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!!

Legit songs.
Does anyone have any knowledge of expectations on legit song choices for female auditions? If legit wasn’t your favoured style would it be better to do something more characterful eg something like im just a girl who can’t say no, the faster songs from calamity jane ( probably too well known but similar vibe ) which they could do really well or do something more classically legit but that they wouldn’t be as confident with. Some of her applications are to schools which don’t specify legit but some eg Conti and EDA do.

So I think generally they are steered away from any songs that demand a specific character/voice - legit or otherwise. That said, they would much rather see what you can do, not what you can't, if that makes sense so it's finding the balance. I think the point of legit songs are so they can show head voice rather than belt. They also usually have to contrast, so if your main song is a slow ballad your legit could arguably be more upbeat? It's a minefield isn't it?

My son is looking at universities rather than drama schools for an MT degree mainly because we can't afford extra top up fees. He is definitely stronger at acting and singing - his dance is ok but I feel really guilty because we aren't a high earning family and we haven't been able to afford an array of different classes for him and we cannot afford pre audition workshops either. He hasn't done any LAMDA exams either.

He wants to apply to Chichester, Winchester, GSA and performers Brighton and also either Bath or Bristol for an academic drama degree.

Without any pre audition prep does he stand a chance? He does a theatre school in our local town who do go through audition prep with them and my parents paid for private singing lessons for him over the summer.

Has he thought about auditioning for any of the conservatoires. Places like Leeds , royal Welsh and trinity Laban would look for actor singers first. Obviously dance is important but potential and natural movement would be okay if he is talented in the others areas. Leeds and Cardiff would be cheaper to live than London for trinity so worth a look and they are standard student loans. My dc is at royal Welsh and loves it.

Other things that may be worth looking out for is free boys days that drama schools do as even if you don’t want to apply there it can be great experience just to do the classes. Eg Italia Conti have a free day in November. There are also drama schools which have standard student loans fees like lipa, performers, bird. Also from experience certain schools will make scholarship offers to boys especially- I’ve seen at schools like Wilkes and mountview.

It’s a complicated process but many on this page have been through it before and like me about to go through it again with child 2 so ask away with any questions as people are really helpful.

LIPA and Leeds conservatoire are also UCAS. Weirdly Leeds use the UCAS route not conservatoire. Italia Conti's basic fees are as per the student loan and they do an Acting (musical theatre) degree which is less dance focussed. That's a direct application. As a boy I think you have a much higher chance of an offer anywhere!

Italia Conti have the additional fee just over £3k but i think there could be opportunities for scholarships etc

Is anyone looking at applying to RH Cast?

This is the correct answer. Central school for speech and Drama should also be on the list.

There are options out there that cost the same as universities but you do need to look carefully.

What is that?

It’s Ruthie Henshalls in Suffolk.

OK, first off, if your son wants to actually perform in musical theatre for a living, I'd avoid the likes of Bath Spa, Winchester etc. They may well have good teaching and he might love it,but they won't have the quality of cohort, the contact hours and the industry clout to get him where he needs to be. It's actually not the case that all the drama schools for MT are more expensive than going to university. Some are, and you can discount those (Arts Ed, Mountview, Laine and probably also EDA and Conti) but this still leaves lots of good places that are eligible for student finance and WILL get you Spotlight accreditation, agent showcase etc. For a boy who acts and sings and doesn't (yet) really dance, I'd try GSA (part of Surrey University), Royal Welsh, Central, Leeds Conservatoire, and maybe Royal Conservatoire of Scotland or Trinity Laban. Beyond that, places like Urdang and Bird and just possibly Performers are worth a go. They always want trainable talented boys and if they see potential they can train them up to dance - don't dismiss them as 'dance only' colleges.
Don't worry about the lack of LAMDA etc. The drama schools will judge purely on what they see on self tapes and at audition and won't be interested in who has which grades and certificates. Get your son to do local am dram, or to audition for NYMT (National Youth Music Theatre) which now has a good amount of bursaries for deserving candidates. He'll learn loads from either of those without needing LAMDA. Loads of luck to him. As the mum of a male performer in training myself, I love to hear about boys who find their passion in performing!

My daughter is in 1st year at Bird and loving it. We went through all this last year and I sympathise! Adding to information above, Emil Dale has the uni connection so fees loan eligible but also has a top up of about 3k per year in fees too. We rules out Mountview, Laine and Arts Ed because of the fees also. And depending on where you live, travelling to auditions can become expensive. So there is a balance I think between trying to maximise chances and manage costs!

He might want to look at Rose Bruford actor musician - lots of their actor musos go into west end musicals and they do singing and voice training. It’s apply through ucas so under 10k a year. He would need to play an instrument though - guitar etc rather than just voice

So, it's been a week from hell on the self tape/portal front! Aside from every school wanting something just slightly different I don't think I was prepared for the technical
issues that can arise with actually getting the things uploaded! Here's our experience this week:
Mountview- want instruments recorded. Accept MOV files but when you come to upload, 4 mins of music is bigger than their data limit! Spend hours converting to MP4 via handbrake.
LIPA - new portal for applications, loads of glitches - had email to submit but It failed to add self tape submission task to dd's portal so 10 days was running with no way of getting it submitted. They admitted the error but then said she didn't need to upload a self tape as she was from BOA and they would do in person stage 1. Questioned at school who knew nothing about it. Spoke to a lovely lady in admissions who confirmed miscommunication, she did need to submit and they sorted the self tape task. If we hadn't rattled a few cages though we would have accepted the no need to do a self tape email and missed the deadline!
RCS - Accept'd platform. Beware. DD filled in what she thought was an application and submitted it only to find it should have had a box for uploading self tapes which was totally unclear through the prompts - it looks like that's a box for a level certificates. Be careful that you don't submit in Accept'd without uploading media. Emailed RCS who say they have undone her application so she can add the videos.
Italia Conti - no issues!
anyone else having a self tape submission meltdown down?! I'm all for in person after this!

Hang in there @Sop2! It is indeed a minefield… I felt like a full-time PA this time last year! (DC is ND and there was no way they were coping with this on their own….). Feeling very very fortunate we only had to do it once!

well done on getting things started. We started a spreadsheet and there were 23 different requirements for the schools my dd has been looking at!

We've culled the choices for that very reason. 4 on UCAS, 1 conservatoire and 3 private. What I really don't get is the need to fill in yet another application for the UCAS places directly for the likes of Emil Dale when they've already had the info in UCAS. I swear loads of people must just give up!

Just back from the LAMDA open day. All very impressive, of course, but at the same time depressing. For their Acting BA, they have over 3000 applicants for 32 places. So approximately 1% acceptance rate, but it’s actually less than that, because about a quarter of the places go to international students.

hello also on this journey will be following along for advice

I wonder how many of that 3000 will have chosen either the course or the college as their first choice though? Once you factor in those who actually want to be there, the odds might shrink to more of a "well-fancied outsider in a big race" chance than a "winning the Euromillions" chance that it feels like?

Good luck in any case. Our DD has applied for 4 BA Musical Theatre courses on UCAS - Wilkes, LIPA, and Performers x2 sites. Just starting the rounds of self-tapes and auditions now for those, and then she wants to apply for a couple of non-UCAS places in the New Year (Italian Conti and Stella Mann I think).

DD has always been much stronger in contemporary and standard broadway, for her applications she used I can cook too from on the town. It's a legit song, but suits a contemporary singer.

I should think nearly every single one of those 3000 would happily take up a place at Lamda..!! There are probably only a handful of applicants every year who get offers from more than 1 of the very top Drama schools for Acting (Lamda, Rada, GSA, Guildhall, RWCMD, Conservatoire of Scotland).. so the chances of it not being accepted if offered, are incredibly slim..

Odds for straight Acting are tiny even compared to MT. But one never knows until you enter the race I guess!

Good luck with the MT auditions.

Thanks - I wasn't dissing Lamda at all, or doubting its status or appeal. Just noting that in any application process there will be attrition, and with multiple applications on each form via UCAS it's not certain that all of those 3000 were really serious applicants for that particular course (e.g. some of them might have put more than one course at Lamda).

It's bloody hard I think is the main message, regardless of the stats! Good luck to everyone trying this year.

Doesn’t affect the odds much, but remember the same 3000 people will likely be applying to the same places. As has been said, they won’t all get offers at all the places, and they can only accept one offer anyway! So while the chance of getting a place at e.g LAMDA might indeed by 25/3000 (talent aside) the chance of getting a place at one of your choices is more like 150/3000 (if you apply to 6 different schools or courses).

But the most important thing is… SOMEONE has to get those coveted places, and your YP has as good a chance as the next person. Xx

This is important to remember, my school is not as highly ranked as LAMDA and would expect to see about 55% of students accept an MT offer, so by the time we have used the reserve list we make just under twice as many offers as we have places. Or to put it another way if you just look at applications to enrolments you have a 5% chance of getting a place, but it rises to just under 10% if you consider offers to enrolments.

Generally the best students get offers from multiple places and they can only accept one. Factors such as scholarships and if they qualify for HE funding also play into decision making.