RADA Workshop

My audition was on the 5th April from 6pm to 9:30pm. We were split in to two groups, mine had eight and the other roughly six. The workshop I had first was the Shakespeare, lead by the Director at RADA. He started by asking you to tell him individually what your first Shakespeare line is. Emphasis on tell - not act. Every time somebody tried to act through expression or voice, they were asked to try again. All he wanted was for us to get used to speaking. Just speaking. But as long as you responded well to his direction and withdrew the performance - your were fine!
We sat in a circle and stood in pairs each being assigned either the word 'please' or 'no'. The objective of the activity was to use your word in as many different ways as possible - and sooner or later you're whining 'pleeeeease' and aggressively shouting 'NO!'. He explained afterwards that naturally when we try something and don't get the response we want which in this case would be 'yes', we try something else (a different tone, a different way of persisting before you're stuck in a vicious circle). The aim was to demonstrate that we need to try something out before we can see if it will work and if not - try something else.

And this is what we bounced off of to do our monologues. Stepping in to the circle, we chose someone to also step in to fill the shoes of the character you're talking to. If your speech is self-reflecting that you are given the opportunity then to discuss who in the play they are most likely to speak it to. The first thing I noticed when the first pair were performing was what the Director was looking at. You'll be interested to know that he wasn't looking at the actor performing - but the partner filling in and their reactions.

Just because you're filling in for a character, that does not mean you should not be present in the scene. A lot of people try to maintain a straight face with the intention to not put the actor off. But how do you expect them to do well if you're giving them nothing to bounce off of? That makes a good actor.

With this quickly picked-up knowledge, I was chosen to fill in as Portia to Morocco in The Merchant of Venice. The auditionee was paused slightly in to his monologue before we were introduced to another activity. His intention for the speech was to gain Portia's love - demonstrated through our palms which were held out to each other. The more I felt a connection from him, the closer I moved towards his hand - and visa versa if he did something wrong! His intention was now to get me to touch his hand. Reactions, reactions, reactions.

After doing the first ten or so lines of my Shakespeare, I was complimented on the connection between the stand-in actor and I before I was asked to fetch a copy of the script. I just so happened to bring it with me and I would recommend to bring it just in case or situations like these. While he held the script, I was asked to moved into another direction whenever there was punctuation, then stopping re-establishing the connection and continuing. The key was to make sure to finish the line before moving and standing strong and owning your space before continuing to speak. It couldn't have gone better.

This is my inside reaction to the Shakespeare section: AHHHnfjxdghdkr!!! (In the best way possible)

The Head of Acting at RADA then comes in to swap classes with the Director and we continued on with the contemporary workshop. We did the same activity of just speaking the first line before doing basic workshop activities such as walking around in the space etc.

When had to take on the characterisation of many different characters such as a seven year old girl, a policeman and your own parent. We then walked around and were directed to begin thinking of trivial things such as their name, where they've come from, what's their personality before breaking into ten or so seconds of unnaturalism. This process was intended to demonstrate what your chosen person is feeling inside and just loose every inch of inhibition you have and get creative!!

The monologues were performed in the middle of a standing circle of the other auditionees once we had effectively established a connection in the eyes of one individual that you choose to direct your monologue too. We were stopped only a couple of lines in, so don't be expecting to finish the whole monologue. I know I've not gone into much detail about the modern workshop, but it was so fast and physical that I can't remember much! Plus I just love Shakespeare more hehe.

I wasn't told how long the wait for the result will be, but I'm hoping it will only be a few weeks. I'll keep you updated! Now on to my central preliminary on Wednesday 10th April.