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Hi there,

I have an audition in London next weekend for the RBAPA (Royal Berkshire academy of performing arts) agency and I was just wondering if anyone else has any experience with them?

All the best,

Bebo

London?? When my DS was with them they were Bracknell based

Yeah I think they must have hired somewhere for audition space, how did you find your experience with them?

Very interested to hear how you got on......

Yeah- I'm quite interested in RBAPA too, but I haven't heard anything about them before.

Has anyone got anything to add on this?

RBAPA are bracknell based but seem to audition in London. They have a Saturday drama school and also an agency. I know a few people in the classes and they are all very hard working and talented kids. If you're just interested in the agency and not the classes, then they require parents to attend certain courses re auditions etc.
It is an agency that appeals to me and something we may consider in future. Some of the boys I know in their classes/agency have received lots of work through them. The lady in charge (Dorinda I think) is very approachable - she took the time to call me and answered lots of my questions.

We paid them £90 for a place in Spotlight and haven't heard anything since!

That would have been £90 paid to Spotlight and not the agency themselves, I can't speak for them as an agency though I'm afraid but perhaps others can but I would be asking for your Spotlight login details to check that its been done.

My daughter now has a Spotlight pin number, but still hasn't heard anything more from RBAPA Agency. Every day she asks if there has been any castings or auditions sent. Absolutely nothing and it has been over six months!

EDIT: Whilst the advice below may be helpful (or not) for some regarding agencies in general - the fact that the person who runs this agency is involved with Talent-Inc changes my opinion rather radically.

Original response:

The agency may be working hard for your dd - or they may not. It is not uncommon to go for months without any castings unfortunately - the agency does not dictate what opportunities come up. Of course some agencies are better connected than others and their submissions may carry more weight with CDs.

I would recommend writing to ask whether they have any advice about what you can do to make your dd more appealing to casting directors. Should she be looking for short film/student film opportunities to get a showreel together? Is her photo completely up to date/suitable? What would they recommend? Can they give you their thoughts on why she hasn't been called in?

If you approach it as one half of a partnership, accepting that it may be things that you need to do, rather than things the agent needs to do, then you should be able to work with them in a positive way. It's possible that the agent is just hopeless - but to be honest, that's not the likely reason. Ask them whether they could give you a list of everything she has been submitted for during the last 6 months, then you can get a better idea of what they have been doing. But don't approach it in a "why haven't you got her any auditions?" kind of way - because it's likely to get their back up! Most agents can't "get" auditions for clients - it is usually 95% dependent on whether the client (your dd) is the type the CD wants to see - and very often that's just the luck of right face, right skills, right place, right time. The best agents are very choosy about who they take on - they try to work out whether the client is the sort the CDs will want to see! It's one of the reasons the top agents become top agents - it's because they know how to pick people their experience tells them are likely to become top clients - and the CDs trust their judgement. It's an upward spiral. It's not always an upward spiral for the actors though - top agents have been known to ruthlessly cull actors who don't get much work.

The exception to this is if you (general "you" - not you debi340) have paid money up front to an agency to be on their books. If this is the case, the agent has no incentive to do any work to get clients seen - it's much easier to make money by taking some more people on, than it is to make money by commission on work done by their clients. You can see the truth of this on NAPM all the time - by the large number of people desperate to be taken on by agencies and the small number of people reporting success in getting paid jobs.

bebo1990 wrote:Hi there,

I have an audition in London next weekend for the RBAPA (Royal Berkshire academy of performing arts) agency and I was just wondering if anyone else has any experience with them?

All the best,

Bebo

Hi, I can't comment on the agency because I don't know anything about it. All I can say is that Dorinda, the lady who runs RBAPA is also running Talent Ink uk. There's a separate thread on this, you'll find it if you go to my posts. Please feel free to ask any questions.

I have pm'd you debi

Ditzi wrote:Hi, I can't comment on the agency because I don't know anything about it. All I can say is that Dorinda, the lady who runs RBAPA is also running Talent Ink uk. There's a separate thread on this, you'll find it if you go to my posts. Please feel free to ask any questions.

Ah. I think that puts a rather different slant on things...

viewtopic.php?f=15&t=19050&p=203734&hil ... nc#p203734

I'm sorry, I should have done further investigation of the company before commenting.

If this agency is linked to Talent inc then I would advise finding a different agency.

We had a very strange experience with this agency a few years ago.