GSA - Guildford School of Acting

The last time I auditioned for GSA was in 2009 and I was offered a place on the reserve list, the list of applicants that have potential for training but are reserved incase anyone who has actually been offered a place decides to drop out.


Not surprisingly, no-one did.


2 years on and GSA have change their location, they are now part of the University of Surrey and have their very own shiny new building with rehearsal studios and dance spaces, rooms with pianos and a small theatre for showcasing. I arrived early and went to the reception desk. Like many drama schools everything is organised and coordinated by current students and thats exactly who were there to greet me upon my arrival. You'd instantly recognise a student by what they're wearing, from my experience at GSA 2 years ago everyone wore black. It's an acting standard. It's a neutral colour meaning that when you perform the audience are able to use their imagination to dress you as they like and there is nothing suggestive to distract them from the text. Either that or GSA uniform is just black, or maybe all the students are secretly in love with the colour? anyway I won't dwell on it,


"Alex Bennett? right, if you just want to take a seat over there I'll come and get you in about 10 minutes"


I took my seat over there opposite, believe it or not, a Starbucks. Yep even one of the most respectable drama schools in the country couldn't escape the clutches of the world famous coffee house. GSA was my number one choice back in 2009 and I wasn't treating it any less now. It's a fantastic place and one of the rare times where I have felt almost at home, the students and staff are warm, friendly and really approachable who all genuinely want to get the best out of you whilst conducting things in a professional manner. I never felt intimidated or out of place and felt at ease with the surroundings. Everything that happens in the day is explained in the letter they send out after you have applied meaning there are no surprises you have to worry yourself with it's all incredibly enjoyable.


"If all of the BA Acting applicant would like to follow me please, we'll all go for a short warm up" exclaimed one of the students


We were led up two flights of stairs just past the main reception and shepherded into a room, there was a piano tucked in the corner and a seating area a long the side. We all put our stuff down and were asked to stand in a circle.


"Right, so, how's everyone feeling?" came the cheery student


Silence


"Not so good I take it, well please don't worry, whilst we're here I'm just going to explain what's going to happen. This is one of our rehearsal spaces at GSA and right now we're all going to take part in a quick warm up to get you all loose and ready for the panel. This part has nothing to do with your actual audition and i'm nothing to do with the assessment, so please don't be scared of me, I have no idea how to assess you i'm just here to warm you up, as wrong as that may sound. This bit is purely for you. Now before we begin lets go round the circle one at a time and I want you all to say your name and an interesting fact or embarrassing story that as happened to you"


Ah crap i forgot all about this!


I was three people in from the start of the circle and the challenge was coming at me, fast.


"Hi i'm Chris, I'm 18 and my interesting fact is I train guide dogs"


A collective awwwww rang out around the circle and everyone in the room automatically adored Chris. A confident smile drew across his face,


"Chris that's brilliant! what a fantastic job! how long have you been training them for?" asked the bubbly student


A conversation sprung up between the two of them until eventually the student had to move things a long


"Hi i'm Lisa, i'm 19 and my interesting fact is I was born on a high speed train"


A collective Woooooooah! rang out around the circle and everyone in the room automatically thought Lisa was cool


"Wow! that's amazing, was it in motion at the time?"


A conversation sprung up between the two of them for a while giving me time to think


Crap! how can i possibly follow this?! guide dog trainers and train births! not even normal train births but high speed train births! quick think of something!


"Hi i'm Alex, i'm 22 and my interesting fact is I have a pet tortoise"


...


Silence


Complete silence


A collective nothing rang out around the circle and no-one automatically adored or thought I was cool, in fact everyone was just staring right at me, all heads in the circle had turned and a small sad breeze whistled past my ears,


"Next" commanded the student


After we had been round the circle we went straight into a warm up led by the current students of GSA. It consisted of throat and voice exercises, shaking out all the limbs and then reaching down touching your toes before very slowly pulling yourself back up one limb at a time until eventually the last thing to come up was your head. The exercises really worked and helped extract all the nerves I was feeling. We even played a game called 'Ride to Market' a GSA standard at all auditions and its brilliant. I can't explain it, you just have to take part but it's nothing scary it gets you working as a group and is always really fun.


"Ok, now I'm going to lead you all back downstairs to the waiting area and then you will be called into the audition room one after the other. There are 2 panels working today so you shouldn't be kept too long, are there any questions?"


There weren't. We were lead back downstairs and sure enough about 15 - 20 minutes later someone in black came to collect me. I was lead back up the two flights of stairs and asked to sit on one of two chairs outside the audition room. The student that lead me up never left me a lone or anything and kept talking to me offering me advice and letting me know what happens and was generally very supportive.


"the panel will see you now"


I walked into the space and two ladies sat behind a desk somewhere towards the end of the room, the wall to the left was just glass with a long curtain drawn half way across it and there was a desk and a pile of chairs at the back. One seat sat vacant at the opposite end of the table, this seat was clearly for me.


"Hello Alex, very pleased to meet you my name is...and this is..." Sorry again, please feel free to fill in the blanks with names of your own my adrenalin was pumping through me so hard that names were pushed straight out of my brain


One of the first things they both did was comment on my handshake, stating that it was firm and confident. This had never happened before, at any interview let alone audition. I was always taught to give a firm handshake when greeting anyone as it installs confidence and self belief and honestly it hasn't done me any harm at all, so a quick tip, always have a firm handshake, well it worked in this instance. 


One of GSA's instructions on their applicant letter is that you must have four pieces prepared, 2 classic and 2 modern and the panel will choose which ones they would like to see on the day. I had 6 ready for use but chose the two that I thought showed me off in the best light, sure enough, about 3 minutes in, I was asked for my four pieces and they selected which ones they would like to see


"If you could stand further back in the space and please feel free to use a chair if you need one, take your time and only begin when your ready"


I took a deep breath, said the first line silently in my head and begun


"Alex, what I saw there was an actor with good instincts, good aspirations and you understand everything that's going on. My problem was that they took too long, there was one point in there where I almost stopped you so that we could talk more and we could get to know you a little but I fear we now have to rush that bit"


I groaned, I actually enjoyed the audition and thought the pieces went well, I am my toughest critic and there has never been an instance where i've thought that my performance has been flawless because it hasn't I could always improve and this time I decided I would take on the advice that was given and would cut the pieces down a bit. Unlike in my other auditions the formal interview took place right there and I was asked about three or so questions that were as follows;


"What other drama schools have you applied to?"


"Why do you want to train at GSA?"


"What role do you think you would be cast as in a modern context?"


The last question I had never been asked before and had to make something up on the spot, I had a think and answered as confidently and truthfully as I could


"Thank you Alex, it was lovely to meet you, what happens now is that we will confirm in writing within seven days wether or not we would like to see you again and wish you all the best"


And that was that, I thanked them and walked out of the audition not knowing what the outcome would be, I thanked and said goodbye to the student in black who showed me into the audition room, gathered my things and made my way out. Obviously I was dwelling on what she had said, there was what seemed like a ghostly voice hovering around me, whispering in my ear "It was too looooong" said the voice


7 days later


"We would like to take his time to thank you for auditioning with us. Unfortunately we are unable to offer you a place on our BA Acting course this year and wish you the best of luck in your future endeavours"


3 down, 5 to go...


Come on Alex, lets grab something to eat


I sat down and reflected upon what had come to pass at my audition and one thing stood out, clearer than anything else, it was staring at me right in the face almost poking at me, one thing was absolutely certain.


Having a pet tortoise isn't an interesting fact, not really


Sigh

LAMDA 2011

Barons Court.

I rounded the corner from the tube station and just on the left, after the Hammersmith flyover, lies the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art, boasting it's 150th year. I walked straight past it and up to the petrol station where I bought some water to try and steady my nerves. Back in 2009 I was recalled twice to LAMDA getting down to the last 50 applicants, or so we were told. 

I was nervous because last year I had never made it beyond the preliminary audition and of course I was worried that the same thing might happen this time.

I plugged in my headphones and stood a few yards down the road from the entrance, with the big brown double doors in sight, and blasted out the Pirates of the Caribbean theme into my ears giving me the confidence to walk through those doors and once again begin the process.

"Hello, are you hear to audition?" asked the student currently in year one of training, lucky....

"Yes, it's for 10:30am"

"ah right, and your name please?"

I gave her my name and was directed down the familiar corridor, past the wall of black and white headshots from just graduated and past students, all with smug looks on their face staring at me mockingly, through past 2 rehearsal rooms and finally into the LAMDA common room where around 30 applicants awaited. 

Silence.

This isn't terribly uncommon in audition waiting rooms, everyone is so nervous and trying to focus that there isn't a noise, not a single peep from anyone, everyone just as scared as the other waiting for their name to be called. Eventually my name and 3 others were called out and we were collectively taken down a corridor and asked to sit outside of the room we would be auditioning in.

All the time at LAMDA you are taken care of by current students and they're always around and more than happy to answer any questions you have about anything to do with the school or the training or about how they have found there time so far at the school. The only time you see any 'officials' from LAMDA is on the audition panel, it's usually 2 people sitting behind a desk but on one occasion there were three, all of whom either teach or have something to do with the selection process.

"Ok Alex if you follow me into the room they will see you now"

I followed the student into the room

"This is Alex Bennett" he announced out loud in a perfectly projected voice into the space

"Hello Alex, if you would like to walk into the space and stand behind the black piece of tape marked out on the floor, if you could resist the urge to come any further forward than that line then that would be great, when your ready if you could give us the name of your speeches and then begin"

One of the only things I hate about LAMDA auditions is that little piece of black tape. It's marked out out on the floor, just as they said, but a lot further back in the space, in fact it barely gives you any room to move around at all, which I suppose is their point,but unfortunately for me I'm a mover. So I gave them the names of my pieces and did as best I could to adapt to the instruction they gave me.

I began.

"Thank you Alex, what will happen now is that you will be taken into an interview with some of our administrative staff and then after that you will be free to go and we will let you know of the outcome within 2 - 3 weeks , it was lovely to meet you"

I walked out to find more applicants sitting outside where I was sat 5 minutes before just enforcing again exactly how hard this process is. I was led back down the corridors I came from and was asked to wait outside another room where 2 members of the administrative staff would interview me.

I was led in

"Hi Alex I'm Natalie and this is.." my apologies to you all but I can't remember the name of the man who interviewed me, lets call him Paul

"Hi Alex I'm Natalie and this is Paul"

Natalie and Paul asked me to sit down at the other end of a table in a room with a few hundred book stacked up behind them, almost library style but with only one set of shelves. Once again i'd like to stress how useless I am at drama school interviews but I gave myself time to prepare for this one.

"So Alex, how was that?"

I went into answering them both with confidence and just told the truth, it was a fairly informal interview but if you want to now the rest of the questions I was asked please find them below so that you can prepare;


"What have you been up to recently?"


"Why have you chosen those pieces?"


"Are their any questions you want to ask us?"


And that was that, I was wished good luck by almost everyone I came across and I walked out not having any idea of how it went.


3 weeks later sure enough there came the letter informing me that regretfully they were not able to offer me a place this year on their 3 year acting course but if I wanted to I could join their drama school audition preparation course which they were offering only to a 'select few' applicants for a fee of £666 for 2 weeks'


I almost choked! it wasn't being turned down, I was fine with that but £666!! do they really need that amount of money for a 2 week course?! I suppose yes you would have the best training for it and be given the best amount of attention but my thoughts turned to students or applicants who would strive to get that kind of money together feeling that it would be best for them. But, actually, you can get a lot more out of courses that run for 6 weeks for less money! seriously, just google it. Anyway part of LAMDA's 'criteria' for selection is 'to assess the ability of an applicant to perform an 'unrehearsed audition piece', surely then this is a bit of a contradiction? and for that much money?! Averagely there are around 3000+ applicants, all of whom have paid around £45 for the chance to audition but then to ask for £666 for a short course to help aspiring actors audition technique. Yes it's fantastic drama schools offer such 'great' opportunities for actors but for that much money do they really?


I felt sad and all of a sudden I found myself loosing a lot of respect for such a great school.