Now that it has been just long enough for me to have utterly forgotten the details of my audition, and now that the results will absolutely skew my perception of how the audition went, I have decided to begin chronicling my audition experience. While this is partly for my own piece of mind, I am also writing this because I was and am so appreciative of people who write down even little snippets of their auditioning experience, so maybe this will provide some comfort to someone else.
My first audition was for Guildhall, on January 20th in New York City. Luckily, I had a friend who lived only ten minutes away from the audition, so I was able to stay with him and scope out the location ahead of time (something I very highly recommend if at all possible). The group warm-up began at 9:30 a.m., so I set my alarm for 7:00 a.m. (snoozed until 7:30, of course) before getting up, having a light breakfast and some tea, doing my sun salutations and reading through the scenes that my monologues were from as a refresher. I left at 8:45 a.m., so that I would get there by 9:00 a.m. (early, but not too early) and bopped along the NYC streets listening to Macklemore (which would become my go-to pump up audition music, partly because Macklemore is wonderful and partly because grad school auditioning has turned me into a superstitious freak).
There were about ten (?) of us in total, and after writing down a list of our three pieces and song, we were led into the main audition room by two former Guildhall students who were running the audition. We met Christian Burgess (the Director of Drama) and Martin Connor (the Head of Acting Studies). They were very friendly and warm, and reassured us as well as they could. We began the warm up portion, which was for our benefit not for theirs, which involved moving around the space, some hug tag and creating some shapes in groups. We mimed carrying, and spilling, a cup of tea and then ended the warm up by going up one at a time and completing the phrases, "My name is..." "I was born in..." "When I turned five years old I..." "I wish that..." "I want to go to Guildhall because..."
My name is Claire.
I was born in Marshalltown, Iowa.
When I turned five years old, I wanted to be four, so I celebrated my fourth birthday twice.
I wish that I wasn't so nervous and sweaty.
I want to go to Guildhall because for the past year, I feel like I've been narrowing and narrowing, and what I want to be doing is expanding.
It really did feel that the warm up was just to relax us, to get us comfortable in the space, to wake us up, to ignite our imagination. I thought it was extremely helpful. Nothing was rushed, either, which is a rare feeling to have when one is auditioning for grad schools. We returned the hallway and were called in one by one. I was third, which was perfect. One of the major differences in the Guildhall audition was that they really encourage you to connect with the panel, to give your speeches to them. One of their ex-students is in the room, and they also encourage you to use them. I did my Shakespeare, and then moved onto my contemporary piece. After, they had me work on the speech, to make it more grounded and more natural. They had the ex-student stand up and actually work with me, which was incredibly helpful. He was very giving as a scene partner. They asked me a few questions about the piece, about the scene and the motivation behind the character. Then, they asked for a third piece, which we then worked very similarly although for a shorter period of time (I don't think I ever got through the whole thing). Then, they asked me to sing (oh horror) and about fifteen seconds in he stopped me and said, "Don't act it, just do it as if you're talking to your friend at a cafe about this boy that you met." I sang through the song, and then I was interviewed (the basics -- why do you want to go to school, how are you going to afford this, and general chit chat).
I left the room feeling very positive. I thought they had really given me the time and attention to give my best work, and I absolutely love being directed and also having someone else to play off of. Although, of course, being third meant that there was a bit of a wait ahead of me, and during the wait I managed to completely deflate my sense of pride, going over and over everything I could have done better or differently. Around noon, everyone had been seen and we were all called back into the room for the results. I ended up being the only person recalled, which was lovely, if a bit awkward.
So, with just me, Christian Burgess, Martin Connor and two ex-Guildhall students in the room, I had the recall audition. Christian Burgess told me that he just wanted me to have a conversation as myself about what it was like when I was fifteen years old with one of the students (not the one I had worked with before, but the other one). The catch? I had to subtly insert bits of lines from my three monologues while talking. I didn't even have time to freak out, as we just jumped right in! It was slightly strange, I will admit, as I felt like I was being judged on my conversational abilities. And, while it was slightly awkward, I just forgot that people were watching and had a real conversation, trying to be as present as possible rather than outside my head self-judging. Our conversation ranged from the mundane -- what are your hobbies? -- to the intimate -- losing one's virginity, deep family secrets, etc. I only slipped in around three very small lines, so when they finally cut us off, I thought that I had probably failed completely. We discussed which lines we had slipped in, and laughed a bit about what had been discussed, and then Christian Burgess looked at me and said, "Well, we would like to invite you to come to London in May for the final recall audition." I managed to keep my cool, only somewhat maniacally repeating, "Thank you, thank you thanks thank you!" We chit chatted a bit, I thanked them and the students for being so incredibly helpful, and left the room.
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