And so it begins (again)

Hello all!
Blimely I haven't written in a while, so firstly my apologies' - I have been extraordinarily busy that I haven't had much chance to sit down and write to you lovely lot.

So recently, I've...
- Joined the National Youth Theatre and spent two fantastic weeks in London learning some brilliant skills from the facilitators and the group #13MangoesandaYupee4eva!
- Written and performed my own one woman show with the theatre company Word of Warning - a show which explored dementia and the affects in family
- I'm currently in the middle of a UK tour of Contact's show Under the Covers where we are heading off to the Southbank tomorrow!
- Worked with the Roundhouse and BBC Radio1Xtra to create and perform poetry for film and radio (catch the broadcast at 4pm Sunday BBC Radio1Xtra).
- Started work on my third show with Contact, working with the theatre company Common Wealth.

^So yeah, I've been busy.

But, I'm back, and about to get cracking with another year of drama school auditions!
So this year, this third time round feels like my year to get it. Because I actually know what I want to do, so I won't be faffing round traveling to weird schools that I just don't want to attend. Plus I've got experience, because I actually took a year off and pushed myself to do things I wouldn't usually be comfortable doing. Which is one thing that I would advise you to do if you are thinking of drama school. Explore loads of different avenues so you know where your strengths are.

So this year I've got my top choices:
- RADA BA acting
- Central's CDT BA acting
- National Youth Theatre's Rep company

I'm applying to a few others (Rose Bruford, Guildhall, and Royal Conservatoire of Scotland) but those three are the big 'un's that just make me tingle with excitement every time I think about one of them.
So yeah. I'm starting, starting, now!

Plans

Hello all,
So I'm almost at the end of my gap year, which is quite terrifying because it means that I've having to begin looking at the different options I have for next year. Now as I didn't get into drama school, I won't be setting down to London in september as I would of wanted to. However another year out means another year full of potential oppotunities. Especially because after the National youth theatre course this summer I will be able to apply for the different options they offer such as their Rep company,  summer casting and Playing up course.
But like me if you are trying to plan a year out and fit it around drama school auditions then you should consider the following:
- Employment - Do you get a job, and if so do you want a full time or part time job?  Consider your skill set and what vaccencies will be flexible enough for you to attend auditions. For example this last year I had a 30 hour p/w Christmas job as a customer assistant then opted for a Saturday job as a librarian after the Christmas period. This allowed me to get enough for the auditions and travel expenses but then I was able to persue theatre work and have enough to tidy me over for the rest of the year. This worked particually well for me but everyone is different.
- Travel - Do you travel? If so where and for how long for? It is important to understand thatddrama school auditions are between November and May so you should try and avoid that period for traveling in. It's also important to consider the costs of the trip and would you have enough for both traveling and auditions. - I didn't go traveling this year due to financial difficulties however I am planning to apply for Camp America next summer if I don't receive any offers from the national youth theatre, and go see my relatives in Australia during their winter.
- Education - Have you considered applying to other short term courses that are related or non-related to acting and theatre work? It is common knowledge that only a tiny percentage of actors are working full time, therefore it is essential to have a wide skill set to see you through the tough times and a gap year may be the perfect oppotunity to gain skills. - This last year I have been working towards gaining a LAMDA diploma;  which is equivilant to a A-level in English but also means that I would be qualified to teach drama in schools. Whilst I have no intention of becoming a full time drama tutor it gives me options for the future.
Theatre work - whether you intend to persue professional or non-professional acting work, you have before you a whole year to do exactly what you love doing the most, acting! Whatever sort of theatre work you love doing,  spend some time looking at all your local theatre's and see if they are auditioning for new members, I would reccomend looking at the major theatre's in your nearest city too as they will probably be able to offer more oppotunities.

London Road film review

Firstly,  picture a musical.  Seeing all the big numbers like defying gravity and One day more (that's Les Mis folks) and the backing dancers smiling like they have a gun pointed at their heads? Yup. Then put all that in a film - in comes John Travolta in a woman's body suit - and still more cheese and glitz is crammed in to make your normal musical movie bonanza.
Well put all of that on the scrap heap because London Road is nothing like that! There are no glittering costumes or RP lardidar singing numbers in sight.  And by god it is brilliant for it.
Set in 2006/2007 in Ipswich when five prostitutes were murdered by Steve Wright,  who lived on London Road when he committed the murders. It is a musical retelling of how a community re-healed itself and just kept on going despite the circumstances.
If that's not unusual enough it was all done using verbatim theatre,  meaning that the interviews conducted by writer Alecky Blythe with residents were spoken word for word by the actors. Including copying the individual's speech patterns and faults!
I was completely swept away by it, yet I didn't feel patronised or belittled by the way the story was set out, which sometimes happens in musicals. And above all, the people felt real and normal, like the sort of people who walk past you in the street.
Directed by Rufus Norris and a cast staring Olivia Coleman,  Anita Dobson and Tom Hardy this film is a must see. And worth all the five star reviews it will attract.

A National Theatre Live production, out on general release 12th June.


Terri :D

National Youth Theatre Results...

Hi all,
Firstly I hope everyone is enjoying the unusual sunny weather we're experiancing here in England.

However what I really came here to write about was the fact that - as some of you already know - the results came for the National Youth Theatre auditions yesterday. And after three years of trying...

I FINALLY GOT INTO THE NATIONAL YOUTH THEATRE!

I'm so overwhelmingly happy! I cannot express the joy I'm experiancing here with mere words it is utterly... gshfehqfwhg

I cannot wait for summer now, like I've already set up a Facebook page for the summer Course so I can start to get to know my fellow NYT peeps. So please join if your coming to this years course so we can chat and get to know each other and plan the ball of fun that I'm predicting it will be!

All I can say to anyone who's thinking of applying or re-applying for NYT is go for it,  and,  as my dad said to me this morning "there's a lot to be said about persistance".

Adios (and I hope there are many film geeks enjoying Age of Ultron)
Terri :D

Why I'm successful amongst my failings

Firstly hello all.
It's been ages since I wrote on here,  but don't fret I haven't forgotten about this beautiful little site. I have been intending to write on here for a while but alas I have been rather dyslexic and not known how to string the words together.

So lets get straight to the point.  I have finished my drama school auditions this year and have had a groundbreaking ZERO recalls.  Ensuring that I will not be attending drama school next year.

Now many people who have been through the drama school process - twice like me- would be feeling pretty disheartened and would be giving up on the dream of attending drama school. But no sir! Not I! This biatch ain't hauled herself round the country just to give up when a couple of people sitting behind a desk decide that your not right for them.

Besides I've learnt so freaking much this year I would say that I've scored lucky in not getting in this time round because when I do get in I'm going to have so much more to give to the industry when I graduate.

PLUS it means I get another chance to get into RADA and Guildhall again!
This next year I'm nailing down exactly what I want from Drama School and ensure that I get the experiance I've paid for.
Have started my personal statement draft and have found a few plays I want to investigate further,  so yeah third time lucky I guess.

Hope to write more soon,
Terri :D

Helllooo 2015/ Manchester Met Audition 2.0/BSA audition/ tones more

Hello All!

First things first- HAPPY FRICKING NEW YEAR- hope you all had a good 'un.

Now many of you may be complaining that I haven't wrote anything in a while. Thats because I had nothing to write about, with my boring job and lack of auditions. BUT NOW I only work saturdays and boy do I have alot going on.

I've had two auditions and two workshops and it's only the first week of january. My First Audition I had was Manchester Met, which I won't go into huge detail about as you can refer back to my first audition post of the school (see Jan 2014). However this time I experianced the weirdest thing yet.to.date.

It was in the audition (to fill you in it's important to know that at Man Met you do your peices in front of a small group who are also auditioning) and the first girl got up. She was doing Constance from King John as her Shakespeare. During the speech she pulled out a chunk of her hair, scattered it on the floor and kept repeating "I'm not mad".

Personally I thought otherwise.

But then for her second peice, the whole monologue was about her and her mates waxing their viginas, and halfway through her pretended to stare at a lazered vigina and grinned.

I was not prepered for that.

The girl next to me was in hysterics, the lady on the pannel was trying so hard to keep her face straight that she looked like a lipless tomato. 

So it any of you guys meet a girl called Julia doing a King John speech- brace yourself.

Still yet to hear from that.

I had BSA yesterday- got the rejection letter today 😁. But to be honest I enjoyed the day so much that I'm happy to have the oppotunity to go back there again 😄.

I'm going to reserve a whole post so I can talk about that audition process propperly so you guys know what to prepare.

Also (in other news); I started the Contact Young Company programme yesterday, which was fabulous! If you don't know Contact theatre is a contempary theatre in Manchester and hold a young persons company that you have to audition for, and luckily I got in along with 4 others. I have been told by several people that it is the place to go if you are serious about working in theatre and need experiance, because they treat you like professional actors and there is a high chance to get work out of it.

Also just had a workshop with Ian Smith from the Television Company in Leeds, I won a place via the ideastap website. You had to learn a bit from a play called he's talking by Nicholas Wright. It's a really interesting play and I'm very tempted to use it as part of my audition peices.

Ian Smith I found him very rude but very funny, and I can see that he's great at bringing people out of their shells.

It might lead on to something else but I'm not sure if I'd want to do that.

Got My Royal Conservatoire of Scotland audition next week which I'm very excited for. Then LAMDA after!

Cannot bloody wait.

Adios then, 

Got to hop on a train. 

Terri :D