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heathermilsted

Behind the Scenes at Drama School


As term two draws to a close, I feel like my time at ALRA is flashing by in the blink of an eye! It's been such a whirlwind of a time of a mixed up ball of excitement and adrenaline and nerves and crazy acting things and I can't believe I'm nearly halfway through my time here.


So, I thought I'd take a check-in on what we've been up to so far and what better way to do so than to share it all with you!


For those of you who don't know, I am stuyding on the MA in Professional Acting at the Academy of Live and Recorded Arts. It's a drama school in South West London, located near Clapham Junction and my course is a year and a half long.


A typical day begins with limber at 8.40 am, which is a warm up, often physical and vocal, except for Mondays when we have briefing which is essentially a whole school assembly where any notices are shared with the school.


Classes then begin at 9 am. Each class lasts at least 1 hour and 45 minutes and on a typical timetabled day we would have four classes running through until 5.30 pm. This all changes when rehearsing for a show and for our 'assessment weeks' (no reading weeks or half terms here!) which are in the middle of and at the end of every term.


Classes range from accent work and vocal technique to acting for camera, neutral mask and animal studies, with so much variation in between!


Term two's final assessment week has seen our full length performance of Tennessee Williams's 'The Rose Tattoo', as well as Shakespeare soliloquies/monologues, animal studies sharing and our creative movement performance.


For animal studies, we were each given different animals, meant to either challenge or celebrate certain aspects about our own physicality. I was given a Meerkat and had to spend an hour living the life of one out in the wild whilst the teachers and second years walked around and watched.


I feel like I have learnt so so much already and yet have a very long way to go. As we come to the end of term I am absolutely knackered but also extremely happy and loving my time at ALRA, I just wish time could slow down a bit so I truly get to cherish every moment before its gone!

Just before our Shakespeare Assessment - it's a typical scene of us wearing our blacks to school!

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