Sunday, August 11, 2019

Royal Conservatoire of Scotland Preliminary Audition Experience


I auditioned for the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland in February on site at the Conservatoire itself along side 8 others at my timeslot at 2 o’clock. There was a tour of the conservatoire at 1 but I went to the open day, so it wasn’t necessary for me (still handy though). Oh, and I was auditioning for the 3-year BA Acting programme.

DISCLAIMER: This post is not intended to be a guide to the exact experience you would have if you audition. This is just my reflection and the audition process may alter my year to year. This post is also not affiliated with the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland.

Anyway, with all that out of the way let’s get into it!

Something useful to now, especially if you live near the conservatoire is that at the open day there was a discount code for audition prices (which is awesome because auditions can be pricey). However, if you can’t make it to the open day but still want to know about the audition process then there’s an informative video on their website which also goes into detail about call-backs and what happens after. Oh, by the way if it seems like I know more about the process for this drama schools than the others it’s because this was my conservatoire of choice. With regards to prior to the audition one thing which was essential to do which I kind of messed up on was having plenty of time to fill out the form with plenty of time to spare as they ask for it a week before your audition. Luckily, I was still able to audition having handed the form in late after filling out the form the night before in my boyfriend’s guest bedroom after writing drafts for it on the flight over.

One aspect which I really enjoyed was that we got 20 minutes before the actual audition with other auditionees as well as a past student. The socialising really helped with breaking the ice as we went into a group workshop. During the workshop we had pair work, improv and team exercises so the professors could see how we worked in a group before seeing how we worked on our own. There was also a question time with the professors.

As to the audition process, one thing which I loved was the redirection of one of our monologues (either classical or modern) which allowed them to see how you adapted to changes and if you found it easy to make changes. I struggled slightly in the interview after though because whilst they asked some standard questions, they also asked me a couple which threw me off guard. For example, I’M Irish so they asked me what Irish actor inspired me the most which threw me off slightly as to be honest I had never thought about that. I’d say to expect the unexpected which is cringey I know.

Overall, I enjoyed the day but left feeling that I hadn’t done myself justice due to not being as prepared for the questions in the interview. That’s why its always good to think about what out of the box questions any interviewer could ask you.

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed it and learn from my mistakes

See ya around