Unsworth Becoming an Actor

1. Auflage 2014
ISBN: 978-1-78001-192-9
Verlag: Nick Hern Books
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: 6 - ePub Watermark

E-Book, Englisch, 288 Seiten

A practical guide to training as an actor, helping you get the most out of drama school - and survive in the world beyond. Are you thinking of applying to drama school? Do you have a place already and want to get the most out of your training? Are you seeking to make the best possible start in the world beyond drama school? Becoming an Actor takes you, step by step, technique by technique, through everything you can expect to encounter at drama school, and in your first year as a professional actor. Stuffed with exercises and full of practical advice, it is the ideal handbook to accompany your training. Thomasina Unsworth teaches at Rose Bruford College, one of the UK's leading drama schools. Here she shows what acting classes at an accredited drama school are actually like, and offers guidance and support through what is a critical time in any actor's career. With many different exercises to help actors explore the techniques they need to master, Becoming an Actor is also an invaluable resource for those teaching acting, and for those seeking to refresh their training.

Thomasina Unsworth is a freelance acting coach, and was Head of First Year at Rose Bruford College, one of the UK's leading drama schools.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Unsworth, Thomasina

Leseproben

Auditioning

In order to gain a place at a drama school, you need to be a talented actor; however, sometimes even that is not enough. Gifted actors often do not do themselves justice when they come to audition. With this in mind, the aims of this chapter are:

•  To prepare you for some of the discrepancies that you might come across when you audition at different drama schools.

•  To give you an insight into the sort of qualities that the people auditioning you will be looking for.

•  To show you some broad examples of poor auditions.

•  To highlight some of the potential pitfalls.

Auditions will vary from school to school in terms of the way that they are structured, so do not expect the same process each time. At some schools you will be expected to do your audition speeches in front of the other candidates, and there could be as many as forty other people in the room with you. This means that not only will you have to perform in front of a sizeable audience, but that you will also have to sit and listen to all those other speeches. It is easy to lose your energy in this situation. It is also easy to be influenced by other versions of your speech that you might hear. You need to keep focused on what you are doing and to remember the reasons behind the choices that you have already made.

Make sure that you read all the information that is sent to you by each of the drama schools regarding their audition requirements, as these will not all be the same. For example:

•  Some schools ask for three speeches, two classical and one modern.

•  Some will specify the date after which your modern play must have been written.

•  Some blacklist certain speeches and writers.

•  Some request that you do not use monologues from film scripts, your own writing, or the work of little-known authors.

Do not assume that you can just learn two speeches and that these will serve you for every audition that you attend.

The time that you spend in the audition room will also vary from place to place. At some schools the first round of auditioning is a speedy event: you may well feel that you have hardly walked into the room before it is time to leave it. Do not read anything into the length of time that you spend in front of the panel, as the people auditioning you may know very quickly whether or not they want to call you back. On some occasions you will be asked questions during the first round, or be asked to try the piece again in a different way. At the recall stage, the panel will certainly want to talk to you after you have done your speeches.

The size of the panel of people auditioning you will also differ from school to school. You might find yourself in front of just one person, or you could be faced by a row of four or more people. It is unlikely, however, that at recall stages you would meet only one person – the recall panel tends to be made up of a number of people covering different disciplines, such as voice and movement, as well as acting.

For some auditions vyou will be asked to prepare a song. Remember, unless you are applying for a musical-theatre course, the quality of your singing voice is not the main concern. What will interest an audition panel is how well you communicate the story of the song. The challenge, therefore, is an acting one, so don’t panic if singing is not your strong point. Make sure that you are well prepared and that you have a strong connection to the lyrics.

During some auditions you will be asked to work with other people: be open to this and responsive to what someone else might be offering you. You may do your speech very well, but if you cannot work with another human being, you will certainly not be offered a place to train as an actor. You may find that there are several rounds of auditions to get through before you are accepted, and it is highly likely that at the later stages of the process you will be required to work with other actors.

The feel of each drama school that you apply to will be quite different. Before you arrive at an audition, take the time to read the prospectus or look at what the college says about itself on its website. When you arrive, talk to students already studying there. Walk about and ask questions; think about whether you can visualise yourself there. It may be that you are offered a place at more than one school, and you need to be equipped to make the right choice. Even if you are only offered a place at one institution, you don’t want to accept if you think that the next three years will be miserable!

Although drama schools may vary in the way that they audition candidates, they will almost certainly be looking for similar qualities in those that they offer places to. Obviously raw talent is the key factor that a panel will look for, but a successful applicant will also:

•  Have a connection to their speeches and will have contextualised them within the plays that they belong to.

•  Be imaginative.

•  Be flexible and open to redirection.

•  Be passionate and serious about acting.

•  Have an opinion about film, television and theatre.

•  Have bodies and voices that are not so locked and stiff that they cannot be trained.

•  Work responsively with others.

•  Be well prepared.

•  Be playful and bold.

Here are four fictional – but surprisingly accurate – excerpts from typical auditions to help you spot the candidates that don’t adhere to the list above!

PANELLIST. Your speeches were really good but I just want to play around with them a bit.

RICHARD. Okay. ()

PANELLIST. Well, for a start, let’s get rid of that chair. Let’s clear it to the side of the room.

RICHARD. What, I can’t use the chair?

PANELLIST. Let’s try it without.

RICHARD. But I have rehearsed with it.

PANELLIST. That’s okay, something different will happen. Also, we know that the character is alone during this speech, but can you imagine that he is actually in public? Let’s say he is standing in the middle of a very crowded bus. He needs to voice his thoughts, but he doesn’t want anyone else to hear him.

RICHARD. But that won’t work: it isn’t written like that!

PANELLIST. Those speeches were very interesting and you responded well to what we asked you to do with them. Come and sit down and tell me, why do you want to be an actor?

LOUISE (). Well, everyone said I should.

PANELLIST. And what do you think?

LOUISE. Yeah, I think it would be good.

PANELLIST. What theatre have you seen, good or bad?

LOUISE. I can’t think right now.

PANELLIST. What about films?

LOUISE. I quite like Johnny Depp. He’s good.

PANELLIST. In what way ‘good’? What does he do?

LOUISE. Oh... I don’t know, he’s just good, isn’t he?

WILLIAM (). Sorry, it’s just that I am meeting a friend. I didn’t realise that the auditions would take this long. Shall I come back another day?

PANELLIST. No.

TRACY. I have been really busy with work recently and I haven’t learnt this as well as I wanted to, so if I go wrong, it’s just because of that.

PANELLIST....?

These are very obvious examples of people not doing themselves justice in an audition situation, and I am sure that you would not behave like any of them – however, there are things that you do need to be aware of:

– find ones that not only contrast with each other, but also that you enjoy, have a connection with and can relate to. Make sure that you have read the whole play and can contextualise the speech. Almost every school will want you to prepare a piece from a classical play (e.g. Shakespeare) and a piece from a modern play (e.g. Simon Stephens). It is likely that you will be asked to concentrate more on your classical speech than your modern during the audition, but prepare both equally. It is worth having a couple of ‘spare’ speeches up your sleeve in case the auditioning panel wants to see something different. Think about the impact that your speech will have on those listening to it: angry rants about infanticide or sexual deviancy can be difficult to...