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Get Into Drama School

By Susan Elkin
August 2005

Former teacher, Susan Elkin is a freelance writer on education, the arts and various other topics for a number of newspapers and magazines including Daily Mail and The Daily Telegraph.

So you want to act

A number of my A-level students have set their sights on careers in theatre in recent years. One went to LAMDA to study acting, and another to RADA for technical theatre. A third is just starting a technical theatre course at Central and a fourth has just completed the first year of a drama degree at Birmingham University. And that's just a small sample. What these young people all had in common was a high level of talent, buckets-full of commitment, the sort of determination which quickly resurfaces after repeated set-backs and supportive but realistic parents.

Although it is possible simply to get a 'break' by walking straight from school into the professional world, in the performing arts it is very unlikely. A recent report (Manpower Studies for the Arts Council of England) found that 86% of working performers had been professionally trained. So if you are convinced that this is the career for you, you are much more likely to succeed with training than without it.

The trouble is that the performing arts industry is simply not like medicine, marketing or maths teaching. You cannot expect to complete your training and then start your career as a matter of course. The job prospects for newly qualified actors are thin, as they are for more experienced performers too. Lack of job security goes with the territory. Many actors spend much of their time 'resting.'

The nasty truth, according to the National Council of Drama Training, is that trained performers work professionally for an average of just 11.3 weeks of the year. It isn't well paid either. Apart from a handful at the very top of the profession, performers earn quite low salaries so most of them have to run parallel careers as teachers, call centre temps, caterers, salespeople or whatever in order to be able to live throughout the year.

If you are serious about higher education drama training use your time at school to:

• take part in as much drama as you can, both in and out of school. Get involved in backstage work too if you can
• see as many shows as you can, ranging from puppetry, street entertainers and children's theatre to big productions of the classics - not forgetting opera, pantomime, musical threatre, one-person shows and any other sort of performance which comes your way
• read as many play texts as you can and think about ways in which they could be staged
• read The Stage and its website to keep up to date with what's happening in the profession.

The three main training routes

1. Drama school

First, you can apply to a drama school such as Bristol Old Vic Theatre School where Daniel Day Lewis and many other famous names trained, or Royal Welsh School of Music and Drama formed from a merger of schools, one of which trained Sir Anthony Hopkins. Other possibilities include Guildhall School of Theatre and Drama, Birmingham School of Speech and Drama, Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama and many others.

For a free copy of the Conference of Drama Schools' guide to Professional Training in Drama and Technical Theatre for students applying in 2007, contact French's Theatre Bookshop. You can write to them at French's Theatre Bookshop, 52 Fitzroy St, London, W1T 5JR or pick it up from the shop directly. You can telephone them on 020 7255 4300 or you can email them on theatre@samuelfrench-london.co.uk or via their website www.samuelfrench-london.co.uk. They will also send out the new CDS Guide to Careers Backstage.

Applications are not done through a central body and you can apply for as many as you like. Look at prospectuses and websites. And talk to your drama teacher(s), youth drama group director and any actors you know or meet about which school might be the right choice for you.

"It is important to audition for a number of different schools" says actor Paul Cameron, "to ensure that you find the right one for you as each school has its own distinct, unique qualities and training techniques. LAMDA was my fourth audition and I knew by the end of the day that it was the school for me. Remember you are choosing the school as much as they are choosing you!"

The industry's advice is that you should complete your school education to the highest standard you're capable of before applying for drama school. Many drama schools have academic entry requirements and, given the precarious nature of careers in drama or dance, it makes sense to have the best possible academic qualifications you can manage because you will almost certainly have to work in other fields as well as the performing arts.

Start thinking about your choices at least a year beforehand. The Conference of Drama Schools and the National Council for Drama Training have collaborated with the Department for Education and Skills to produce a booklet An Applicants Guide to Auditioning at Dance and Drama Schools. You can download it from the National Council for Drama Training website.

All accredited courses - that's about three quarters of those available - are now degree courses funded as higher education. That means that students are entitled to subsidised tuition, the level of which is assessed against your parents' income if you're a school leaver. Students pay up to £1,175 in 2005/6 and up to £3000 from 2006/7 - which is about half the actual cost. They have access to student loans to help pay for living costs. There is more about this in my Stage Online article 'How to fund drama training.'

All accredited drama courses now lead to the award of an Equity card, This means that once you've graduate you are able to work if someone spots you and offers you a job.

2. University

As an alternative you can go to a university and study for a degree in drama or theatre studies. But remember that, although many of these include a lot practical work, they involve more academic theory than vocational training at drama school. They aren't quite job training for actors, although many departments hold end-of-course, showcase events for their students and many of them do go into the performing arts professions. Some students compromise by choosing this route to keep options open and then doing a one year post-graduate a vocational course afterwards.

Claire Meade, 20, is studying for a drama degree at Birmingham University. "I wanted to be in an environment where I could mix with people studying different subjects, unlike drama school where you're doing the same thing," she says, adding that she values the theory work and thinks it really informs the practical work which she loves. "Later I may audition at drama schools for a post-grad course or I may just try my luck at auditions for jobs," she says, sensibly acknowledging that a university degree will be useful if she does not succeed in drama and needs other work.

Another possibility at university is to do a joint honours course which includes some drama. You might, say, go for drama and business studies, maths and threatre studies or French and drama. Some universities allow you to combine almost anything with anything. Use www.ucas.com/search to find them. I came up with 33 possibilities for geography and drama courses on a random search, for example. It's another way of keeping a foot in more than one camp and anxious parents sometimes see it as a sensible compromise.

Standing Conference of University Drama Departments lists universities which offer drama and related courses.

All university applications are handled through University and Colleges Admission Service (UCAS): www.ucas.ac.uk

3. Study something other than drama first

Some students choose to do a degree in some other subject. If you do this build up your experience by taking part in as much student drama as you can during your university years. Then you can take a short postgraduate training course at a drama school. Simon Russell Beale and Derbhle Crotty did degrees in English at Cambridge and law at Trinity College Dublin respectively before doing a drama school course.

Some exceptionally talented actors do their degrees and then go straight into work. Imogen Stubbs got a starred double first in English at Oxford but did no formal drama training. Ian Mackellen did an English Literature degree at Cambridge but didn't go to drama school. But these are notable exceptions to the general advice that training is usually the best option.

It doesn't have to be English that you study either, although obviously the more texts you have read and studied the better. There are professional actors in work with philosophy, history, music and maths degrees (among others) behind them!

LINKS

National Council for Drama Training: http://www.ncdt.co.uk

Conference of Drama Schools: http://www.drama.ac.uk/

Standing Conference of University Drama Departments: http://www.scudd.org.uk

University and Colleges Admission Service (UCAS): http://www.ucas.ac.uk

Department for Education and Employment: http://www.dfee.gov.uk/