A Couple Of Drama School Application Queries

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pg
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Re: A Couple Of Drama School Application Queries

Post by pg »

Nicola wrote:IF they DON'T redirect, how do they distinguish between "highly polished" and "actually, just very good"?! I'm just thinking about the amount of effort that people must put into this application process that, bloomin' heck, if they're not highly polished by the time they turn up, doesn't that say more about how committed they are to the process? It really sounds like if you've rehearsed and rehearsed until you're "polished", it will actually count against you, and they'll just assume that there must be a higher power at work!!

I have no direct experience, so don't worry - this isn't a rhetorical question, but how DO they distinguish between someone who has practised every hour they have to get it just so, and someone who has put less effort in and is therefore overall "less polished"? And how do they know that the person less polished hasn't actually practised like billy-o to get to the level they're at, but just can't get any better?!

It certainly sounds a tough balance to achieve?! Good.....but not TOO good that it appears you couldn't have done it alone?!
More pg rambling: :oops:
I don't think the auditionee should worry about this to be honest. The auditionee should just do the very best they can, with or without help, depending on what they find most useful, making sure that they have at least a couple of goes in front of others...probably. It wouldn't be at all sensible to go to a drama school audition intentionally under-rehearsed. It will be up to those auditioning to decide which talent they wish to accept. It won't, unfortunately, necessarily be those who have worked the hardest to prepare.

I think that we as parents are often used to watching our own offspring perform but don't always get the chance to watch other young people. If you watched a lot of people auditioning, I think you would be likely to have quite strong views about which you considered "good" or "interesting". You couldn't then go home to your offspring and say "if you do it like this, you will be good and interesting" because that's not how it works. Every actor has his/her own way of being good or interesting and some are better at it than others. I still think a good teacher can help someone to work on their own "good and interesting" abilities and cut back on bad habits (otherwise there would be no point in any kind of training). Not everyone on a panel will necessarily agree, and not everyone will get it right (I'm sure panels sometimes make decisions they regret or don't turn out well). Even for something like NYT, where I do think they try to give everyone a fair shot, there will be unfairness. That's hard to accept, but an unfortunate fact about performance.
Son of PG
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Re: A Couple Of Drama School Application Queries

Post by Son of PG »

Well, I thought I ought to say something, as I’ve called myself a Private Drama Tutor I feel I better stick up for the ‘coach’. First off, I personally feel if you haven’t done your speech in front of someone before your audition then you’re actually doing yourself a disservice. Directors exist in theatre to hone a story, it’s very, very hard to direct yourself… it’s possible but very hard. You need someone to let your know what might not be coming across to your audience. I’d hope a Drama ‘coach’ would never get a student to a stage where they could only do a speech one way, and didn’t know how to take direction. Words like polished are very dangerous ones, they sound an awful lot like false to me. I’d hope a ‘coach’ would try to help a student give an ‘honest’ performance, one that shows intelligence and understanding of the material and flexibility to it. There’s no point going to a Drama School audition without being ready to change what your doing, if one is not prepared to be flexible and take direction I would guess one may not have the best chance of getting in… that sounds cruel, but I think it’s true. I hope as a Tutor myself I work hard to help a student find their own way into a speech, to help them to be honest, and be a useful outside eye. I think a Drama School panel are looking through the speech at the actor behind it, so a very ‘polished’ speech can easily blur that, I’d hope I can help an actor break the back of a speech and perform simply and honestly. The more you work on something, surprisingly the more flexible you can become within the speech. All the skills I try to work on should be transferable to any speech or piece of work. I hope my experience as an actor/director/former-drama student can help me be helpful. I think the original questions have been answered, so to sum up… I hope as a Drama Tutor I am not hindering an actor’s chance, ‘cause other wise I should pack it in. And I hope my experience can help an actor feel proud and confident before they do the scariest thing ever – Audition for Drama School!
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Welsh Mum
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Re: A Couple Of Drama School Application Queries

Post by Welsh Mum »

I also think that there's a differenve between students applying from school/college and those applying who are in employment or who haven't perfromed in a while (e.g. in uni doing non acting course). When my DD applied the first time she was in college, and her tutors were happy to explore her monologues with her (thats how they described it - I think its a good word as it is very different to a teacher saying"Do it this way"). However, in her gap year she was really busy, working in a shop and teaching dance. She had wanted some new pieces as she felt the older ones weren't fresh enough. However, she also wanted someone to bounce ideas off. She phoned up RWCMD and asked if there was anyone who would do this - very kindly one of the lecturers said she would. My DD had just one session with her, but found it really helpful. I'm not sure if this would count as coaching - it was only 2 hours - but it did make a difference and also made my DD more confident about her choices and performance.
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Genevieve
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Re: A Couple Of Drama School Application Queries

Post by Genevieve »

We have the pg family on here - just fab ! :lol: (and pg has explained what she meant by 'polished' - so all's good son of pg!! 8-[ O:)
Son of PG wrote: I think the original questions have been answered, so to sum up… I hope as a Drama Tutor I am not hindering an actor’s chance, ‘cause other wise I should pack it in. And I hope my experience can help an actor feel proud and confident before they do the scariest thing ever – Audition for Drama School!
this is just the sort of 'help' we'd hope to help our dds and dss need to gain confidence through the auditions. I think the way you've put how you help is what students/auditionees need to prepare. I think the wrong kind of 'coaching' (and often a lot of money) could be detrimental (agreeing with pg)- such as if the tutor gave direction in a way thats changing the performer too much (not your approach son of pg).
Welsh Mum wrote:I'm not sure if this would count as coaching - it was only 2 hours - but it did make a difference and also made my DD more confident about her choices and performance.
no - that's sensible. Sounds like it was the boost of confidence needed. Its better to get help from someone who's in the field- for all the reasons son of pg said. My dd and friends practised in front of friends, but they're different performers, but it helped to practice the pieces, but it didn't do more than that ! There's more to auditions than just the monologues as you know, so helped/guided or not, hard work in preparation can/should pay off. :shock: :-k
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