Guildhall Final Recall Audition (May 20 & 21, 2014)

Thankfully, I had arrived in England a few days earlier, so I had (mostly) gotten over my jet lag by the time Tuesday rolled around, the first day of my final recall audition. I had scoped out the area the day before so getting there at 9:30 a.m. on the day was easy and not too stressful (although it did mean taking the tube during rush hour, which is always a bit of a nightmare).

The auditions were taking place in Guildhall's new building, which is GORGEOUS and huge, if a bit streamlined and clinical. Luckily, there were loads of current students around whose only job was to make sure you knew where you were going, so I was never worried for a moment that I was in the wrong place or that I was going to get lost. We got a little information packet when we checked in, including our schedule for the next two days. The whole process was very well organized and easy to navigate. I think I was in the group with the best schedule, as we started off the first day with the movement session and then the three monologue panels. The second day was only a half day, with a voice session and then a brief interview (which was purely for clerical reasons -- checking the information you'd filled out on your application and taking your picture). It's structured so that you get a lot of time to really show what you are capable of to many members of staff, which is really satisfying, but of course there is a LOT of down time. I read an entire book (The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks -- check it out, it's just as amazing as everyone says it is).

The movement/improvisation session lasted two hours. This was the portion of which I was the most scared, mostly because the term "movement/improvisation" is very broad, and can cover all manner of embarrassing things. If you remember, that was the session at my ACT final callback that I felt the worst about, and that really put you on the spot. However, this was nothing like that. It was an incredibly relaxed, collaborative session. You were never singled out in a scary way, and you were never put on the spot. It was just two hours of lovely stretching and group movement, like "be a bubble!" For most of it, I even forgot that we were being watched and assessed. After, we went in one by one and did a monologue of our choice. I did mine twice, the second time getting some side coaching.

After lunch, we went into the monologue panels individually -- three total, each with two members of staff. I was feeling very warmed up after the movement session, which was lovely. My first panel was with Christian Burgess and an ex-Guildhall student, who is well known in the London theatre world. I have to say, I felt wonderful about how this panel went. I did two of my monologues and was given ample amount of time to work with them. For my contemporary piece, Christian Burgess directed me to do it in a completely opposite way as it is originally written -- lovingly and flirtatious rather than angry and sad. He even joined me in the scene and improvised some lines throughout. They really challenged me, in a good way, and also gave me lots of time and attention. There was a brief interview after, but it felt like a very natural conversation about me and my craft, rather than rigid question answer question answer. This is going to sound tremendously self-aggrandizing, but I left that panel thinking, "I got into Guildhall."

The next two panels didn't go as well, although they weren't bad either. I did my Shakespeare piece for Patsy Rodenburg (although not the piece I had been doing, as she seemed disinterested in seeing Imogen. So I pulled out my old faithful Lady Percy, which I've been doing for years and know frontwards and backwards). She gave me a redirection, and I did it again, after which she said, "That was better" and that was all. The final panel was with Wyn Jones and Martin Connor. They had me work on my third piece which I hadn't done yet today, and to be honest, I love this piece and I've put a lot of work into it, but it's a bit hit or miss -- sometimes I feel like I really nail it, and sometimes I feel like I'm overacting. They worked with me on it for a bit, and then that was that.

It's hard to say, really. I've been in plenty of audition rooms where I thought I probably got it, but then I realized that the auditioner was just especially effusive or complimentary, and just made everyone feel like they got it (something I hate). But I have to say, even though the second two panels were less amazing, I still left that first day feeling very confident and proud of myself.

The second day was actually pretty low key. The voice session was just a quick vocal warm up, followed by individually going in and doing some sight reading, singing your song and then talking with the voice teacher briefly about your history (any previous vocal or reading problems, etc.). It was a little strange, as they kept insisting that this session had no impact at all on whether you got into the school, but they did take notes the whole time. And also...why would you bother having the session if it didn't matter? Then, we just had the quick clerical interview (mine was literally ten minutes at most). I was all done by about 1:30 p.m., although unfortunately we couldn't leave until they had decided if they needed to see anyone again, so we all ended up hanging around until about 4 p.m. (once again, bring a book).

I returned to the school two days later for the final results. I did not relish the idea of having to wait around and find out if I did or didn't get into Guildhall surrounded by a bunch of nervous strangers, but otherwise I would have had to wait until Tuesday and called the school. We were instructed to come to the school at 7 p.m. to wait around while they deliberated. Most everyone got into little groups and chatted the whole time, but I opted to sit alone with my headphones on and read. We waited around until about 10 p.m. when someone came out with a handwritten list of names on a piece of paper. They were read out one by one, and those people left the gym. After all the names were read, we were told that the rest of us hadn't been accepted. And that was that.

My updated stats:

Bristol Old Vic: accepted!
RCS: accepted!
LAMDA: shortlisted, will hear final decision in June.
ACT: final callback weekend, chosen as an alternate.
Guildhall: final recall but ultimately rejected.
ACA: end of the day callback but ultimately rejected.
Juilliard: rejected.
Yale: rejected.
TISCH: rejected.
Old Globe: rejected.