GSA

Was in a very tight schedule today, for me anyways. Lots of trains and tubes and buses to catch! I applied for the Foundation (acting pathway) course at Guilford school of acting not long after receiving my audition result email from Drama Centre. Oh! Speaking of which, I'm on the waiting list! Hurrah! I really admire the school and the students it produces so I'm quite proud– even if I don't get onto the course. But anyway, back to GSA. So I got an early train to KX this morning and then hopped across London like a proper commuter to get my connection to Guilford from Waterloo. Everything was f i n e. until.... I lost my ticket!!! Or so I thought; after ten minutes of frantic searching and almost buying another ticket I found it in my pocket. In my defence, I knew that ticket was there but I thought it was only valid from Newcastle to KX... Ok no excuse, I know. I made a pho par!

I got to Guilford a bit early so I wandered out of the station and had a meander through Friary shopping centre (just across the bridge) and mozied on up the high street– which is very nice by the way! I happened upon a little side street with a few independent cafe's and figured I may as well spend my extra time drinking coffee! 

Bill's slightly industrial-esq interior grabbed my attention so I went in and took up a pew (after banging my head on the low light) right next to the window and read a few blogs (Joy the Baker, The Londoner). 

Super friendly waitress, nice coffee, lovely atmosphere and the clientele was good too. I didn't have anything to eat but whatever the two ladies next to me ordered looked great! 

All coffee'd up and ready to roll I set off to the bus station and got the 17 to the uni campus (GSA is part of the university of Surrey). The lady in front of me on the bus very kindly gave me directions as to which stop to get off at and where to head after that– she'd heard me on the phone talking about Newcastle (& or maybe she recognised my accent, weak though it may sometimes be) and it turned out she was from Durham! Small world and all that jazz. 

GSA was really interesting. It very much had a university feel to it, especially with it being on the main Stag Hill campus in Surrey, but that was by no means a bad thing! It was actually really nice to be in amongst it all with all of the other disciplines and areas– quite a change from all of the other places I've been! The actual drama school building even has a Starbucks. I mean, really? Is there any need? Don't I already spend enough money on coffee as it is? Apparently not. 

A group of about 8 of us were taken to the top floor for a quick warm up session with two current Fda students (Samuel and Oliver) and some Musical Theatre pathway students joined in too. Just the usual Zip Zap Boing and stuff like that. Then Andrea and Anna (two teachers on the course) took over the rest of the session. Anna led us through a fairly physical exercise focusing on the energy in your body and moving that to different areas; we would concentrate on a finger and whisper our monologues to it, transferring the energy from the speech directly into the tip of the finger. This went on to allowing that body part to lead us around the room, before coming to a stop and having to find someone else's finger to concentrate on to say our monologues again. 

We did a little bit of work on the seven levels of tension, walking round and balancing the space whilst speaking our lines. So for instance one scenario would be that we were in our favourite place and the next might be that someone was following us. My favourite part was when we had to imagine that behind the white wall was a waterfall about to collapse over us all, therefore our only objective was to keep the wall from falling down. Performing a solo piece in an ensemble-like situation can be daunting, but this was just so moving. We all struggled together, all had the same instructions from Anna and all saw our monologues in a completely new light. That's the best part about workshopping a speech; you begin to say it like you never have before and discover so much more about it. Breaking away from the wall at our own pace/speed to perform for the final time was so climatic! I felt so in tune with what I was saying and everything just fell into place. 

The next bit was a little difficult. Standing with our eyes closed we were each tapped on the shoulder when it was our turn to perform (our speeches). That's all well and good, but I was nearly last and was standing– with my eyes shut– for over 45 minutes. Numb feet, twitchy eyes and a dizzy head were just a few of the side effects. In all honesty though, I actually really enjoyed that part of the session. It never occurred to me that just hearing a monologue could be so much more interesting than seeing it. 

After we had all nearly passed out, the MT's were allowed to leave and us Actors were to stay and perform another monologue. I went first, deciding to do my Love's Labour's Lost speech after doing The Honest Whore for the rest of the session. So I introduced my piece, took a deep breath.... And started with the first line from The Honest Whore. REALLY AMY?!? They didn't mind, I started over and finished my piece knowing it was ok but could have been better. 

We all watched each others then had a chat afterwards with Andrea, Anna, Samuel and Oliver about auditioning, drama schools, GSA and tips for the future. All in all a very imaginative session and some very useful advice. 

Got the bus back into Guilford with one of the other girls who was auditioning (she was Danish and lived in London– really lovely!) and we had a right good natter. Always like to chat after an audition. We Facebooked each other, said our goodbyes, offered company and local tours if we were ever in each others home towns and I got on the next train back to Waterloo. Another hop across London (like an experienced commuter this time) and I was eating sushi in KX waiting for my train to arrive. It didn't. Well, not on time anyway– it was 20 minutes late. Just an excuse to by a coffee to bide the time! A chai latte always goes down a treat at the end of the day. 

The Theatre & The Cafe

Two of my favourite places: theatres and cafes. This week I went to see Headlong's production of Chekhov's 'The Seagull' at Northern Stage and I also popped into the brand-spanking-new cafe that has just opened up in Tynemouth.

The Seagull was interesting. I haven't read the play– though I know it's a classic, so that's pretty poor for a young actor– but I thoroughly enjoyed the performance, even if it did take me a while to buy into it. I was expecting the classical-esque musings of Anton Chekhov but was greeted with a culmination of classical and (mostly) modern language; from what I saw, I enjoyed the play and understood it well but I am looking forward to reading the original text.

One of the best things about the production for me was the set. The multi-purpose seesaw was very imaginative and well used, as was the concrete-looking backdrop– especially when water was used to paint scenery on it (after the water had evaporated a new picture would be painted/sprayed on for the next scene).

A little warning to those wanting to see the production though: it contains adult content, bad language, nudity and smoking (with real cigarettes to my surprise). But don't let this put you off! Unless you're under 16, have asthma/other breathing related problem or you have sensitive eyes and ears... It's an unusual performance with a lot of character and a good bunch of actors.

As for this new cafe in Tynemouth, well, I am quite impressed. Dil & the Bear is trendy and modern with that wonderful shabby-chic feel and the food looks great! The berry smoothy I had was nice, but maybe a little over-priced (for a student, anyway) and my pappa's vanilla late was definitely up to our standards. According to him his cake was 'good', but he wolfed it down that quickly I couldn't decide for myself.... Kidding! I had a lick of the icing and it tasted pretty delish.

All in all, friendly staff, great decor and good coffee and cake. I will be trying a more substantial meal when I can afford to fork out £10 for lunch. Oh the joys of being a student.

Guildhall

I mentioned in my last post (Work and Weight) that I had my drama school audition for Guildhall recently, here's my diary for the day.

7 am – Woke up, got ready into black jeans, burgundy top and my favourite blazer (tailor made) with my hunters, country jacket and an All Saints bag I bought a few years ago.

9 am – Arrived at Castle Gate in Newcastle for the audition a tad early. I was put in a waiting room and twiddled my thumbs for 10 mins before being joined by 7 other auditionees. We were taken down into the basement (not as scary as it sounds) by two ex students, Patrick and Anna. If you watch some of the videos on the Guildhall website about the acting course you'll see Anna talking about her year three show "Summerfolk".

9.30 am – When everyone arrived (6 boys, 2 girls- it's usually the other way round!) we all handed in our headshots, were given a number and had to write down our audition pieces. Funnily enough, I was given my lucky number 4 (not that it gave me any luck). Coincidentally, the  ambassador that had been in my National Youth Theatre audition a few weeks ago was there too!

10 am – After this we were given time to change and all taken into another basement room to meet Christian Burgess, head of acting and Dinah Stabb, head of movement– she was in Get Him to the Greek!!! We had a 15 minute warm up which involved lots of spacial awareness, eye contact and team work games. If you're not used to doing warm ups before sessions, what I mean by "spacial awareness" is you all have to move around the room and balance the space as much as possible, watching everyone around you so that all gaps are filled and you don't bump into anyone! Making eye contact was a big thing for Christian and Dinah, we had to find out the colour of everyones eyes and look everyone in the eye when passing them. Don't freak out though! It's a lot more fun than it sounds, especially when everyone is smiling and supportive– my group were lovely! If you're familiar with the number game, we played that a couple of times and managed not to mess up– which is hard. Basically, as a group you have to count to the number of people there are but if anyone speaks at the same time you have to start again. It's a lot harder and more intense than it sounds. Great for a concentration and awareness warm up though. To my surprise, Dinah joined in with everything which was really brilliant; having someone who is "on the inside" involve themselves in a warm up instead of just dictating it is so comforting. Finally, we were all asked to get into lines according to various factors (hair colour, height) without speaking and then had to line up against the back wall. This was the scary bit. Well, I say scary, but what I really mean is: we were put on the spot. Christian dictated something for us to say to him, which went along the lines of:

Hello
My name is...
I was born in...
Today I have come from...
The best day of my life so far was...
The worst day of my life so far was...
The reason I am interested in Guildhall is...

This may not seem like much, and it isn't, but I hate it when people ask me what the best/worst days of my life are. I just don't know. In a way, I suppose that proves what they're trying to say about being too young to get on the course. But the reason I don't know is just because I can't choose! So being put on the spot for that particular question freaked me out a little, as it did with a couple of others too (I think).

10.30 am-12 pm – After I'd finished freaking out and had watched everyone else (internally) freak out we were escorted back to the previous room in order to wait for our individual auditions. Being 4th, I had some time to chat with the rest of the group before going in. I rehearsed my monologues very dedicatedly and thoroughly to prepare myself for the audition that could change my life forever. That's what should have happened, but as my scoring out hints, I used the time to discuss plays and films with my new peers instead– which calmed me right down anyway, so I felt better. This is a piece of advice that could be brilliant or absolutely terrible, it's entirely dependent upon the person and their situation. I'm a people's person, like to calm my nerves by talking, had already performed all of my pieces too many times and was trying to find out a few things from Patrick about using him as a warm prop in my speeches. Which, interestingly enough, is a major difference about Guildhall to other drama schools: they encourage eye contact in your audition– so much so that I was able to use Patrick as a dead body for my Breathing Corpses speech!
On that note, I'll tell you about the audition shall I? So, Patrick took me to wait outside the room where we had our warm up and we had a little chat about what I was doing etc etc– he was lovely. Christian came and asked us to go in, he and Dinah were sitting behind a table on the left hand side of the room, Patrick took up a seat in front of it on the right, facing me. They asked me which piece I would like to do first, which was great because I love doing my Bellafront speech. I started with that, using Patrick to say it to (he reacted to me as well! Really nice to have someone do that during an audition), then they asked to see my Breathing Corpses speech (they found it quite funny when I asked Patrick to play dead) and finally I had to sing a few verses from my song. Stupidly, I always panic when I'm asked to sing, even if they just want to see how I act the song. Firstly, I said the song was from a play/musical by Lee Hall when it's actually by Alan Plater (I knew this but crumbled as soon as they said "Can we hear your song please?"), secondly, I avoided eye contact at all costs (I'm not used to small-scale audience eye contact, especially when singing) and thirdly I closed my eyes too much. Leaving all this firmly behind, they asked me a few questions about why I wanted to go to drama school and not university– which I could have answered better– then I was free to go. I went back to the happy room and carried on conversing.

After everyone had been seen, Christian and Dinah came in to tell all of us that no one was going to be recalled (very nicely of course). In all honesty, it was probably my worst audition so far so I wasn't that surprised, disappointed of course, but I saw it coming.

To cheer ourselves up, Owen (NYT ambassador), Michael McIntyre ("yes, like the comedian" he told us with exasperation) and I went for a coffee round the corner at Great Coffee (it's good, but expensive). This turned into 2 hours of chatting about auditions, plays, films and god knows what else, then we went into the winter and ended up talking about american history, politics and a lot more of god knows what else for a good 45 mins! Lots of laughter and good stories made for a nice end to the day.

If anyone reading this has any auditions coming up soon, GOOD LUCK! Feel free to get in touch with how it goes/your experience or any questions you might have– but I warn you, I am most definitely not an expert. It's just nice to share.

I'm finding it kind of therapeutic writing about about my audition, post-audition. I think I might write up My RADA and Bristol experiences while I'm at it. Clear my head a little before Central and Drama Centre!