Guildhall Audition

Hello internet!

So I just got back from my Guildhall audition.  I thought I would it break it down for anyone out there who is curious about what the audition entails.  I auditioned in New York which means that the first round and the first callback happen on the same day.  Overall it was an incredibly pleasant experience. They were very welcoming, laid back and made sure that we knew that it was okay to be nervous.

We were all asked to be at the audition venue 15 minutes prior to the start time of the audition. The first part of the audition was a group warm up and improvisation exercise.  One of the Guildhall graduates that was there led us in a warm up and then turned it over to one of the teachers from Guildhall who was conducting the auditions. He then asked us to do some light improv.  We had to work as an ensemble to form different numbers and objects and then to form an image representing an overall emotion.  The final part of this section of the audition was each of us coming to the center of the space one at a time and stating our name, and a few facts that they asked us to share about ourselves.

Following the group warm up we were given time to change and prep for our individual audition. We were all given numbers and performed in that order. They also told us that it was perfectly acceptable to address them directly in the monologue and make eye contact. The recent graduates were also there if we needed someone to address the monologue to.  I personally had her be the dead body of Henry VI in my Lady Anne monologue.  You go in with three monologues and a song but only get to pick the first one that you are performing.  I went in and performed my Lady Anne monologue from Richard III.  They then asked to see my contemporary which was a monologue from Eurydice by Sara Ruhl.  Lastly they asked me to sing a few lines from the song that I had prepared. Once all of my performing was done, they had me bring a chair in front of the table. They merely asked me what I had been up to recently and so I talked about recent performances and why I wanted a conservatory training in England.

Then the waiting game came. As I went 5th in a group of 15, I was waiting around for quite some time.  But luckily theater people are wonderful humans and I had some fantastic conversations.  We were then all brought back in to the audition room and they gave us a short speech about how they can only take so many people and said that they would only be calling back two people from our audition group. Unfortunately, I was not called back, but the overall audition experience with Guildhall was so wonderful that I am really glad that it was my first audition.

Now, on to the next one! I audition for Drama Centre London tomorrow so keep an eye out for the debrief of that audition soon!