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.
