Of course, there will be many applicants who are naturally gifted, so the competition will still be fierce (and potentially unfair) even for these students and there will be many talented individuals who don't get in.
The point of this post, though, is whether acting is (or should be) "taught" in ordinary drama lessons in school. I happen to know that the director of the production I went to see is a wonderful teacher who has acted and directed professionally and I have no doubt her pupils really benefit from this knowledge and experience and get excellent tuition. However, as I was leaving the theatre I spotted a poster on the wall, it was this one:
http://www.daydreameducation.co.uk/Deta ... all+Charts
I only really read the top section when I was in the school theatre, but it worried me so much I looked up the poster on-line.
Now, I don't want to be too melodramatic

There isn't very much on the poster I agree with! It's not that I think that "my" way of thinking about acting is the "right" way or the only way, it's just that most of the messages on this poster will be at odds with what is taught at drama schools, so I think it does matter if young people are hoping to go on to audition at drama schools.
Of course, if the teacher is experienced, and knows something about acting and how to teach it, I can see that these simplistic "rules" could provide a useful focus for lessons in a mixed-ability and mixed-interest class. However, if the teacher doesn't have any experience and takes these "rules" as the "right" way to act then I think children will learn the wrong things (if they want to improve as actors). Maybe it won't matter to the "instinctive" actors as they may rely on their instincts rather than the rules and maybe it doesn't matter too much as drama lessons in school are not designed to train actors - or are they? I'll stop rambling
