Drama School Auditions: Part 3 Applying and turning up..

So it’s that time of year again, drama school applications are available and you’re about to fill it out.

Lets start by saying there is no secret to this, it’s an application form, you’ve got nothing to worry about. Drama schools aren’t (or shouldn’t be) trying to trick you in to making mistakes. Some simple things to remember:

Start by having a read over the whole form before you start filling it in. It helps to know what you need before you start so that it’s done in one sitting, after all it’s not that big of a form usually. Remember to attach everything they ask for: payment, photo with a staple or glue and the self addressed envelopes (as in two or more check how many is asked for). Attach a photo that actually looks like you, not a glam shot or something your mum thinks you look nice in. It just needs to look like you, so they know what you look like, nothing more.

When it comes to the CV section, write everything that you think is relevent, school plays, singing concerts, regular busking experience etc.. if it’s performance related it goes in. Some drama schools ask you to state if you applied last year and how far you got, don’t be afraid to be honest about this. It’s important to tell the truth and sometime can be beneficial, some drama schools let you skip part of the process if you’ve got to the last round the year before so it’s in your best intrest. Mail it with plenty of time before the dead line (and in the case of RADA if you mail it before the 16th of December it’s actually cheaper).

Finally, don’t mail it before you’re ready. Have all your material and pieces ready to go. You could receive a letter in less than a week telling you that you’re in tomorrow. Be a cub-scout about it: Be prepared.

Eventually you’ll get a letter saying that you have been given a date. Unless you’ve walked past the building on your morning commute every day for a year, leave plenty of time for your journey. This is good advice for all auditions:

“if your early, you were early today, if you’re late today, you’re always late.”

By that I mean the impression you make needs to be consistant, if you are early every time, it will only be partially noticed. If you’re late it will always be remembered.

You’ll sit in a waiting room or outside in a corridor for a bit and go in, (I’ll talk about going in in another post). Often you’ll be sitting with other auditionees, some might seem ‘more prepared’ than you. Don’t bother thinking about them, there success or failure has no effect on yours. You are in control of your success.

Which I suppose is just a long winded way of saying: Believe in yourself.

More soon.

Paris.

Drama School Auditions: Part 2 Getting that text inside your head.

This post follows my previous one about Drama School Auditions where I lay out preparations and advice on what to do. You can find Part 1 here.

It’s probably quite obvious that you should, once you’ve found your pieces, learn them. However one of the most frequent questions I get from non or inexperienced actors is:

“How do you learn all those lines?”

You can just bang your head against the wall until you can drone out the speech word for word like you did when you were a kid in a school play, or you could work out what the hell you’re actually trying to say.

I touched on it briefly in my last post, but knowing what the hell you’re talking about why you’re doing it and how you’re trying to do it is almost more important than learning the lines. If you know all of this you can really understand what you’re talking about and thus will find it easier to learn the lines.

I am of course talking about the Ws: What, When, Where, Who & How.

Shakespeare is hard, no one is trying to trick you or make you feel inferior (as some people seem to just find it easy, they however are in a minority), it’s just hard for most. You can easily combat this by simply learning about the play. I would argue you’ll get a lot more from the text by reading it aloud. Many people have researched and synopsiszed Shakespeare’s work . Read them see if there is a character breakdown of your particular character and then ask if you agree, it’s OK to disagree with someone’s opinion, but you need to keep asking yourself WHY.

After a while you will start to do something I like to call bean-bagging. By building the world of the play in your mind, if you forget a line, or miss a beat you have a ‘beanbag’ to fall back on. This isn’t an exclusively ‘Classical’ technique, you can (and should) use this for a modern text as well.

In real life we don’t know what we are going to say, and we speak in context. Where we’ve just come from, What we want to do, When we want to do it, How we want to do it and Who we are and Who we are with. This we do in a blink of an eye because, even if you’ve gone to india to ‘find yourself’, you still pretty much know who you are without that journey.

We live in context. So should your character.

For this reason you should try and find the context of the people/characters you are trying to act. These characters have lives and motivations, motives and habits. It’s your job as an actor to find them and be them (which sounds a bit -wanky to be honest but sometimes you HAVE to be wanky). As you build an understanding of the world and the charaters in it, you build a supportive bubble around you, filled with lovely context. This beanbag you can fall back on when you get lost, or lose your place.

Write down your thoughts on the Ws, answer each one clearly, without going too far into your imagination, look at the text you’ve been given and understand  using that WHY things happen. When you get lost go back to this list and reconnect with those ideas and truths you created. A deeper understanding of what you’re saying and why, will really help put your foot in the door in ANY kind of audition.

What does this have to do with getting text in your head? It’s kind of a simple concept: By knowing what you’re saying your more likely to remember what to say. It’s always helped me and I hope it helps you.

I’d like to note that these posts aren’t going to be in any particular order, eventually it will become a pool of advice that you can grab from. As it stands there are two, but that’s going to change soon.

Paris.

Drama School Auditions: Finding a Speech.

So Drama school auditions are always going to be nerve racking -and even more nerve-racking is: Finding speeches.

The audition season is closing fast and auditionees are already coming out the woodwork, I’ve already started doing my one on one sessions and the question that keeps coming back to me is this:

“How do I pick my audition speeches?”

First off, it’s so much easier to find a Shakespeare speech, so I’ll start with that. The best place to start is http://www.shakespeare-monologues.org/ click on your gender and start reading speeches (be warned there are some typos and errors so double check with your copy). You’re looking for something that will last about 2 minutes or so, is in verse and fits your age.

This is a great way of looking for a speech for these kind of auditions, once you’ve found a speech you like the next step is really important: read the whole play. It is vital that you know the context of your characters words and actions, where did they come from, where are they going, and most importantly, why the hell are they doing it? Your second Shakespeare can be in prose if you really like it, (and learn your second Shakespeare, I mean it. Be prepared) but if you’re unsure go with a verse piece.

Of course there are always caveats, don’t do the Hamlet speech, Juliet’s balcony speech, Romeo’s speech, the crazy Ophilia speech or the crazy Lady Macbeth speech. Crazy is always at one note and shows next to nothing of you as an actor and the others are done so much that you might just blend into the sea of auditionees. Yes there are some who will get into great drama schools with these speeches, but you’re not doing yourself any favors by doing so.

Modern speeches are a little tougher. When it comes down to it it’s not that easy, there is no quick fix and the ‘rules’ are a little looser. Go with writers you like or stuff that speaks to you, try and find something near your age range. Try to have something that talks to someone in the room (yourself is someone in the room, but that usually turns out to be the audience) so with that in mind avoid conversations on the phone. This is where my advice always seems to get a bit vague, mainly because it’s going to be vague until you find one. It’s not easy finding modern speeches, check play book stores (like the one at the National theatre in London), go see modern theatre or ask friends/realitives if they’ve seen anything. Keep looking you’ll find one. Most importantly, again, once you’ve found it read the whole play.

Once you’ve found your pieces learn them, learn them so well you mumble them in your sleep. Do the work involved: where, when, what, why and who? Know everything you can about the journey your character and others take from scene to scene, this way you’ll give a more rounded performance and you’ll have something to fall back on if things go wrong.

I’ve spent hours working on finding speeches, looking through reams and reams of plays and speeches and it never gets any easier, the simple fact of it is:

There really is no quick way to find a piece and neither should there be.

It’s hard work because it’s meant to be and when you find it you know it, because it’s yours and you’ve earned it.

Paris

PS. I continue to teach audition technique this year, so if you’re interested, get in touch.

I’m a Londoner… (Another poem in reflection of the riots)

I’m a Londoner, I’m proud it’s true,
I like my fish battered and my coppers blue,
I cross streets even when traffics in view,
I’m a born and bread Londoner, what are you?

I’m your peaceful Londoner, your Rodin’s Thinker,
I’m not a yob or an excessive drinker,
I like my Sunday morning roast,
And I like butter spread apon my toast.

Now my brothers for the fell,
Have dragged London’s streets to hell,
Under the guise of ‘Protesting men’,
And tonight they say they’ll strike again?

But they don’t fight for the fallen guy,
This is not riot for an eye,
For an eye,
For an eye,
For which we seek,
These windows tell of a story bleak,
An expectation of a losing meek,
No one willing to turn a cheek,
No reading of the book that’s good,
Just clanking belts and clothes with hoods.

Masked faces
Lost graces,
As the police chases,
These hidden London faces,
Scattered in the places,
Of London’s stress,
This hooded mess,
Has thrown the brick,
A devils trick,
Cast a crowded mob that’s thick,
A tar of bleak unknowing sick,
Which ends our peaceful situation,
And makes our Capital the shame of the nation,
The festering night-time congregation,

That leers,
It Jeers
With hood covered ears,
Thriving on our fears,
As they bask in our tears
They swear their action’s about ‘respect’
But truth lies in their neglect.

They are the harbour of their degradation,
They are the muck of our crippled nation,
They’ve brought this curse apon us all,
And now our backs are against a wall.

I’m a Londoner, born and bold,
I came here young and I’ll die here old.
And if you try and bring my home down,
Make shit of my land and my home town,
Pray that it’s not my mouth you’ll meet,
Cos’ with simple words you’ll be at my feet.

I’m a Londoner, hear me roar.
True brits heal and sweep the floor,
True brits care and work the chore,
True brits help, care and restore,
True brits are men and believe in law,
You are the problem and what’s core,
You’re no Londoner, not anymore.

Paris Arrowsmith
11.08.2011

“The Protestors Are Looting”

“The Protestors are Looting”, says the BBC,
It’s all because of that ‘Police Shooting’,
People just want justice, see?

But real protestors,
Are peaceful investors,
Lying in wait, By the steps by the gate,
Outside police doors,
Crossed legged on floors,
They’re not pissed on shandy,
They riot like Mahatma Gandhi,
Making themselves loud,
Being the stillness in the crowd,

It’s not the peaceful picket,
Hitting the retail window wicket,
Breaking the lock,
Taking the stock,
Burning the block,
As we watch in shock,
As london’s burning,
The youth are turning,
As the old fools are gurning,
We blame: the schools, the fools,
The youth relation,
The makers of that game for the playstation,
“It can’t be us”, we hear them cry,
We worked the budget, that’s no lie,
Pay-cuts taken, spare home shaken,
Bonus monies removed and forsaken,
We’re trying to work it out here, if I’m not mistaken.

An open media trying not to scare,
Police are unseen “they just don’t care!”
Be calm, we’re just going with the facts that are there, now the weather….
The streets are rough and tumble,
With a hooded youth wave ‘ready to rumble’,
High police pressure coming through the roof,
Now lets cut to a bystander to hear the truth,

Dust settles and on the next day,
A mother speaks of her boy lost his way,
The tracksuited youth who ‘fell down the stair’
Says the mother when asked where,
Her son was last night,
Not in a fight,
‘Out with friends’
Out yes, but to what end?

“The Protestors are looting” says the BBC,
Protestors like you and protestors like me,
It’s not mindless violence that’s racking the street,
It’s this police brutallity that they’re trying to beat.
Beat with the shattered window panes,
As the world tunes in to see our shame,
Now no one listens to the quiet spree,
No one listens to protestors like me,
“The Protestors are Looting” says the BBC
In london there’s no more weight to the words of Gandhi.

Paris Arrowsmith

9.08.2011

Soprano, Alto, Tenor, Beatboxer….

So a good friend of mine was doing a project at RCM (Royal Collage of Music) and needed a Beatboxer last minute, guess who got roped in to do it? (video below for your viewing pleasure….)

Hope you enjoy.

P

ADR – It’s a weird job, but someone’s got to do it…

Last Thursday I got a call from my agent: “are you free tomorrow?” to which I naturally answered “yes…”. It turns out he had some ADR (Automatic Dialog Replacement) work for me, naturally being a bloke I said I knew what ADR was and proceeded to say I’ll work the next day. I hung up and immediately Googled it  (thank you Wikipedia..). Sizably scared, informed and excited I received the email with no indication of what I’d actually be doing the next day and confirmed that I’d got the email and got an a crowded bus home.

It’s at this point I started thinking. It’s almost maddening that I’ll be expected to do cold readings for other people’s voices and backgrounds and various off-screen sounds. But it sounded like fun, I was well up for it.

Friday I rocked up to the sound studio early, signed in at the desk and waited by the lift, deciding very quickly to take the stairs walked up to the green room area. I was welcomed by a group of equally bright eyed actors who’d been hired for the day. We drank our coffees and chatted about what we thought we might be doing, overall tried to get to know the people I’d be working with in a small black room for the rest of the day.

The director arrived and in no time we were in the studio. The ADR studio was quite impressive, large projection screen room mics and a small mic in the corner for specific stuff, all the technical sound guys sat behind a big desk at the back clicking and typing away as we we’re briefed on the show and what we’d be expected to do.

Doing ADR is one of the more bizzar jobs you’ll have to perform as an Actor, voicing the crowd and making the background banter seem real and organic, without it standing out and removing from the overall performance of the piece as a whole. But weirdest of all is being someone else’s voice….

For what ever reason, sometimes actors have to be re-voiced and not always by the actor themselves, be it imperfections in accent, words removed by the sensor or background noise. It happens and the viewer needs to not be able to tell.  I had to be someones voice and I have to say it was a little weird. The instructions are simple: you have to say it in the same rhythm but fix the problem, for this reason I had to say the following (more times than I can count):

“What the fuck?”

Eventually the words lost all meaning, it was like doing Meisner with myself. I was thrown back to lessons with John Beschizza, where we’d do Meisner Technique for hours. Delving deep into the reasons for the ways we speak the things we do and the process by which we do them.

However self reflective I got, I didn’t really have time for a journey or a eureka moment, I was here to do a job and get it done, so I did. The director called out a few of the takes I did and in moments both were laid over the actor on screen and I heard my voice come out of someone else’s mouth. This is something I’ve never experienced and it’s really weird. Surreal in a way I’d not felt before, but there it was seemless and almost undetectable to the untrained eye or ear. Me lying on a bed saying “what the fuck?” to a naked guy called A’rab. Except it wasn’t my face, just my voice.

The day as a whole was great fun and I really enjoyed it.

As an Actor you find more and more that there are many things in this business that you are asked to do that are weird but just plain fun. ADR is one of them, and something I hope and look forward to doing again.

P