Drama Centre

In the past two months I've been to Drama Centre, London twice. Once for my BA (Acting) audition and then again for the Foundation in Performance course. After going for the BA I wasn't exactly thrilled by the school. It was more of a come-in, go-out sort of thing; a little brutal and with little attention to the school and it's facilities. But of course, not everything can be rainbows and butterfly's can it? That being said, my FdA Performance audition day was a completely different experience altogether.BA Hons (Acting)
I took my mamma with me to this audition as a continuation of my birthday celebrations, knowing/suspecting that I wouldn't be recalled to the afternoon session– and I wasn't wrong. The morning started off very well, finding that the school was only a 3/4 min walk from King's Cross down a straight path right in between St. Pancreas and KX. The Central St. Martin's building is amazing. It's an old granary done out to an incredible standard; kind of what you expect from an art & design uni building. The reception was located on the right and with over an hour to wait we headed left into The Caravan, an industrial-esque trendy bistro. I advise anyone going to Drama Centre, or anyone looking for something to eat close to KX to go here; the food is lovely and the decor is pretty cool.

I opted for apple&maple porridge and mamma went for poached egg and salmon (or some other fish) on toast, which she still hasn't stopped banging on about. Washed down with a pot of tea, it was a lovely way to start the day after a long train journey. 

On the audition panel were two men, one with white hair, the other with dark who were very polite and asked me a few questions about my age and my pieces and then asked me to take the space to perform, using chairs if necessary. I did use a chair for both speeches and was encouraged to take as much time as I needed between speeches– I seem to recall being praised slightly for my usage of the chair, or for something anyways. When I was done I was asked what I was currently doing and how I found my college course, then I was free to leave. Like I had predicted, my name wasn't on the recall list for the afternoon, but only 4/20 were so I wasn't too disheartened. 

On the audition panel were two men, one with white hair, the other with dark who were very polite and asked me a few questions about my age and my pieces and then asked me to take the space to perform, using chairs if necessary. I did use a chair for both speeches and was encouraged to take as much time as I needed between speeches– I seem to recall being praised slightly for my usage of the chair, or for something anyways. When I was done I was asked what I was currently doing and how I found my college course, then I was free to leave. Like I had predicted, my name wasn't on the recall list for the afternoon, but only 4/20 were so I wasn't too disheartened. 

A few weeks earlier my Dad and some close family friends took me to an incredible little wine bar tucked behind the tube station here called Gordon's and I absolutely fell in love with the place. It's a converted wine cellar that's a few hundred years old, with Rudyard Kipling as one of it's past inhabitants. Managing to keep it a secret until coming back with mom I surprised her with a few of her favorite things: wine, cheese and an "experience".

A few weeks earlier my Dad and some close family friends took me to an incredible little wine bar tucked behind the tube station here called Gordon's and I absolutely fell in love with the place. It's a converted wine cellar that's a few hundred years old, with Rudyard Kipling as one of it's past inhabitants. Managing to keep it a secret until coming back with mom I surprised her with a few of her favorite things: wine, cheese and an "experience".

That last one is very important to us as a family. Experiences are something we search for on a daily basis, trying to limit things of a more material nature (not that we don't ever go clothes shopping, because we most certainly do do that!). This time being taken out of the sun wasn't a problem at all and we enjoyed a rustic platter of 3 chunks of cheese, half a baguette each, lots of chutney, pickle and cranberry accompanied by a glass of red wine and a tumbler of port. Now Gordon's do proper portions. When I say a "chunk" of cheese, I mean it– even if it doesn't look that big on the picture.

That last one is very important to us as a family. Experiences are something we search for on a daily basis, trying to limit things of a more material nature (not that we don't ever go clothes shopping, because we most certainly do do that!). This time being taken out of the sun wasn't a problem at all and we enjoyed a rustic platter of 3 chunks of cheese, half a baguette each, lots of chutney, pickle and cranberry accompanied by a glass of red wine and a tumbler of port. Now Gordon's do proper portions. When I say a "chunk" of cheese, I mean it– even if it doesn't look that big on the picture.Foundation in Performance
When I first applied for Drama Centre I didn't choose the Foundation in Performance, mainly due to the cost of the course (you can't get any funding for it through student finance). However, two weeks after my BA audition I received an email from the school saying that the panel had been "sufficiently impressed" by my audition and wanted to recommend me to take a foundation course, then going on to invite me back to DC to audition for theirs free of charge. Finally disappointment after disappointment I had some good news!

I left mom to have a glass of wine or two and headed over to reception to be escorted up stairs by a 2nd year Acting student with some other auditionees. The corridor we were taken to was all hustle-and-bustle with students and teachers from all disciplines striding along past us. After taking a seat amongst earlier-morning auditioners I was called in after about 45 mins.

After rescuing mom from having to buy another glass of wine we headed out into London for a sunny afternoon. Until we got on the tube. I then made the terribly bad decision to go to the V&A museum with a mother who can not stand to be indoors when the sun is out. Woopsie. U-turn made and another tube  ride later we had a wander past Big Ben, the Houses of Parliament and along the Thames until we reached embankment. 

 

A 3 cheese platter will definitely fill two people, a 2 cheese platter probably would as well. Me and my Dad had the Brie, Smoked Cheddar and Gruyere and I nibbled a bit at our friends' Dolcelatte which is now one of my favorite cheeses ever; Mamma and I went for Brie, Fleur de Maquis (new second favourite) and Camembert. I can't remember the names of our wines/ports but I think Derna had the sweet white port which I could drink far to easily.


We wandered through Soho, stumbled upon Oxford Street, got lost in Aldo (honestly) and made our way merrily back to King's Cross. Then the train journey home was cold, long and uncomfortable followed by a long wait for a taxi in a stupidly cold train station surrounded by drunken fools. There had to be one downside to the day!

I couldn't believe I was auditioning at the same school when I went back on Saturday. There were only three of us auditioning that morning so our lovely student helper showed us through the school and answered loads of our questions. I went in first and was met by Richard and Leanna who were incredibly kind and funny rushing around to get me a chair and close the curtains over the mirrors. Following normal audition etiquette I was asked about my choice of pieces, although in much more detail than usual and then allowed to perform using all the time and space I needed. My classical piece went very well, probably the best I've ever done it. But of course something so good always comes with a compromise. I ruined the second half of my modern piece. Silly old me decided it would be good to show the panel two different monologues from my BA audition, giving myself less than 3 weeks to find and prepare Eve from Apples and to re-aquaint myself with the Princess from Love's labour's Lost. This would have been fine if I hadn't been so busy! The week before my audition went by in such a blur I can barely remember any of it and it didn't help that my best friends birthday was the day before my audition. Hopefully I didn't loose too many brownie points for leaving her birthday party early– but I made the extra effort to get there super early and look after her while she was drunk! She had a really great night though and that's all that matters.Excuses aside, the interview after my monologues was great, for once giving me the chance to show my maturity and love for the theater and performing. We talked about everything from the last few shows I had seen to what sports I do and what performances I had done in the past. Richard and Leanna were extremely lovely to talk to and I felt so comfortable because of it. I rejoined Lucy, Max and our tour-guide/student/host Chris and watched as they took it in turns to leave and return.All of us got a recall!

YESSA. To celebrate me, Lucy and Max went to Nando's for some lunch before heading back to our afternoon workshop. Chris introduced us to three girls from the afternoon round of auditions who also got recalls and then we went back into the studio to do a movement and acting session.

Leanna took us for movement getting us to create letters with our bodies, do lots of swinging and swaying and then several exercises to do with space, physicality and awareness. I got a little confused at one point thinking she had asked us to mirror someone when she might not have at all... Hopefully Max didn't mind too much, or better yet didn't realize what I was doing.

Our "Acting" part of the session was taken by Richard and involved some very simple tablo and still image exercises followed by a few games. At the end of the workshop we were allowed to ask questions to both Richard and Chris (who had taken part in the workshop too).

All in all a great afternoon.

Our little trio headed back to King's Cross, made sure we had each other on Facebook and went our separate ways. Lucy lives in Scotland so we both decided to wait for our trains in Pret with a soda. It was so nice to meet such genuinely lovely people who made the whole day that much better. With an hour or so to spare I rang everyone back home and had a wander into the Harry Potter store– I will NEVER be too old for that– before getting a Chai latte from Nero's to take on the train. The sweetie behind the counter gave me two stamps instead of one as well– bonus!