Auditioning in Lockdown
Archie was recently accepted to the National Youth Theatre. His audition though was a rather unusual experience which he describes here:
Drama school auditions are usually pretty hard, you get a certain amount of time to show a few people your skill, trainability and character and as I’ve learnt you could be in the room for 10 minutes to a whole day; for one audition I spent 8 hours at the school, partaking in movement and improvisation workshops, a student lead Q and A and a performance session. These, although quite possibly the most nerve wracking experiences I've had, have been immense in growing my confidence and knowledge of the industry. I was able to go to the schools, meet all the teachers/students and overall just get a feel for where I could take my acting - something which I definitely took for granted as a process. Just as things felt to be getting underway, coronavirus thought he'd spice it up a bit and all auditions were moved digitally, which meant a tonne of self tapes and if you're lucky you might even get a zoom call interview! Having been recalled for LAMDA’s BA acting course and Mountview’s foundation course after lockdown was announced, I myself have had to go online, producing several self tapes and sending them off to respective schools. If I'm being honest this was slightly disappointing as if the recalls had gone ahead normally then I would have been at each school for a few days. Now don't get me wrong, self tapes are a primary form of auditioning in the industry and I know that I will have to get used to them, however I did have moments of struggle trying to show them that I’m fun/different/trainable/excellent/the next big thing/really passionate/quirky all in one video. I haven't heard back yet!
Given that I was in the audition season, I decided to reapply for the National Youth Theatre. I had previously auditioned twice at the age of 15 and 16 and I’m not going to lie, being unsuccessful was disheartening. I did not reapply in year 12 as I deemed myself too busy, honestly I think I was just afraid of further rejection. My turning point came when I was discussing auditions for the NYT with a couple of the year 9 drama scholars and I was telling them that lots of people don't get in and that they should keep trying if they don't. This seems ironic as I was not following my own advice, so on a whim I signed up. The application this year was also online, where I had to submit a self tape and then was recalled for a zoom interview. The interview went as you would expect for a theatre company. I remember being asked to deliver my monologue as a shopping list. I asked them what they meant by that and they confirmed that I should become the literal shopping list, while performing the monologue. As crazy as this sounded, I must've been a pretty convincing shopping list as I was happy to receive an acceptance email a month later! It seems odd to think that had I followed my initial thoughts of not bothering to audition again out of fear of rejection that I would not now be a member of the NYT.
Ultimately lockdown has been a learning period for me, with interesting insights into how theatre can work online. Drama school acceptance is scarce and I am proud to have gotten this far in the process at a young age. I’d also like to thank my drama class, Bea and Ophelia, for letting me interrupt so many of our lessons to show them my new monologues, as well as the drama staff of Mrs Allsop, Faye Elvin, Miss Dickens and Lucy Perkins for supporting me through the process!
Archie Griffiths Year 13
