Drama school auditions 2024- Acting/MT

[Mcmumager]

Is anyone starting the journey of drama school auditions and starting to feel the stress? Maybe sending them to drama group was a big mistake lol.

1.8%!! Ouch.

i read that courses tend to take only 20 students as that is the qualifying factor for spotlight?

I guess the RB figure is because it also includes the post-grad and American theatre courses etc which might not be on students radar.

I guess MT is particularly popular as lots of people sing and they know about it and understand the potential career path

She's got offers from University of Exeter to study Drama and Performers College in Birmingham to do their BA MT course. We are waiting to hear from the Arden for the BA Acting and she has a recall next week at the Oxford School of Drama for BA Acting. We're waiting to hear from NYT from her recall a couple of weeks ago and she had a recall from Bristol Old Vic but didn't get in.

i read that courses tend to take only 20 students as that is the qualifying factor for spotlight?

Not sure what that means, but it sounds like a red herring... Spotlight membership is based on completing a practical-heavy course at a qualifying institution (usually drama schools) at an NQF level 5 i.e. second year of a Bachelor's Degree programme or a HND diploma.
Perhaps it means they don't have resources to run a course larger than 20?

But other routes are available... DS (did drama at Exeter) got Spotlight after 2nd year of his BA (which was 50% practical). No agent showcase, obviously, but lots of them have picked up agents via other routes.

My DD already has a Spotlight profile, can’t you just apply for one?

She did have an agent as has done lots of TV extra stuff, although we gave notice a while ago, we still pay the spotlight fees.

Yes, if you have professional credits you can also apply. To be honest, the threshold for getting membership seems to have been lowered so much that anyone considering that as a major reason to go to drama school should reconsider!
Experience, training etc are all valid reasons of course, but it makes me laugh when drama schools trumpet Spotlight/Equity membership at the end of the course as if it's the holy grail!

A friend of ours met 2 people she knew from the Edinburgh Festival on the bus transfer to her Oxford School of Drama recall! Small world indeed...

I guess the small course sizes are down to the space then and high contact hours rather than spotlight then. Just amazing there are so many applicants for places

Casting type plays into this too. If you are a common casting type it will be harder than if you have an unusual USP.

Yes I think casting type is true of many performing courses - you want a range of skills, ages and looks if you can get them surely

Yes, and I suspect female sopranos are the biggest number of applicants for MT/classical voice courses. Always a shortage of male voices!

Some places take over a hundred students per year but for Spotlight eligibility you have to have much smaller class sizes.

Can you explain the relationship between class size and Spotlight eligibility please?

Is the American theatre course in RB academic drama or drama school training.
Does it automatically get spotlight eligibility?

Would be really surprised if RB have a 45% acceptance rate for their Acting BA. That would mean they got very few applicants and I don’t think that is the case.

My DD is already on Spotlight as she has an agent. Anybody can now join Equity. In my day, you had to have done a fair amount of professional work to get into Equity, but not these days

I guess Spotlight feel that professional training has to be in small classes.

https://www.spotlight.com/join-us/graduates/graduate-course-criteria/#:~:text=New%20graduate%20courses%20on%20the,of%20RQF%206%2FSCQF%209.

New graduate courses on the Spotlight graduate membership need to meet a certain criteria in order to be accepted.
For new courses to meet our criteria they must be at the level of RQF 6/SCQF 9.
Outlined below are some of the key requirements that these courses need to meet in order for their students to qualify for this membership.

• Vocational training courses for performers – practical rather than theoretical.
• Equivalent to RQF 6/SCQF 9 or above qualification issued by a recognised body
• Contact hours in excess of 30 hours per week
• No more than 22 students in a class, and 30 weeks in a year of instruction
• Courses that offer a professional showcase opportunity, attended by industry
• Courses that offer professional development programme with industry engagement
• Access to professional facilities
• Clear commitments on safeguarding, bullying and harassment, and diversity

Yes, Maggie Thatcher made Closed Shop unions illegal back in the 80's so Equity had to open up membership to all who applied.

It does have to be remembered that the vast majority of drama school students won't yet have agents who can reccommend them for full adult membership of Spotlight (It's a lot easier to get Young Performer's membership of course) so it is still a consideration for many.

Ah thanks - so that's for schools wanting to register their courses as Spotlight 'Graduate' courses.
I believe the 'Graduate' member status only lasts for the first year of membership?

The criteria for joining directly as a Performer has a different criteria, which is not the same - RQF Level 5 training and no stipulation on class sizes.

That fig must include all courses surely. It’s very well regarded for acting BA and actor musician - they said they had hundreds apply for acting and what take 20 ish?

The L5 training has to either be at an accredited institution unless you have professional credits or they will vet each course on a case by case basis. It’s unlikely they would accept somewhere with large class sizes. You get a lot more info on it all when you sign up.

That's not our experience. DS has been a performer member for 2 years. Came from a BA Drama background from a university, not drama school.
No professional credits at the time.
About 100 on his course. About 1/3 of them on Spotlight!

Honestly, it's much easier to get in than the impression they, and drama schools, give. It's a money-making venture and over the last few years they've really widened the net - they're letting everyone in! It's one of the main criticisms among established performers.

Spotlight membership is only really useful as door-opener to getting an agent as most won't consider you without it. The jobs board for self-represented performers is pitiful!
Equity useful for the insurance and some of the guides e.g. intimacy on set & screen.

Just when I think I've got my head around all this, something new comes along to confuse me. Successfully navigated the getting into drama school stage - well DS did that bit but I had to understand the process - think I will have to leave DS to work out how to get out of drama school WITH an agent and Spotlight membership (which comes first?)!

This.

You need Spotlight in order to get the agent, but Spotlight without an agent is basically pretty useless.

Only about 5% of roles advertised will be visible to those on Spotlight without an agent and it's not much better than Mandy.

A large percentage of the top roles will go to direct request, then casting directors will have lists of preferred agents that will see their briefs. So it all trickles down the different tiers of agents in terms of what they have access to.

Since Spotlight massively reduced the requirements to get on the platform, so Casting have reduced who they circulate to as it was getting ridiculous with 8k+ applications for a single teeny role.

DD reports in her year group there are actual very few true sopranos, there are slightly more meso-sporano, but the majority are altos.

As your son at GSA then you are more than likely not going to need to worry about it. For MT at GSA they have been told there are no guarantees obviously, but as long as they can remember everyone graduating has left with an agent. I don’t know if that’s true for acting but I think the odds are good. My son is coming to the end of second year and the reality of graduation and what comes next is becoming very real (he says exciting, I say scary!). He’s booked headshots for his spotlight entry and from here on out it’s all about shows and agent showcase. 😬😳😬

One third of 2023 GSA BA Acting grads are still self-represented/ seeking representation 12 months later.
https://gsauk.org/alumni/ba-hons-acting-graduates-2023

Son of a friend of ours who did the MA course and graduated in 2023 struggled to find an agent so has now signed with a co-op agency.