Auditions and stress Auditions and stress

Abstract

The canonical techniques of actor training associated with Stanislavski’s own practice and writings have resulted in a dominant paradigm which, arguably, predominates within UK drama school training. The present article is the first part of a series of papers which aims to investigate this paradigm through the analysis of significant events of the audition process for the undergraduate Acting programme at the newly formed Plymouth Conservatoire – a drama school run jointly by Theatre Royal Plymouth and Plymouth University. However, it is the intention of the authors to provide material which can offer an insight into the generic audition process in other HE institutions. As such, these papers also draw upon the authors’ own experience auditioning candidates for other drama schools, both in the UK and abroad, so as to uncover the various pedagogic, ideological and sociological functions of auditioning for training, as opposed to auditioning for an acting job