Alice's Top 8 Drama Tips

This is my headshot for drama school. It took 10 minutes to get me to stop smiling.

'Hi I'm Alice, I love drama and performing. Shakespeare is my favourite, I'm really clumsy and yes, my hair is naturally this bright' this tends to be the sentence I repeat again and again when told to 'introduce myself and say a little bit about what I do/what I like'

For 10 years, my eyes have lit up for one thing and one thing only- drama. I love the stage. I love to perform. I love to be another character. I love to tell stories.

Here is a little snippet of my essay for drama schools:
'I'm a lover of stories. I love hearing stories, telling stories and even creating stories. I
sometimes wish my life was a story, and in my mind I like to believe that it is. Through the
realities of work and busy lives I fear that people can start to lose sight of the wonder of
stories and the magic and release they can bring. Acting to me is one big story. You get to
tell a tale through being someone you're not, a whole different character, perhaps with
different physical features, different morals and a different way of living. That's what
performing is to me. It's allowing every audience member to step out of their own world and
enter in to another and in doing so hopefully allowing each audience member to be moved in
some way.' - Alice Goble, Sep 2013.

I've never had a quote before so I like to think this is my one and only quote to sum up why I love what I do.

The thing about drama is that it's not just a highly competitive, difficult, hyped up, generalised industry (need I go on?...) It's a lifestyle. A challenge. A way of living.
Isn't that the definition of lifestyle? A way of living.
The habits, attitudes, tastes, moral standards etc., that together constitutes the mode of living of an individual.
So not only do you have to use all of the above for the character you are playing (like good old Stanivslaski has taught us) but you also have to use all of the above for your own development as an actor.

My heart fell to the core of the earth when I got rejected from not one, not two, not three but four drama schools last year. And with each rejection letter and 'we wish you all the best in the future' being shoved through my letter box, my heart shattered more and more. And when I finally got to the final round, competing against the chosen 400 other budding-thespians to get one of the 28 spaces on the course, that final rejection was the cut off point.
It's taken me approximately 8 months, 5 hours and 21 minutes to finally get up, chin up and dust myself off. It's the most devastating moment when all that you are is just not good enough for all that you want. Wow, what a sentence. I can't put it any better or any simpler than that.
So, I've done myself a list, a list of things to always have in my back pocket whenever acting becomes the most wonderful and most tragic part of my future. It's their to remind me of why I'm doing this.
I've called it:

Alice's Top 8 Drama Tips

1. If I feel a sudden release of thousands of butterflies in my stomach whenever I watch any sort of performance; it shows I'm exactly where I should be.
2. rejection is ok. It happens. It will forever happen. 9 out of 10 times it will be rejection. The more the merrier I say! Get up, get out and get positive. 
3. get all experience I can possibly grab. Every opportunity must be grabbed with both hands.
4. when I hear a voice in my head saying 'I could do that' please believe it. It's a little thing called 'self belief' and it doesn't always mean your head can't suddenly fit through the door.
5. explore all plays, genres, eras, films, tv dramas and practitioners.
6. research all possible drama routes e.g. drama schools, youth theatre's, companies, degrees, Christian drama companies, theatre in education etc. 
7. PREPARE, PREPARE, PREPARE. The amount of times my ex drama teachers have drilled that in to my mind. Preparation is key. What is it they say? Preparation is the cure for pre-audition nerves.
8. enjoy it. If God has given me a gift- excel in it, embrace it and live for it.

My list will probably get to 100 throughout my career in performing. But right now these few golden points that I've learnt in the past year will keep me grounded and on the ball throughout this stressful, 'what do I want to do with my life', time. 

I'm also a sucker for lists. Lists are good.

Auditions start the beginning of next week and round one will continue until the end of January. Prayers please. I certainly do need them.

Over and out,

A x