Drama school auditions 2026 entry- Acting/MT

[Mcmumager]

Annual thread for those with dc about to embark on the rollercoaster of audition season. This is my second time round as my ds did it a couple of years ago. These threads are always really supportive and full of great advice as it’s often hard to explain to others how tough and competitive this process is. Good luck everyone!!

@MTNoviceParent and it maybe that the opinion above was a very American one who knows!

I'd be interested in the UK take on this.

Should she declare before the audition that she is/has been unwell or reschedule? I’m unsure what to do at the minute as I can’t see her recovering 100% before then and I don’t want it to affect her chances 😫 if she pushes through and it hampers her recovery it may affect her next one 4 days later!! 🫣 arrrrgh!!! Hopefully blood test results will confirm later today that it’s just flu & not Glandular Fever which has done the rounds at college recently! 😢

I asked my daughter if anyone mentioned she was poorly as to me it was so obvious. She said she didn’t mention it and no one else did. Just said she just powered through and acted as though all was ok. I got a very quick debrief in the car after then she was out for the count. I think she was lucky as her dance round was in the morning so she probably had the most energy then and enjoyed it so much that would’ve shown.

Aww bless her! My DD has a morning audition so she may be able to complete it. I think we will see how we go for a couple of days of recovery then make the decision to possibly reschedule. Thank you all so much ❤️

In my long experience as a professional singer, it is best to cancel rather than say to the panel you are under par.

DD’s urdang video wasn’t viewed in full which I’m really annoyed about, I feel the least they could have done is watch the whole thing, it look a lot of sweat and tears to make after all. She didn’t get a recall.

She found out today she got a recall from Italia Conti, they watched the whole thing. We are waiting on a date now.

Still no news from Performers!

Such great news on the recall for conti.
with the self tapes did they view them straight away or what was your experience - or anyone’s experience for that matter ?
what sort of waiting time are we looking at.

Urdang let her know quite quickly after the deadline. Conti was around 3 weeks after the deadline so there’s still time!

DD got through to the third round at Rose Bruford. Does anyone have any experience of what’s involved?

mimi for which course?

Acting.

That's great news well done on the recall!!
We have 1 view from Conte too and also looks like they have only viewed a bit of the whole tape. Goodness knows what that means. They could have watched a clip of the intro a snippet of the songs and monologue and just jumped forward for each bit. Here's to hoping 🤞🏼

Mimi I don’t know about the acting final audition at RB. The actor muso one was a positive fun experience. They were asked to try their pieces in new ways. Acted as a group, did games etc. My tip would be - they have some of their final year productions on at the moment in London so if your young person can see one it will show they are focused and can talk about what they do at RB. I do know they had something like 800 applications for 22 places on acting so getting this far is very good indeed.

Huge well done to your DD! Can't offer any insight, sorry, but will be following with interest, RB is one of my son's top choices. 3 weeks today since he sent off his self tapes, do you remember how long it was between sending and hearing back from 1st round for your daughter? Best of luck to her!

i think whilst we'd like to think the schools would have the courtesy to watch the entire self tape - the reality is they have to get through circa 2000 tapes so if they've made their mind up either way in the first 30 seconds then they aren't going to watch the rest of it - if they've watched a bit of each one I think that's a good sign as they liked each discipline enough to jump forward. I would be cross if it was only the intro they watched as that's unfair. One of the guys at GSA audition course said they often decide within the first 8 bars of a song - so make sure you choose something that really shows your voice quality early on.

Morning I’m new on this thread. My DD is waiting to hear when her CSSD recall is. Is anyone else waiting? They said she will hear by today at latest but lost her 1st audition selftapes so feeling a loss of confidence in the admin.

Ohh that is brilliant news very well done to your DD!! Did she just have her audition at the weekend there?
We are still waiting on results from self tape round, hopefully its not too much longer a wait if that's third round recalls being given out.

My DD in the same boat as your DS, she'll be 3 weeks on Friday since she submitted and not heard anything yet either. Other people on one of the other forums seemed to hear within a couple weeks about recalls, however these were people who submitted around christmas time.

Someone else got a rejection yesterday after submitting self tapes on 29th Jan, which is obviously after my DD and your DS. Hopefully we hear soon, the waiting is agony! Has your DS got any other results/auditions coming up?

Oh interesting! My DS's tape has only been viewed twice, once straight away and once last week, both for a very short time, so I don't know if that's a bad thing. Starting to realise that youtube analytics is a guaranteed route to madness, haha! He's had rejections from RADA, LAMDA, Royal Welsh and GSA, all unsurprisingly, but has recalls for Arts Ed and Leeds Conservatoire. Waiting to hear from Central, Guildhall, Birmingham and RB, with a first round in-person at Mountview coming up. First year of applying, so he's very much prepared to go again next year if necessary. Hand on heart, I think a Foundation would be great for him, but obviously would love a degree offer. How about your DD?

My DD's was only viewed once after submission and also for only half the length of the video, so we were taking that as a negative as the same happened with Manchester Theatre and she got a rejection from there. Yes I agree we can all drive ourself mad with the YT Analytics! Just something else to go down a rabbit hole with 😆

Ohh that's great recalls for your DS for his first year and Mountview coming up is brilliant too. Huge good luck to him, it really is such a rollercoaster. My DD's friend is at ArtsEd on the MT course and he is absolutely loving life there.

DD has had rejections from Manchester and GSA so far, but is through to next round for LAMDA and Royal Welsh which has been a great boost for her. We're on year 3 and this is the first time she has had recalls! Waiting on result from first round in person audition with RCS and then self tape stage from Rose Bruford and RADA. She also has a first round zoom with Bristol School of Acting next week, she added them on late as you don't need to go through UCAS for their first round and they don't charge for auditions. She also has an interview with Chichester this week, but that is for Acting and Film Making, she put that down as an outsider choice because she isn't sure she can go through another year of this. Not sure she would take it though even if didn't get any other offers.

Re Foundations, my DD is in the middle of a foundation course that was running local to us and she loves it, it's taught her so much and also gets them used to that full time training too. Don't get me wrong though, she is finding it tough to concentrate on all the audition stuff while doing the full time hours, she also works a Saturday and Sunday so has no days off. It's been quite heavy but she says she wouldn't change it. Ideally if YPs don't need to work during a Foundation then that would give them a bit more time.

Sent Royal Central tapes in on 2 February and they still haven't been viewed on Youtube. Sent RAM tapes in on 14 January for PG MT course and heard nothing. Seems odd

Is there a way that you can see what part of the self tape they viewed? My YP video is all blended in to each - intro, singing, dancing and monologue so unsure how we would know what parts they viewed. I can see how long it’s been viewed does anyone have and further insight?

Ah, she's doing brilliantly! So interesting to hear the different experiences and routes. Very best of luck to her, keep us posted! 😊

My DD shows me a graph where you can see peaks in the video at various time points so you can, but I don't know how!

Just heard back from Royal Central for a confirmation of recall date for a week on Saturday, so they are getting through them … slowly!