Hi again, seeing as I attended the last two previous schools I have written about, RCS and Mountview, I felt like I could write more about what people could expect from the audition days but here's briefly some of my experiences at other places.
Arts Ed-
At Arts there was a talk from the Principal to start the day. You then were split into different groups. My day was very busy as it was half term and they audition a lot more people in half term. The first round is split into two groups. One group will do dance first and the other will have their singing round. In the dance call there is a warm up and then various technical exercises. One thing I have heard about before going is that they particularly like the people that follow their direction EXACTLY. It doesn't matter to them if you are doing a beautiful leap that you've been trained to do for 7 years. If they've asked for no flick don't give them a flick and watch the demonstration very closely to make sure you are presenting your arms in the right way etc. The singing round is quite in and out. You will only sing a small section of one of your songs. Everybody on my day was asked to sing their legit song. Then when you were finished you wait in a room. The Principal will come in and call out the names or numbers of the people who have been recalled. If you haven't been recalled they will give you a thank you letter as you leave. In the Recall, there isn't any more dance. A PT session was talked about but never happened. I think things have changed now and you can choose your monologue but when I auditioned there was a list you had to choose from. You also had to learn one half of a duologue that you then perform with a student from the course. They might see how you respond to direction. For example I was asked to prevent the student from leaving the room without touching him. This was made harder than it sounds by the student. You also have another singing round. This time they asked for the contemporary song and a couple of scales. You also have an interview. Mine was with the Principal. I was asked questions like can you put in order of best to worst, acting, singing, dancing and then he had a look at my scores to see if they matched up with what I had said. He also asks you what your favourite musical is and then you might be expected to name the Director, Writer, Composer, Choreographer etc...
That's pretty much the whole Arts experience. Like I said I auditioned years ago so things may have changed.
GSA-
I believe this has changed now but when I auditioned for GSA, the first round was just singing. You sang in-front of everybody else in the group. One song of your choice. I think now they have added a dance call into the first round. I think this is much better as it gives you more chance to experience the school and also more for your money as auditions are expensive!! In the singing round I think you had to state your name, the name of the song and the composer. In the recall, the dance was very contemporary. There were typical Jazz corner exercises to start and then the routine to finish which was to the song "say something". They wanted you to act through dance and portray the hurt. I think you had to prepare two monologues, contemporary and classical and the acting round was more of a workshop, so there were lots of group exercises and when it came to doing your monologue, it was part of an exercise and you would do it to another person in your group. Before the recall they sent out a list of songs. You had to choose one song off of the list and you would perform it to the panel, the other people were in the room. Lastly there was an interview. I remember the head of the course being very curious about where else I had auditioned and what places I had got as my recall was their last in the season.
Central-
At Central you audition for 3 of their courses. When you arrive you write down your preferences from 1-3 so they have indication as to what you are interested in. To be completely honest I can't remember that much about the day. You are split into fairly small groups. Firstly there was a big whole group warm up in the main hall, quite physical, things like can you be purple mist with your body etc. Once in smaller groups the first thing I did was sing a song, acapella. You sang in-front of everyone in the room. The next thing I did was Acting, again in front of everyone in the group and they chose which piece they wanted to hear. I can't remember whether there was a dance or movement call at all, sorry. A list of names were called out after the first round and what course you had been recalled for. I was recalled for the BA Acting. The afternoon worked fairly the same as the morning but this time you were redirected more and there was a tour of the school.
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