My First Professional Audition Experience!

"The only failure is not to try."

A quote that I will without a doubt live by, for the rest of my life. Thanks, Mr. Clooney. 

7:20am Mega Bus from Cardiff to London. Arrive approx. 11am. Find audition location to suss it out. Go to Primark (I mean, it was only a short walk...). Have lunch. Enter audition location. Poop my pants. Immediately start looking around at my 'competition', turns out they were all lovely people. Enter the audition leader, who gives us a form to fill out with our details and a double sided A4 piece of paper which had 4 speeches on each side. "Pick a speech from each side, you have half an hour before we take you all to the space." Picked two contrasting pieces. Tried to learn them. Failed. But hey, I was so familiar with them by the end of that half an hour, that I had figured out everything I wanted to do on each line. It was Panto style so I had to make sure that I made a fool out of myself, the bigger the better, 'ey?! 

The pieces I chose were; Dorothy from The Wizard of Oz, and Mrs Trott from Jack and the Beanstalk. 

Yep, I was required to do a Southern American accent and I didn't totally screw it up. Even if it did feel more General American (whatever that means). Go me. *Adds to CV. For Mrs Trott, it said 'colloquial accent an advantage'. I had absolutely no idea what that meant. So after muttering in a Yorkshire accent for a bit (and failing miserably), my friend turned to me and said 'Just do your Welsh accent!'. So I did. Turns out, in a room full of people who aren't Welsh, they really love the Welsh accent, especially because they didn't think it was my real accent! I hadn't really spoken to many people before I got up to do the speeches, and I did the Dorothy one first, so I think it was an interesting surprise. Banter.

So, following the speeches, I had to compose myself to sing a song as well! I decided to sing Mother Knows Best from Tangled. I managed to hold myself together, and it went rather well. I just decided to go big or go home and truly embrace the character. I felt that with both speeches and the song, they were all very different characters from each other so my choices were well thought out.

This audition was an interesting experience as we were all in the same room watching everyone's auditions. We got to see many different interpretations of the same character, and it was fun seeing what else people brought to the roles. Even though a lot of people chose the same speeches, they all brought something different to it. Most of the time. 

So, once everyone had got up to do their speeches and songs, the audition leader then proceeded to read out a list of names who they wanted to stay behind for a one-to-one interview and a general chat about what their company is about. 

They actually said my name.

It was the weirdest feeling ever. But I liked it. 

My interview was so relaxed and friendly, and the woman who interviewed me is also a graduate of the BA Acting course at UWTSD in Carmarthen, the first graduating year actually! Small world! 

Nothing is guaranteed with this job, but it's a very exciting prospect. They are beginning their casting process and I'm one of the people they're actually considering. That's pretty cool. 

I'm looking forward to seeing what this world has to offer for me. 

I think I'm going to be alright.