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!!

congr again @Sop2! Is your DD at a performing arts sixth form?

Huge congratulations to your daughter - fantastic outcome and I’m sure she’s very excited for what’s ahead xxx

Has anyone had a recall from Royal Central after a long wait. Our cut off date was 4 February and we still haven't heard back. That was for first round tape.

Yes BOA for sixth form. Doing 2 a levels and the extended btech in MT

@Sop2that is a LOT of work!!!

That's my DD's Rose Bruford bookable final round dates came through, looks like it is the full week of 23rd March right enough. Hope your DD got hers too :) Relief to know what day it will be at least!

Still no email here too, same deadline of 4th Feb. Hope you get positive news soon, the waiting is driving me a bit mad!

Thank goodness this post popped up in my notifications as my son had opened the email so I may have not seen it but was right on it from this! Booked in for the Friday! It'll be our 3rd visit in 3 months as been for 2 courses there! Glad you are booked and know where you're at now at least.

Same for us, 4th Feb, still nothing.......last one to hear from now

Aww amazing!! Glad you guys got booked. My DD has picked Tuesday as has another on the Friday.
Aww your son will be a dab hand at the RB auditions then 🤣 my DD looking forward to the full day as felt 2nd round was a bit of a whirlwind and didnt get chance to take it all in x

Is anyone still waiting on Conti self tape results.

My daughters deadline was 26th Jan, so it's been over 5 weeks. She emailed last week and they responded saying they were delayed sending out results, but still nothing. It's all we are left waiting for now.

Yes I feel we are becoming accustomed to the drill there, good job we like it there! I feel I know the area now and the ladies in the Card Factory are good tourist centre guides😊let us know how your day goes when it's completed and good luck!

Yes, good to have this one booked. DD is going on the Thursday.

Yes still waiting here. Same submission date as you. It must be soon 🤞

Thanks. At least we are not the only one waiting. Annoying when they advertise 3 to 4 weeks

Yes it is very frustrating. My Dd still has some auditions to do and is awaiting some outcomes but this is the longest wait for a self tape response by far 🤷. Let’s hope it is good news when we finally hear!!! 😂😂

Anyone got any experience of Bird College and prospects post College please? 🙏

hi new to post, I was wondering if anyone knew of Bird College how they showcase 250+ students, as it seems a lot of students graduating at the same time.

I'd also be interested to know this, seems like way too many students

The number of grads entering the industry each year is insane full stop. The CDMT issued a report a few years ago and quoted 2,700 grads each year across the 32 accredited schools for dance, drama and MT. Not clear how that number splits across disciplines but they do note that there are 9 drama courses, 20 dance courses and 20 MT courses. Given MT tends to have the highest intakes I would guess at least half of the 2,700 are MT grads.

And this doesn’t take into account non-CDMT schools and universities…

Does anyone know the size of the Urdang MT cohort? DC seems to think it was 250 last year?

My DD is in first year at Urdang and she thinks there is around 170

Thanks @DalekFan. Do you know how the showcases work in the 3rd year?

I don’t know the specifics unfortunately. I know the current 3rd years are doing 3 shows (4 performances per show per cast) which are double cast (i.e. each student is only in 1 show). And then they have agent days where agents come into the school.

If you look at Bird instagram page it often shows alumni and what they are up to now, as well as details of shows that the 3rd year students are performing. As far as I can see there seems to be 5 shows coming up- I guess students are spread between those shows and possibly some shows have a double cast. I guess this is what happens at any of the schools that don’t have a small cohort (like GSA) lots of the schools now have bigger numbers. This year Bird has cut down the courses on offer - it no longer has a foundation or a diploma course, only the BA course- so looking at it like that it is probably the same number of students they always took, except now the students at Bird are all working towards a degree. If you compare numbers to somewhere like Italia Conti, Bird actually has a lot less students doing MT as Conti offer foundation, diploma, MT and MT acting- that is a lot more graduates coming out than at Bird (taking away the foundation students) as another poster said the whole industry is saturated with a very large number of graduates leaving each year. I’m not sure why people seem to focus on Bird as having a large intake as lots of the big schools are around the same numbers except for a handful. And as I said that number is now instead of having students split between diploma and degree!!