Thursday 23 April 2015

2015: MA Musical Theatre Audition #3: Mountview

Mountview, we meet again....

Unfortunately this audition was scheduled for the day after RAM- universe why so cruel???
However in spite of the previous days events and not knowing the result from RAM at this point, I travelled to Mountview in good spirits. I arrived 20 minutes before the audition time (You must know my mantra by now, always early!!!), got changed into dance clothes and was taken to a dance studio. Here's where my audition process dramatically differs from last years...

So last year, I auditioned only with other postgrad hopefuls which was nice as there were only about 13 of us and the day felt extremely personal. We even got individual feedback which  was something I wasn't anticipating. This year however, I went into that studio and joined about 150 other auditionees. You read that right, 150. I can only really describe the audition day as a cattle call, because that's what it was. Granted, most of the auditionees were not there for the postgrad course (Mountview were also auditioning for the BA and the foundation that day), but the sheer volume of people was a tad overwhelming. We listened to a speech, did a (very) brief vocal warm up and were then asked to stream ourselves in terms of dance ability.  Naturally, I opted for the less dance-inclined group!

We then were split into further small groups and I went off to act first. I performed my modern speech in full and half of my classical. This was probably the most personal bit of the day, given that the acting teacher actually asked us quite a bit about ourselves. I felt my speeches had gone okay (though I always find it so hard to tell!) and enjoyed watching everyone else's. Next we went to sing, which I had previously thought would be my strongest part of the day. My song went okay, it wasn't the best I had ever sung it (is it ever?) but I felt I had done myself justice. The studio we were in was absolutely boiling (it was a pretty warm day anyway but the studio was like a furnace!) which was not terribly great for singing.

Finally we progressed to my most feared part of the day: dance. I needn't have worried so much though, bizarrely it was my favourite part of the whole audition. The panel teaching and auditioning us were absolutely lovely and I really enjoyed getting to show off some of the improvements I had developed from ballet classes. It was a pretty standard audition process; some cardio, technique, stretching, corner work and then learning the routine. I used all my worldly acting powers to pretend I a)was enjoying the dancing more than I was and b)knew what was going on. When it came to performing the routine (a jazzy number from White Christmas) I knew I hadn't done it perfectly but I'd done my best and hopefully had captured the feel of the number. If nothing else, I was proud of myself for how far I'd come on dance-wise since last year.

All of the auditionees then came together in the dance studio to wait whilst Mountview decided who to recall. I wasn't timing how long they took, but it felt like forever- and yes this may very well have just been the heat/stress. Every time a door opened into the studio, the room would go silent and everyone would crane their necks to see who it was before realising it was just another auditionee coming back from the toilet. Unfortunately for me, another auditionee had a similar look to me and absolutely nailed their song, so I saw it was going to be a long shot to get a recall from Mountview. When they finally announced that I hadn't been recalled I wasn't surprised, but I was disappointed. In many ways, I felt like I'd let myself down since I was so close to being recalled last year (http://journeytodramaschool.blogspot.co.uk/2014/07/drama-school-audition-2-mountview.html) but after having a day to dwell over it I've realised I mustn't think like that. I'll post more on staying happy and dealing with rejection in later posts, but to anyone out there going through a similar hard time, just stay strong and remember it gets better. This is just a hurdle in my life, and yours,  and we will get over it!

All the best to those of you out there auditioning, keep the faith!

Yours faithfully,
the postgrad-app 

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