How to Audition for Drama School

Auditioning for drama school can be stressful. There is a misconception that students auditioning for drama school have to be perfect. This is not true. After all, the purpose of a drama school is to teach the acting students skills. If the student were already perfect, there wouldn’t be anything more to teach. This does not mean, though, that you should go in unprepared. Preparation is key to a drama school audition and the better prepared you are, the more easily you will be able to deal with nerves.

Instructions

1. Study the guidelines thoroughly. It is likely that you’re auditioning for more than one drama school. You will need to make sure that you study each of the school’s audition requirements. For an acting course, two audition speeches are typically required. However, they may require three speeches. They may require you to sing a song, even if it isn’t a musical theatre course. You may even be required to do a movement audition, so you need to make sure that you are fully prepared.

2. Choose the right audition speech. As stated earlier, you will most likely be required to do one classical speech and one modern speech, each about 2-3 minutes in length. You may be inclined to look through books on audition speeches for suggestions. However, remember that everybody else will be looking through the same books. The reviewing panel are human beings, and there are speeches that they have seen too many times to be dazzled by any one performer’s version of that speech. It is safer to go with a play that you are familiar with -- maybe a part that you have played, yourself. Spend some time thoroughly researching a few different monologues, before you finally settle on one in particular.

3. Preparing a singing piece if you are not a singer. It can be particularly stressful for a non-singer to perform a song. If it isn’t a musical theatre course, then you can be sure that they will be looking at your overall performance, versus just your singing capabilities. Typically you will be required to sing 16 bars of music. Check to see if you need to bring some accompanying sheet music. Like the audition speech, steer away from current West End trends because you can be sure that everyone else will be doing them as well.

4. Rehearse. Give yourself plenty of time to rehearse for your audition pieces. If possible, get somebody that you know who is also involved in the business to see you perform (such as a teacher or fellow actor) so that you get an idea of how the pieces that you have chosen will perform. Rehearsing by yourself is quite different from rehearsing in front of an audience.

5. Prepare for the interview. While you needn’t have some scripted, prepared answers for your interview, you should give some thought to the interview process. Typical questions asked are “Why do you want to be an actor?” “What performances have you seen recently?” “Who is your favorite actor and why?”