So it has been a while since I wrote, I think the main reason for that is that after two months of A level exams I got kinda sick of writing the contents of my brain down. But after a three week break I'm back with avengance on working towards getting into drama school!
Not that I haven't done any research since my A levels, I have, honest.
Since thoses horrific exams I have been to three open days, to name them:
1. Mancheter Metropolitain
2. Birmingham school of Acting
3. Royal Central school of speech and drama.
Now I know that I applied to Manchester last year (check out the January post on the audition) but, in going to the open day, I just wanted to clarify my infomation about the place.
And, to be honest with you, compared to the other two drama schools, it dosen't really hold up to standards.
The next open day I attended was Birmingham School of Acting. Now until recently I didnt even know that this school exsisted until I found it on the Drama UK website, and by the sounds of it, not many people have either.
But don't let this fool you into thinking that this is a bad school. The School itself is set inside the Millenium point building, which is a five min walk from the Bull Ring. The building is surounded by surrealist gradens and a playground for children (its very cool, and the play ground made me want to be a kid again).
As the course is accredited by Drama UK, it has all the features of the usual drama school course at BA hons. And while the place is small compared to other places, it has everything you need for a rounded acting education. While I missed the tour of the accomadation (yes they do have accomadation), I was deeply impressed with the talk that the head tutor gave and the discussion that the pupils gave (willingly) afterwards in a side room at the end. And in that 20 min chat with them, I gained more knowledge than any previous audition had given me.
Note: One way I judge the sutiability of a course is by what the current students say about it openly, and not what they are told to say by a tutor.
Another great thing about the drama school is that because few people have heard of it. Because - lets be honest - who expects Birmingham to have a state of the art Drama School in it's city center. Then less people apply to it, meaning that you have more of a chance getting in.
^ Oh and did I mention that they have a huge cinema in the floor above! Now that's impressive.
The other open day which I attended was at Royal Central school of speech and drama. Now while I knew about this course last year (as the application is done through UCAS) I didn't apply, mainly because the audition process (compared to others) is terrifying. Not only do they say that you have to learn two set shakespeare peices and a comtempary but also two unacompanied songs from musicals. And I felt - last year - that the process would of been too much for me to handle with such little audition experiance.
But this year, I want to have a crack at it.
The school itself is beautiful, as well as the suroundings. The place feels like it should be in a surburban area in Cornwall or Devon and not at all in the middle of the Capital.
I realise that I keep going on about the buildings of the places, but personally I prefer working in a beautiful enviroment than a urban junk yard.
The place itself is huge, they have a massive red seat theatre near the front door and a dainty little café that serves sandwiches and cakes at a decent price.
They have plenty of studios and a good libary.
I loved it. When I walked in there, it felt like home.
The only down side of Central is that they have a limited camera and radio department which is kinda essential to an actors traing these days.
In terms of the audition process there, the reason they said that they make it so tough, is to stop people just coming in and wasting their time with what they think will get them in.
Which makes sense, I guess.
The head of the Acting, who I have to say was dressed very drammatically in all black (i.e black skinnies, a black deep v neck top and a black tuxedo jacket) seemed to have an issue with "privalleged" people, i.e to him if you have done LAMDA examinations (which I have done) then you are privalleged and don't deserve as much of a place.
That, I found a little, odd. But oh well I'm not put off.
And thats all I've got done so far, I am planning of booking a few more open days over the next few weeks, namely for Drama Centre and GSA. But now I am going to start the dreaded search for modern monologues.
I've had no luck so far.
Will also be posting a database of Drama Schools and the essential infomation on them within the next few days.
Until then,
Adios,
Terri ;D x
