<p>Hey, I'm auditioning for RADA this year and I'm practically obsessing about it and I was planning on doing a mens monologue for my classical part (Hamlet "Do you think I am easier to be played on than a pipe" part)to make myself a little memorable to the committee (I'm not a man obv.) What do you think? Would they accept it? Because their website doesn't really say anything against it and I've been reading and researching accordingly so I'll need to change my whole plan if that doesn't work out.</p>
<p>KEVP posted a link to overdone monologues on an earlier thread, I would look for that and see what it says. The key to a strong monologue is the way you do it, how you “own” it.</p>
<p>My son did the “Jailer’s Daughter” monologue, but traditionally that role is played by a guy, though it is done more often in auditions by females. He didn’t get any grief for it, and he auditioned for top schools. </p>
<p>If your “whole plan” is centered around one monologue, though, you’re making a mistake. You need to have a whole arsenal of monologues, and especially if you’re doing Hamlet, you need to have something very different available in case they ask. Frankly, I’d say you’d better have an additional classical monologue ready. My son did.</p>
<p>Thank you for your replies, I am looking at other classic plays for a second monologue in case they ask for it, but as I said, I did a lot of reading about former female Hamlets and Shakespeare’s approach to female characters which unfortunately don’t match up to Hamlet. And my modern piece is again connected to that idea even though it’s tonally different (it’s going to be comedic).</p>
<p>My advice is don’t do it.</p>
<p>I usually advise folks not to use Shakespeare AT ALL for auditions (unless the school specifically says they require or prefer Shakespeare, like Central and Juilliard.) But if you are doing Shakespeare, for heaven’s sake don’t do Hamlet!!!</p>
<p>Kenneth Branagh made the mistake of doing Hamlet when he auditioned for RADA when he was 17. He didn’t know any better. But the RADA people were very nice to him, and suggested some better monologues, and told him to come back with one of those. I don’t know if you can expect something like that to happen these days, even if you are as talented as Kenneth Branagh.</p>
<p>Are you an American? Remember that the British have a stereotype that Americans are stupid. Often when a British person meets an American, they assume we are stupid until we prove them otherwise. They may think that you are someone who doesn’t anything about theatre history except Shakespeare, doesn’t know anything about Shakespeare except Hamlet and his other well-known plays, and doesn’t know any better than to play a character of opposite gender from themself.</p>
<p>RADA is a much more “traditional” school. I don’t think they are looking for a female Hamlet (I don’t think they would even want a male applicant to do Hamlet, they would think of Hamlet as a role you work towards. If you can already do Hamlet, why would need any acting training at all?) I think they are looking for women who can play women’s roles in classical plays. My suggestion is for your RADA classical, find a part that is right for your type (including gender!!), that comes from some English playwright other than Shakespeare from before 1800. Remember that from 1660 we get English roles specifically written for women (before then all women’s roles were played by female impersonators), and we even start getting women playwrights (I think Aphra Behn was the first English woman to become a professional playwright).</p>
<p>For somewhere like RADA, you are going to need to rely on your actual acting ability. Don’t try to make do with a “gimmick” like cross-gendered casting. Something like this could very well backfire.</p>
<p>There are a lot of reasons for avoiding overdone monologues, like just about anything from Hamlet, and a lot of reasons for sticking to your “type” (including gender!!) when auditioning. I won’t go into all of them now, unless you have more specific questions.</p>
<p>I’m not American but I’m not British either. Do you have any suggestions because I obviously need help and I didn’t even know I needed it which makes it even worse. Maybe I shouldn’t even try this year.</p>
<p>RADAobsessed: I’m not sure if you wanted to do Hamlet because you wanted only “to be remembered” or if you really want to play men’s roles. I wanted to try playing men and I’ve been lucky enough to study in schools that have given me the opportunity to play men and learn how to walk, sit, talk, like one, not only doing a caricature. If that’s the case, then probably RADA isn’t right for you.</p>
<p>I also considered RADA for a while. I had a teacher once who was very - for lack of a better term - “alternative” that had attended RADA. She told me that it probably wasn’t for me, because its curriculum, as KEVP points out, is very traditional.</p>
<p>As I read on RADA’s site:</p>
<p>
</code></pre>
<p>Also:</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>So it seems like you need:
- Classical written in English
- Classicla written in English
- Contemporary/modern after 1960 (minus Chekhov and Shaw)</p>
<p>Follow KEVP’s advice and look for other monologues written by English authors that are not Shakespeare. It shouldn’t be very hard to find a good one. Besides, I don’t know if you have scheduled your audition yet, but auditions for RADA and LAMDA run til April, so you have plenty of time.</p>
<p>I didn’t realize that RADA actually required the classical to be “Elizabethan/Jacobean”. That’s even narrower than the advice that I have been giving, they really want either Shakespeare or a contemporary of Shakespeare. And I always advise not to do Shakespeare when you are given a choice.</p>
<p>Many, many people don’t get into RADA the first time they audition. That is very common. It’s much more common to get into RADA on a second or later attempt. (There was also a young actor from Scotland who didn’t get into RADA, and although they were all very nice to him and said “You’re still very young, you have plenty of time to try again”, he just gave up on them and went out and became an actor on his own. His name is Ewan MacGregor.)</p>
<p>Go ahead and audition for RADA this year. Just have fun with the process, and realize that you are learning what is expected so that the next time you audition you will get in.</p>
<p>Are you looking at any other acting schools in the UK? And do you have someone you can work with to help your audition?</p>
<p>KEVP</p>
<p>I found something I like from Richard III and I’m looking at The Spanish Tragedy at the moment, I phoned a few of my friends and they recommended someone to work with. So that’s settled.</p>
<p>The thing is I’m already in college (medical school to be exact) and I only have 2 years until graduation, so if I get turned down this year (and that’s a sure thing) I might not audition again for a BA but instead I’ll just finish school and try to do an MA afterwards… But I hate it so much and I definitely don’t want to be a doctor and I have no idea how I ended up in medical school and I don’t think I can take it for another 2 years.</p>
<p>I thought about applying to LAMDA, I know it’s an amazing school but LAMDA doesn’t excite me like RADA does. And I’ve made that mistake once, I don’t want to repeat that.</p>
<p>To me it’s like this: 3 year BA at RADA > (2 more years at medical school + 1 year MA in LAMDA) > 3 year BA at LAMDA or any other school.</p>
<p>You haven’t told us what country you are in, apart from the fact that it isn’t the UK or the USA. And those are the countries whose educational system I know about.</p>
<p>I don’t know why you would take two more years studying to be a doctor if you do not want to be a doctor. (In your country, medical school is for undergrads? In the USA you have to already have a bachelor’s degree BEFORE going to medical school.)</p>
<p>Are you allowed in your country just to announce that you are taking a year off (or two) from school? I think that is what you need.</p>
<p>When you say “An MA in LAMDA” I think you are talking about their "MA in Classical Acting
for the Professional Theatre ". The requirements for that program state “This course is aimed at international students with a BA or BFA degree or equivalent. Students without this qualification must demonstrate a comparable level of knowledge and experience gained in a professional company or vocational drama school.” In other words, they are already looking for people who have a strong foundation in ACTING, equivalent to a Bachelor’s degree program. I realize that the language is a bit vague, but I really don’t think they are looking for someone who has a degree in Medicine.</p>
<p>Do you already have a theatre degree? If not, are you working (or have you worked) with a professional theatre company, or studied with a vocational drama school? I think that is what LAMDA is looking for.</p>
<p>I think you will achieve all your dreams if you stay focused on the path that leads to them. It seems to me that at the moment you are on a path to somewhere else, and it would probably be a good idea for you to get off of that path pretty quickly!!!</p>
<p>And also remember there are even more acting schools in the UK then just RADA and LAMDA!!!</p>
<p>Sorry I didn’t realise I haven’t told you where I’m from, I’m Turkish and medical school is for undergrads and it’s 6 years here.
And yes I was talking about MA for Classical Acting. I phoned LAMDA about 2 days ago to ask about the requirements and told them about medical school and they said it didn’t matter as long as I had a decent CV and told me I could audition for them.
I would audition for every single school in the UK if I had a lot of free time, just for the experience, but I have to be at the hospital at least %80 of the time during the rotations which leaves me with 3 or 4 days max. And since I would have to travel back and forth for every audition, I just applied to the one school I would consider actually leaving my current school for.</p>
<p>So the question now is, “Do you have a decent CV?”. I’m pretty sure that by that they mean a “comparable level of knowledge and experience gained in a professional company or vocational drama school”. Do you have that on your CV? Have you either worked with a professional company or studied at a vocational drama school?</p>
<p>You might want to find out whether you can send your current CV to someone at LAMDA to see if you have what they are looking for. A couple months ago I exchanged e-mails with the head of RADA’s master’s in directing program (Sue Dunderdale), including sending her my theatre CV (or “resume” as we Yanks call it), she said it was the sort of CV that she is looking for. See if you can do that with someone at LAMDA.</p>
<p>If you don’t have the CV they are looking for, the best thing to do is to go out and do things that will improve your CV!!!</p>
<p>KEVP</p>