Final round audition – LAMDA

This was my last audition for drama school 2016 entry. Oh sugar.

LAMDA is such an amazing school and it would be just unreal to be accepted there! Alright. I’m drooling. So, to the day!

Before I begin however I need to just outline the whole process a bit as someone in a previous post was asking me about it. So for LAMDA a person can have a minimum of 2 rounds and a maximum of 4 rounds before being offered a place to study full time. (A 4th round would just be a repeat of the recall day [3rd round] if the panel are still undecided.) EDIT: A person who has got into the BA this year had to do 5 Rounds before LAMDA made a decision to offer a place.) This is from a LAMDA admissions lady who told me (as I was chatting away to her in the corridor) to which she also informed me that 5000 people applied to LAMDA this year.

Yep. You heard me right.

5000.

So, as you can imagine, it was awesome to get to this stage. I know I say this in a couple of blogs but I actually do mean it when I say it!! Drama school auditions are so difficult and I know how much it hurts when you get rejected just at the first round. So you there, reading this through the screen, don’t judge me for feeling proud because I definitely don’t feel guilty! 😀

We all got there at 9:30 am and again I was warmly greeted by a lovely LAMDA student who made me feel straight away at home. We were split into two groups; one group to have an improv and movement session and one group to have THE audition. I was in the group for THE audition first (I’ll get to that bit later as I was the last to be seen by the panel for the morning session.) Whilst waiting to go in for our audition slot we were brought individually to have our interview with a LAMDA tutor and an admissions lady. I felt like my interview went well and I was just my usual wacky self when I went in. The questions were quite similar to my first round like what have you been up to? Why here? And they also asked the most fabulous question ever – why do you want to be an actor? (That went down a TREAT let me tell ya) and they also asked me who was my favourite actor and things like that. All good and enjoyable and was feeling optimistic!!

So after waiting for my time it was finally my slot for the individual audition.

Right in present tense lets shake it up. The student helper takes me up a different set of polished stairs this time to wait outside a new room to be called in. Literally the Head of the school, Rodney, (I was freaking out inside) shakes my hand and welcomes me inside. There are 10-12 people on this panel. The room is massive and it’s lit with stage lights. They are going to see everything. GAH. Okay back we go.

Now for LAMDA final you have quite a few things you need to do. You do 2 pieces (one Shakey and one modern) and then you have to sing your unaccompanied song, then sight read a passage given to you on the spot, then do a duologue with a extremely attractive LAMDA Grad and try to remain professionally focused. They redirected me once but you can’t really look into whether they do or don’t because everyone’s audition is individual and different. Oh I forgot, then you have another mini interview with the panel. They asked me about the acting experiences I had written on my CV, who I’d worked with and how I’d gotten on at other drama schools. Let me tell you I was exhausted after this and I still had half the day to follow!! After my individual audition we had a group movement session with the vivacious Head of movement (John) with everyone from the morning, which basically had us doing all kinds of crazy stuff. What a session. I couldn’t stop smiling throughout the whole of it. 😁

Oh and something else I have to mention is that on this day, as a drama school auditionee, LAMDA treated us like actual human beings and provided everyone with lunch. I know this seems a simple thing but I have applied to 7 schools this year and not once have I ever been provided with the courtesy of lunch. I mean for goodness sake we even pay for these auditions!! Anyway that’s another debate but basically I was falling so hard for this school. 🙈

After a lovely lunch my group had improvisation and another movement workshop. The improv session I quite enjoyed actually (how shocking – I know) and I wasn’t so nervous about it as I usually am at auditions. The woman taking our class was called Michelle (and oh my goodness she was sooooo into her work – in a really good way) and yeah I thought she was fabulous. Anyway we were asked to interact with everyone else and improvise on the spot/devise from stemmed bits of text to work with. A really fun and stimulative session!!

The next movement session was with a lady called Donna. Oh my goodness this woman was a machine!! WE DID SIT UPS AND PRESS UPS IN A DRAMA SCHOOL AUDITION. GUYS GET TO THE GYM FOR A LAMDA AUDITION. Saying that, she was hilarious, which I guess made up for the side-splitting pain of actual exercise :’) At one point she gave us all an instruction and this one girl got it right and Donna said ‘Right well she’s getting a place’ and everyone’s faces fell instantly. It was only afterwards as she burst out into a howl did I realise she was pulling our legs!! And then she went on to say that the session we had with her was only the ‘baby version’ compared to the real thing, as she ‘didn’t have time to be cleaning up the sick on every recall day.’ 😂😂

Pretty intense but she could have a laugh, which I liked!

So after the brief torture we just played a few games to end the day with a laugh and on a high! We then could ask any questions we had and then they told us we will know in 2-3 weeks! (I’m like a crazy person every time my phone buzzes)

Here’s hoping for some good news! Pray for me!!

And just as an update I’m still patiently waiting to hear from Drama Centre and RADA. Got to love waiting. Mhm.

Major update: I HAVE BEEN OFFERED A BA ACTING PLACE AT LAMDA!!!!!!!

Lots of love,

AA x

(Aspiring Actress)