Interesting Twitter convo re acting without drama school

A place to talk about full time schools and post 16 training.

Moderator: busybusybusy

Post Reply
TalyaB
BAFTA Award
Posts: 997
Joined: Sun Dec 04, 2011 1:22 am

Interesting Twitter convo re acting without drama school

Post by TalyaB »

Happened to see this and thought people might find it interesting. Lots of ideas and options.

https://twitter.com/nickybligh/status/8 ... 4994819072
paulears
BAFTA Award
Posts: 796
Joined: Wed Sep 05, 2007 1:01 am

Re: Interesting Twitter convo re acting without drama school

Post by paulears »

I must say there are a few sensible ideas in that link - but it does show how detached from the reality many of the respondents are. I get the feeling that people don't quite get it at all.

You don't need to go to any form of acting school if you have the natural talent, and have done proper research, then you can walk into a job by having what the casting director wants, or having a good network to get you in the door.

For those with little talent, it doesn't suddenly grow to a contractable standard in 3 years. Acting and I think, Dancing courses need you to be a decent standard to get the place. People seem to accept that those people who turn up on day one of a BTEC with no dance skills, come out two years later pretty poorly prepared for a pro audition. The people from the dance schools who have been dancing for years, pile on the skills in their 3 years and the difference is pretty obvious. Somehow actors seem to be sidelined from this process - and we see plenty of pretty terrible actors, presenters and talkshow types on TV.

If people send unsupported material to commissioners, most goes in the bin - somehow, people think our industry is fair and balanced. How many dancers use Facebook to network and get invites to private auditions? Loads.You can stick a dancer through their paces in a pack of 50 in 3 minutes. That's impossible with actors. Their mugshot - oops, headshots get scanned, and that generates the first bin load. Then a flick through their CVs reveals those that have no experience, that generates the second bin load. Some have agents who don't even know who they are, or perhaps are not on the casting directors fairly small list.

Actors do have a small chance of getting jobs because of what they look like, or their accent, or age with no experience, but despite what the papers say, it's a very small percentage. That Twitter feed just shows how many people have a very odd idea of how actors work.

The dancers hard work equivalent is when they suddenly get asked to do it in a different accent, or suddenly get asked to cry, or have some kind of medical condition, or maybe get five minutes to learn some lines. How do people do this without training?

My own son accidentally became a cast member in a touring Shakespeare production, with some TV names in the lead. He was Stage Manager, and just got slid in. If he had gone to the auditions, he'd never have got the part - he isn't an actor.
pg
OSCAR Award
Posts: 2091
Joined: Wed Mar 07, 2007 12:28 am

Re: Interesting Twitter convo re acting without drama school

Post by pg »

I think most of it is reasonable.

There are NO routes that guarantee success - but if you hope to do more than scrabble about on the edges doing profit share or work for expenses only , then training at an established school *could* give you a better start.

For one thing it gives you Spotlight entry, which will be necessary to get representation. Good representation is pretty well essential to get in through the doors of mainstream CDs.

I also think that sometimes the *practice* element of training gets ignored in these conversation.

It's really difficult to train "on the job" - because getting a job is so very difficult! At drama school you practice all day, every day, in front of knowledgeable people and with talented peers for one, two or three years. This training/practice is valued by most agents and employers - which is why they're interested in graduates.

There are certainly other ways to get jobs. Drama school holds no guarantees whatsoever. But if you aspire to a career then good training probably sets you up with the best chance in my opinion.

Once you have a decent CV, where or whether you trained matters much less : your work speaks for itself.

Getting the jobs in the first place can be done without drama school training - but for most people it will be a long, slow process.
Post Reply