Drama school

[sophiethenerd]

Has anyone on here been to drama school?(Know someone who has?) Do you (they) have any tips or hints? I am going to try and go after a levels. Its such a great path into acompetitive career.

It is something I am really working towards, and have been for a good few years.

[beth]

hiya i'm an actor and did a 2 year course in acting at the step below full drama school. um i know a fair few people there and some love it, some hate it. it's not my path because they're all very traditional (apart from a couple) and i'm into post-modern theatre.

secondly, i would look into doing uni and THEN drama school. very few drama schools take anyone aged 18 because they don't think they have life experience.

[sophiethenerd]

hiya i'm an actor and did a 2 year course in acting at the step below full drama school. um i know a fair few people there and some love it, some hate it. it's not my path because they're all very traditional (apart from a couple) and i'm into post-modern theatre.

secondly, i would look into doing uni and THEN drama school. very few drama schools take anyone aged 18 because they don't think they have life experience.

Yeah. Thing is financially I don't see thathappening. Paying for drama school is going to be difficult in itself so uni before hand is completely out of the question.
What I am planning to do is audition for drama schools at 18, and if I do not manage to get in, get a job for a year, volunteer places, get the skills and do some hardcore preparation. So that hopefully I can audition the next year and get in.

[beth]

Yeah. Thing is financially I don't see thathappening. Paying for drama school is going to be difficult in itself so uni before hand is completely out of the question.
What I am planning to do is audition for drama schools at 18, and if I do not manage to get in, get a job for a year, volunteer places, get the skills and do some hardcore preparation. So that hopefully I can audition the next year and get in.

i commend yr enthusiasm, but it really is hard. central/rada/drama centre don't usually take people under the age of 21. ALRA is a very young actor orientated place, but they seem to accept almost everyone now a days and 13k is a lot of money to spend.

it may seem that paying for uni on top will be a lot aswell as drama school, but since you don't pay yr uni fees back until yr earning over 21k and you won't be for a good few years during drama school and a couple of years after, i think it's a good step.

you'll also get a basis in theoretical drama to back up the drama school's physical (if that's a course you chose) or you could choose a straight acting course and be ahead of others auditioning.

there are also some drama school accredited courses happening at university's now. manchester met offers one, as does birmingham city university (the birmingham school of acting) which work out as cheaper.

[Amberr]

I know quite a few people who have wanted to go down that route and as what bethie said, it took them years to get accepted into the schools. My advice from which would be the people i know's perspective is to get as much (life) experience as possible. Audition for pretty much as many drama companies now as possible, a great company to audition for is NYT (National Youth Theatre). It's a great way to get noticed and i know drama schools definitely consider it, they all hype it up at our college. http://www.nyt.org.uk/ But if not, then do volunteer work for a year, anything that would boost your cv, you need to be very prepared for whatever gets thrown at you. Best of luck to you though.

[beth]

I know quite a few people who have wanted to go down that route and as what bethie said, it took them years to get accepted into the schools. My advice from which would be the people i know's perspective is to get as much (life) experience as possible. Audition for pretty much as many drama companies now as possible, a great company to audition for is NYT (National Youth Theatre). It's a great way to get noticed and i know drama schools definitely consider it, they all hype it up at our college. http://www.nyt.org.uk/ But if not, then do volunteer work for a year, anything that would boost your cv, you need to be very prepared for whatever gets thrown at you. Best of luck to you though.

totally agree with NYT, my best friend and i were involved in a few NYT performances a couple of years ago and it did me the world of good (in fact a contact i made through the NYT got me channel4 funding in 2008)