LAMDA auditions

About 2 months ago, me and my friend Lauren (she does acting with me too) did 2 LAMDA auditions. This happens every year, the college gets LAMDA (the London academy of music and dramatic art) to come down and examine us on 2 contrasting pieces(one modern and one dated e.g. before 1950). They do this because it will give us more experience when it comes to auditions and how the process works, so we can feel prepared for what could happen.
Lauren and I pieces were called  'Fault' which is one from the LAMDA audition material book (which we has to choose from) and we also did 'The Importance of Being Ernest' which is written by Oscar Wilde, we did the scene where Cecily and Gwendolen are meeting for the first time, i played Cecily as my lecturer thought that the character suited me more.
Lets just say the whole experience was rather tense. Because personally I've always struggled with my Diction which is how you pronounce your words. As i struggle to pronounce my T's and TH sounds in words. Because i was brought up in East London most TH sounds were replaced with the V sound or F sound. But i have been working on it by having a vocal routine which is helping my diction, i practice it on a Wednesday and Sunday evening.
But back to the LAMDA auditions.. the day went very quickly as there was a nice lady who was our examiner and we'd show both of our pieces in costume and using props. Then she would ask us individually questions about our knowledge of both pieces, i felt very confident when it came to the questions and it showed because i got full marks when it came to the Knowledge section. After we'd answer the questions the examiner then would test us on our knowledge of the stage. She would tell us to go to stage left, stage right, center stage etc. This may sound easy to you  but the stage directions are set the way the audience see it so if she said stage right I would have to do the opposite because it would be my left but we'd have to go the audiences right, and that's how it works.
So overall i got a Merit( 3 marks off a distinction which is the highest grade) if i'm being totally honest i was very disappointed because i was so close to a Distinction and that i worked so hard. Through this process we also had to write logbooks of our process over 15 weeks, and let me tell you they're a pain in the but because we got marked on them too and they had to be VERY detailed! But good news for me is i actually got a Distinction in my written work which i was very surprised about because I've always struggled when it comes to writing especially in something that detailed.
Now its finished and i only have to wait till September until we start working on LAMDA auditions again.. what a joy!

4/06/13 ootd

Leggings: river island

T-shirt: topshop

Denim jacket: la redoute 

Sunglasses: urban outfitters 

Shoes: topshop 

Backpack: topshop

Phonecase- ebay

A thank you from the 101 Dalmatian team!

Today I received a thank you card from all the actors on the 101 Dalmatian production.

I was totally surprised, I wasn't expecting it at all, it was so cute of them to do that!

Today: dance audition rehearsal!

So today so far I've been working on my dance audition for my re-application for college. Even though I'm a drama student they want us to dance too so we can be an all rounded performer. It's just a shame I can't dance haha! 

First picture is of one of our drama rooms which we mostly used for our Voice lessons!

Second picture is of the notice of what we need to work on for our audition.

Third picture is of our dance studio, I'm currently sat in there on my own practising my piece. 

But now I've just finished my piece and I need to practise on the timing, facial expressions and my extension. 

The song I'm dancing to is Little Nikki-where I'm coming from! I love this song, and I wanted to do something upbeat because I'm more into street than contemporary dance!

On Friday I will be doing my dress rehearsal for my Drama audition so stay tuned!

101 Dalmatians

Recently I've been working on a production in our college '101 Dalmatians' .Originally i wasn't involved because someone didn't turn up so i got asked if i could help out backstage.Later within that day i had to learn everything from knowing cues, where props needed to go, where the set had to be and how to work the 'Blinder'. A blinder is a sheet which can block a screen from what is seen from behind it so for instance in one of the scenes the 'puppies' are trapped in a little basement and you can see this by the blinder being up.

The next day it was already one of their first shows in the evening, i was rather nervous if i did muck something up as anything little thing going wrong can make a big damage to such a play like this. My lecturer told me that i had now officially become assistant stage manager (ASM) i was kinda pooing my pants at that moment as i still felt very unprepared.

So it was time, i was actually very excited. It was all stressful backstage though, everyone running around looking for a prop or item of clothing. But it was time..
Oh yes the audience loved it, laughing from left right and center, i was on the other hand concentrating as i had a head set on and the person giving me the cues was very quiet so when i was just trying to listen for that all important word 'GO' people were talking to me trying to ask where things were.. Lets just say thank god i'm a women so i could multitask.
And then it was all over, one of the best experiences I've had at my college, because I've always wanted to work backstage see what it was like and to see how much goes into any show small or big. And it definitely didn't let me down!

In the pictures One of of my Lecturers (Sarah) each gave everyone a cake and a little personal note before the first show. And lemme' tell you that cake was yummy!

hello there

Hello there!
Hi i'm new to this but my name is Raya Hope and i love all things to do with fashion, music etc. What you will be seeing from this blog is anything i like and also including the day in the life of what its like to be a performing arts student as i am currently studying Acting in college.

:)