveneous so I didnt mind and I ordered it on the phone and then just went to pick it up.

[nigelben]

Glad your daughter enjoyed her pizza dorothy. Yes that is a plus being able to keep them home for another year, once ds leaves that will be both mine gone . I've been trying to show positives to ds if he has to have a gap year, as long as he earns some money-he does have a pt job at a supermarket, and hopefully may be able to do more sociable weekday shifts when he finishes school-he can plan a couple of treats like going to New York for a few days, so there are definite positives for them as well. Also interesting to hear that those who have got a place at the age of 18 do feel they may have benefited from a gap year.

[dorothy]

Glad your daughter enjoyed her pizza dorothy. Yes that is a plus being able to keep them home for another year, once ds leaves that will be both mine gone . I've been trying to show positives to ds if he has to have a gap year, as long as he earns some money-he does have a pt job at a supermarket, and hopefully may be able to do more sociable weekday shifts when he finishes school-he can plan a couple of treats like going to New York for a few days, so there are definite positives for them as well. Also interesting to hear that those who have got a place at the age of 18 do feel they may have benefited from a gap year.

Funny you should talk about New York. I have been promising my dd for years we would go to NY and see a couple of shows. We can do that now as there has always been things on at school/college or no money when we can so we can hopefully go in the autumn, maybe on a cheaper deal if not in school holidays to inspire her for the round of auditions next year (money permitting).

Yes there are lots of positives from my point of view, maybe not so much from dds point of view and if its any help should your ds get a recall for GSA I can let you know what they have to do at it so pm me if you need any info on that. Best of luck for his other auditions.

[nigelben]

Thanks Dorothy, that's really kind of you. DS didn't get a recall to Bristol Old Vic first time he seems to have been quite downhearted. At least they got back to him really quickly unlike Manchester Met, 4 weeks after his recall!! He's still not absolutely sure which song to sing for GSA, think this year he needs to go for the one he feels most emotionally connected with even if it is a popular one.

[dorothy]

Sorry about BOV for your ds Nigelben. I think they start off full of hopes and dreams and each unsuccesful they get makes them a little downhearted especially when they hear of other people they know getting places but it also makes them stronger. He should go for a song he feels most comfortable with and shows off his voice as you only really do the song and only have a few minutes to impress. If he gets a recall at GSA they then have to choose a song from a list they send them. I think the list is on the website under audition recall information. My ds loved the GSA recall so if the first round one is disappointing the second one is a full day. Good luck to him for GSA. Does he have any more after that or is that it for this year?

[sapphire]

Thanks Dorothy, that's really kind of you. DS didn't get a recall to Bristol Old Vic first time he seems to have been quite downhearted. At least they got back to him really quickly unlike Manchester Met, 4 weeks after his recall!! He's still not absolutely sure which song to sing for GSA, think this year he needs to go for the one he feels most emotionally connected with even if it is a popular one.

Sorry to hear about BOV ... they are really quick at sending out those thanks, but no thanks emails :/ I would agree re. the song choice. About half way through her auditions last year DD decided to dump one of her monologues and go back to an old faithful that she had originally dismissed as being too tame for drama school auditions and it was only then that she started getting recalls! Best of luck to him with GSA

[showtunes]

Thanks Dorothy, that's really kind of you. DS didn't get a recall to Bristol Old Vic first time he seems to have been quite downhearted. At least they got back to him really quickly unlike Manchester Met, 4 weeks after his recall!! He's still not absolutely sure which song to sing for GSA, think this year he needs to go for the one he feels most emotionally connected with even if it is a popular one.

That's a shame. But glad they were quick to let him know. Fingers crossed for your Ds for the GSA audition. All great experience. Hope he is holding up ok,and that you are too. X

[nigelben]

Thank You for all your kind wishes. Ds has GSA(mt) tomorrow and RADA in April, so two left, will be glad when they're all over, has been one of the most stressful times!! How ever much you are told it probably won't happen in the first year it's horrible watching them get impersonal rejection emails, I know they have to get used to this if they go into the business and ds definitely takes it better than me, would be great if they could give a bit of feedback although I do know it's not practical for these schools as they get so many applicants.

[dorothy]

I know exactly how you feel. Its not so bad the first 2 or 3 times as there are other places to go to but when you get to the last couple auditions without an offer it gets harder and as you say us parents take it harder than our kids. I know realistically the places can't give feedback but I think our kids know if they have done a good or bad audition and if they have been told by the panel well done or that was good and they feel it went well and then they get a rejection I guess its all a bit bewildering as to what they might have done wrong or what they can improve on. As a lot of people have said on here as there is such a lot of talent competing for so few places I guess it all comes down to who they prefer on the day. Anyway I am thinking of you.

[Genevieve]

wish it was that simple - when my dd auditioned the auditions she thought had gone really well, she didn't get recalls for, and those she thought she'd not done that well.. offered her recalls !!! it's a hard one , as you really never can tell, and you can never 'read' an audition panel When my dd auditioned for BOV, she felt it was her best one, - but it was almost as if they had written her rejection letter before she'd left the building , as it arrived so soon after !!!
One thing my dd did find out from each school though, is that they don't necessarily offer places to those who did the best auditions ....and although each school is different in what they look for, ultimately they all want 'trainable' acting students, who work well with others and who show in their auditions that they can follow direction and show they have a good understanding of Shakespeare.
And some of the schools do give feedback if you email and request it, I'm sure LAMDA will but there's a time limit you have to request the feedback by following your audition

[nigelben]

Completely agree with that Genevieve, ds felt his first audition at Manchester Met went OK but he had not connected as well with his speeches as he could and he got a recall, but in the others he felt he had done really well with no recalls. At BOV, he wasn't redirected at all so perhaps they had already rejected him.

[showtunes]

Completely agree re the feedback. We requested it via e mail from Central as were told they did that on request. But two months later am still waiting for it. Other places said no,they didn't offer any feedback. They sit there and writes notes about you,while you perform for them for a fee ,of between £30-£50 in our case. Why can't they at least operate a system where they can let you know what you can improve on. After all,what happens to the notes they write about everyone? they should all offer it on request,either by e mail or for you to include a SAE with the application and hefty check.

[tikka]

wish it was that simple - when my dd auditioned the auditions she thought had gone really well, she didn't get recalls for, and those she thought she'd not done that well.. offered her recalls !!! it's a hard one , as you really never can tell, and you can never 'read' an audition panel When my dd auditioned for BOV, she felt it was her best one, - but it was almost as if they had written her rejection letter before she'd left the building , as it arrived so soon after !!!
One thing my dd did find out from each school though, is that they don't necessarily offer places to those who did the best auditions ....and although each school is different in what they look for, ultimately they all want 'trainable' acting students, who work well with others and who show in their auditions that they can follow direction and show they have a good understanding of Shakespeare.
And some of the schools do give feedback if you email and request it, I'm sure LAMDA will but there's a time limit you have to request the feedback by following your audition

I also think that they are looking for a wide range of 'different' students so that they don't take on too many people who are very similar to those they have already offered places too.

tikka

[nigelben]

DS enjoyed his audition at GSA in Cardiff today, he thought it went well, trying not to get our hopes up though for them only to be dashed again. We also had a really nice day in Cardiff which is a plus They said usually they are prompt at getting their results out but due to it being Easter it will be 10-14 days so another tense wait again!

Happy Easter everyone

[pg]

I think the feedback thing is interesting. Having sat on the other side of the casting table a few times I have begun to appreciate how difficult it is to provide useful feedback.

As an actor, I completely understand wanting to know why you have not been successful - I think it's inevitable and we all have a tendency to try to analyse "what went wrong". That's not a bad thing in itself - it's got to be right to want to improve/avoid mistakes etc - however, in so many audition situations it really isn't a case of "what went wrong". It is just a case of "someone was more right than you".

Some schools do provide feedback. They will tend to add the caveat that they are not prepared/do not have time to discuss it. To my mind, that means the feedback isn't a lot of use - it might even be damaging. It is very rare for an auditionee not to want clarification about written feedback. Unless it is "you burst into tears in the middle of your speech and couldn't get back on track, and left the room in floods of tears: we do not feel you are quite ready for drama school training" - which, let's face it, you are likely to know - then you are likely to read it and be thinking "but..." or "what exactly do they mean by that? I thought I did (or didn't) do that."

It might be something like: "you were rather stiff and did not seem engaged physically in your classical speech, your modern speech was better" - that might be moderately useful - you could go away and work on it perhaps - but you might think that you had done both speeches with just the same amount of physical engagement and end up feeling confused. If it's "you held back in group activities, we would have liked to have seen more involvement" you might think "but that was because there was that twit who monopolised every improvisation - I couldn't be more involved without appearing cocky and argumentative". Almost every sort of feedback will lead to an actor wanting to talk about it. If the actor tries to "recreate" the problem for someone else to comment upon, the next observer may not agree. Worse, they may try to "fix" the problem for the next audition and end up being criticised for the fix in the next feedback.

Even more unhelpfully, feedback is not always a) entirely honest or b) the whole picture. Sometimes people don't want to be blunt, so they try to find something vague about "seeming nervous" for example, when what they might mean is "you were completely wooden". Sometimes they may say: "you are too young, we are looking for a bit more maturity". Now that's fine - you come back next year - but I'd be prepared to bet that's not the whole story. The whole story is really hard to give and really it ideally needs a discussion. Sometimes, too, the feedback may be slightly (but not intentionally) a little careless and this is bad news too, because auditionees will agonise over every word as though they have been very carefully chosen, whereas in fact they might be quite general.

I think the best kind of feedback for an actor is from someone who knows what you are like as an actor. Someone who has watched your progress, or seen you in several performances - then they know your weaknesses and strenghts and can help you with some contructive criticism and some trial and error. The next best is (I think) from someone with experience who can spend some time with you - not just working on your speeches, not even mainly working on your speeches, but working on your general acting craft - because it is this that allows you to audition well in the future.

At the end of all of that, it still, sometimes, just comes down to good fortune.

If you watch lots of auditions I think you see pretty quickly that there are definitely some people who have just "got" something. That's really hard to define, but very easy to spot. The skill for drama school audition panels is spotting those where the "certain something" isn't shining as brightly as it might - but they think it will given half a chance. They don't always get that right.