The Royal Academy of Dramatic Art.
Arguably the most famous, well known, most talked about drama school in this century. It is probably the one school that receives more applications, has more audition stages, a tougher criteria and at a whopping £55.00 it is one of the most expensive schools to audition at also with over 100 years of history, Lord Richard Attenborough as the president (yes it has a president) and Alan Rickman as chairman it is often thought of as being quite intimidating.
9:50am.
I stood outside the entrance and looked up. Above the doors leading into the main reception is a stone slab with the faded letters of the schools name carved into it. It seems as though, perhaps, this was placed all those years ago at the opening of the school and has never been replaced representing the vast history and prestige of the school, never to be changed. I took a deep breath and walked through the doors into the main reception. I was greeted with a central stair case that splits into 2 different stair cases heading left and right after just 6 or 7 steps, then after levelling out the stair case turns on it self and splits again, left and right, heading up once more, then levelling out and the splitting again and again.
I registered my name and was given a white sticker which I was asked to stick to my clothing somewhere in view. For the next couple of hours I would be know to the world as 'RADA - Auditionee'
Soon a lady came and collected me and took my up the stairs opting to take the left hand stairs rather than the right leading me past a grand oil painting of Lord Attenborough. This may have been a conscious choice by the woman, briefed to lead all auditionees past this painting, but nevertheless there was the man who I have admired and watched in some of the greatest films I have ever seen. I quietly looked him in the eye and thought "wish me luck". I was lead into a room with a long table, like a conference room, chairs lay all around the table with one chair at the head. Pictures of previous RADA students lay on the walls all around the room looking at us, staring at us as if to say "who of all of you will be the ones to join us" These weren't current students or newly graduated students either. Dame Helen Mirren lay opposite me, glaring in the seductive totally in control way all headshots are taken, Attenborough, Rickman and many other actors lay on this wall all with serious pride in their eyes.
The room was quiet, totally silent. Sat in the chairs around the table were 30 or so auditionees, all with the usual nervous faces, all waiting expectantly considering what was about to happen. Fortunately at every audition i've been to there is alway one person who is willing to break the silence and engage everyone else in conversation. I've never been that person but i'm glad there are people out there who are willing to do that, purely because talking about something, even listening to anything, really helps to relax the situation, however there was so much tension and nervous energy in the room all it would take is a soft "boo!" and thirty 18 to 26 year olds would all keel over with mild heart attacks!
"Good morning" in walked a small elegant woman holding a pile of application forms and several pencils. Before saying another word the woman handed out our application forms and asked us to write down our two speeches, our alternative and if we were accepted to go through the next round the song we would sing, but this was necessary if we didn't know it yet. After filling out the forms and handing them back the small elegant woman went on to explain about the process, what would be happening today, what would happen if we got through and what the course entails.
Then she went on to say something like this...
"Acting is one of the most demanding, reworking, re-examining, challenging, unpredictable professions in the world. 95% of actors are out of work at any one time and most will work once and have to sustain their lives through other means, you will have to make sacrifices and quite often work for free. It is not for everyone, it really isn't and you have to think seriously if you want this. You also have to be an optimist, you have to have the ability to keep going and treat rejection as if it is part of your daily routine. If any of you here have any other inkling or ambition to do something else then acting is not the profession for you, you have got to want it with your soul, you have to live it and breath it every single day, it is not for everyone."
Silence.
A collective Gulp was felt through the minds of everyone sat at the table and suddenly I could feel every single person ask them self in sheer panic "Is there anything else I want to do?! is there anything else?!!"
The woman left and 4 current students entered the room as if on cue and separated us into four groups by reading out our names in perfectly worked on and projected voices. My group were lead out of the building and across the road to another building, where all the rehearsal rooms and common rooms seemed to live. We were asked to wait outside of one rooms until the panel called us in.
So this was it, I sat outside with the others, just as quiet as the others waiting to go in and perform my 2 speeches when my name was called. I was led into the room by a woman and upon entering I saw a man sat behind a table in the corner. The woman joined him and introduced themselves and we just had a chat. There weren't any questions really it literally was just a chat and it was really nice, they were both lovely and relaxed and asked me to start when I wanted poring me water and making me feel at ease.
The first round came and went quicker than anything and despite all the staring pictures, the oil painting of Lord Attenborough, the faded entrance, the reputation and the scariest speech in the world I found RADA to be one of the most pleasant and welcoming drama schools out of the whole bunch. When you look back at all the encounters I had with the different objects and people I don't believe they're actually there to intimidate at all, in fact all I saw was a sense of pride, an institution or school that was extraordinarily proud of what it had achieved, proud of the great actors and actresses that had come through it's doors and pride in just how many applicants apply wanting to be trained within it's walls and pride in being able to actually show off its most proudest assets. The scary talk the elegant woman gave us was quite simply the truth, seen through the eyes of experience and perhaps it was something we needed to hear now, sooner rather than later, it wasn't there to scare us or put us off but to wake us up to just what it was we were attempting to undertake.
So my advice would be not to be intimidated by RADA but to treat it as another audition and to once again take on board that speech the woman gave, soak everything up and take it all in.
A letter arrived, a recall
My jaw dropped
