OS Ben Crick (2015) blogs about becoming a professional actor.

 

I studied at Stamford Endowed Schools between 2008 and 2015, and it was through their quickly developing and increasingly fantastic drama department that I realised I wanted to pursue acting as a career. Not only could I tell stories that I was passionate about, but I could get my teeth into some of the best dramatic literature in the world and have a great time doing it. One of the big factors in becoming a professional actor is training: it is highly encouraged that if an actor wants to make the step into the professional world, they should train at an accredited institution that will provide them with the foundations of their overall work*.

 

Applying to drama schools is, for the most part, entirely different to that of the university and UCAS process. As opposed to going through one website that allows you to apply for multiple further education institutions, you’re required to approach each drama school independently and submit applications before being invited to audition for them. It isn’t a cheap process, by any means: application fees vary school by school and you can expect to pay anything up to £80 just to apply to one, so it’s easy to see how the costs begin to pile up. I would, therefore, recommend finding the schools you really want to go to – attend their open days, talk to former students, and do online research before you apply so that you don’t end up spending a ridiculous amount of money to go somewhere you don’t really enjoy being at.

 

One thing that helped me hugely in this process was the Oxford School of Drama’s six-month foundation course. Designed to help you develop the skills desired by a lot of the three-year courses, I found it a great way to see whether or not a full course was something that I definitely wanted to, and I really relished the experience of getting formal acting training from 9am to 5pm each day. I was very fortunate that, by my second year of auditioning, I was offered a place on both the three-year Oxford School of Drama course and the two-year conservatory course at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in Los Angeles. Choosing where to go was tough, and I knew that it would be hard to make a firm decision and not spend the time going “what if…”. However, choosing Los Angeles just felt right: I’d really enjoyed my time at Oxford and would recommend it without hesitation, but living and working in LA just presented itself with so many opportunities, and it was difficult not to see their lengthy list of alumni (who consisted of Anne Hathaway, Don Rickles, Adam Scott and Robert Redford among many others) and be attracted to the school.

 

As an international student moving to the USA, my process for going to drama school was significantly different to that of my friends studying in the UK. I had to apply for a visa, buy plane tickets, convert all of my money into dollars and get used to an entirely different culture (and climate – as I write it’s 40C outside). It is somewhat intimidating, especially as a lot of the US government websites designed to help are a little bit vague in terms of requirements! The biggest challenge for me, though, was getting used to being so far away from home. Due to other commitments that couldn’t be changed (I spent most of my 2016 summer in Brazil for the Olympics), I was forced to defer my start date until a semester later – this meant that instead of having a fairly lengthy summer break to transition from first to second year, I got three weeks in August. Although not a bad thing, particularly as it meant I was constantly immersed in the industry, it did also mean that I wasn’t able to come home at all in the eight months between January and August, so I had to make do with a few Skype calls here and there and the occasional email. This was difficult, but as time went on and I settled in it became easier – especially as I made some fantastic friends in the US pretty early on, and because I saw them on practically a daily basis they almost became like family (don’t worry Mum – you’ll always take precedence!).

 

It’s worth noting that studying acting at a full-time conservatory has a number of notable differences to studying drama at university. Firstly, university contact hours are significantly less than that of drama school: whilst a university student could expect to have around 15 hours of contact time a week (“Drama & Theatre Studies Courses”; Which? University Guide), at most drama schools (including both Oxford and The Academy) students have a minimum of 40 hours a week where they work with teachers and industry professionals. This means that, when combined with other work outside of class, I very rarely have free time and I always have something to do – whether that’s rehearsals, writing essays or learning lines!

 

In order to make all their students as rounded and prepared for the industry as possible, The Academy (as well as most other drama schools) combine various other elements of the dramatic arts into the curriculum. This means that I don’t just study acting: I’m also being trained in vocal production (for voiceover work as well as musical theatre work), period movement & dance, stage combat, acting for the camera and theatrical style as well as many more. Professionally this is hugely helpful because I am developing in areas that I hadn’t even considered before and without going to drama school I’m not sure if I ever would have developed them. In voice & speech classes, for example, I’ve learnt the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA), an entirely different way of writing sounds so that they can be easily read by anyone around the world. In terms of using it to create dialects and accents, it is an invaluable tool and not one that I would ever even have considered learning. As part of second year, we are required to perform six different monologues in different dialects – without IPA, this would probably have been impossible and it’s given me a huge boost in both my confidence and my appeal to casting directors that are always looking for people who can perform in different dialects or accents.

 

Even though the workload is humongous, I absolutely love studying in Los Angeles and being able to get up every morning to do what I love. I’m surrounded by other people who are just as passionate as I am, and there’s an incredible sense of support and community amongst both the students and the faculty. Because I’m situated in the very heart of the industry, there are also so many fantastic networking opportunities that I can grab with both hands. A couple of weeks ago, for example, I attended a party hosted by Equity UK (the actors’ union), where I met a number of other actors living in the States, including comedian Aisling Bea and Natalie Tena, who played Nymphadora Tonks in the Harry Potter films. In addition, the teachers’ approach to my development is refreshingly honest: they’re incredibly demanding of me and my work, and they completely reject the idea of skirting around an issue to avoid being too harsh on students (one of my acting teachers in first year would frequently yell “I’m not shouting at you because I’m mad; I’m shouting at you because I’m passionate!”).

 

It goes without saying that I wouldn’t be where I am today without the help of the incredible drama department at Stamford – in particular Mrs Hill and Ms Davies. They were hugely proactive in giving me advice, helping me with audition pieces, and supporting me from the beginning, and I am really grateful to have gone to such a fantastic school where the help like that is available. If you’re considering applying to drama schools anywhere in the world, I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend you get in touch with them!

 

For more information, please feel free to sign up and receive occasional emails from me, where I talk more in-depth about life at The Academy and Los Angeles in general: http://bensamericanadventure.weebly.com. If you need any further information, or need advice about drama schools (whether that’s choosing ones, the audition process or drama as a whole), don’t hesitate to send me an email and I will be more than happy to talk with you: ben@crick28.plus.com

 

*It is also worth noting, however, that training is not compulsory and I would strongly suggest that you find what’s best for you before committing to another three years or more of education.