What to expect when you’re auditioning
BY ALICE UNDERWOOD
Hello, my name is Alice and I am the administrator for Peer Productions! My job is very varied, but one of my favourite things about it is helping out with the recruitment of our young actors. Auditioning can be very scary - especially when you don’t know how long the process is! For our blog this week, I wanted to talk about the audition process for Peer’s Actor Development Programme (PAD), and lay out exactly what you can expect if you apply.
TOP TIP: Ahead of filling out your application, Go through the form first and write down all the questions, this means you can write your answers in a word document first to get it perfect before copy-and-pasting it across!
The first step in the process is to fill out our application form, which you can find here. We have tried to keep the form as simple as possible, and it should take you about 30 minutes to fill it all in from start to finish.
We ask you to fill in this form with as much detail as you can, the more we learn about you from this the better. The form will also ask you for a recent headshot, so make sure you have one ready before you fill out the form. Your headshot does not need to be taken by a professional - a selfie or passport photo is fine too! All of our actors will receive a professional headshot during their training.
Once we have received your form, we will email you to arrange your first round audition. We endeavour to get back to applicants no more than 5 working days after their audition - but please bear with us on this - sometimes we are rather busy with touring, training and all the other exciting things that keep Peer ticking!
Currently all of our first round auditions are taking place via Zoom. You will be given a slot with either Nina, our Artistic Director, or Suzanne, our Leader of Learning. The audition will last no more than 45 minutes. We will always try to give at least a week’s notice to give you time to practice. During your audition, Suzanne or Nina will need to hear two modern contrasting monologues. We also invite you to showcase your singing ability through a short unaccompanied song if you would like to — but this is not compulsory!
Before your audition, try to relax and get yourself warmed up. Suzanne has created a vocal warmup video. Ahead of your audition slot you could follow along with it to get yourself, your body and your voice ready to go!
If you are successful you will be invited to an in person recall day. This will be half a day in person at our building, Peer Place, in Woking, Surrey. You will have a tour of our facilities, meet the team, have a workshop and revisit one of your original monologues. This is the second and final stage of our audition process. Once you have attended this, we will send you our decision on whether your application has been successful or not.
It’s as easy as that!
We are always happy to chat to people who are considering applying, so if you’re still undecided, have any questions, or just want to get in touch with us - feel free to send over an email at any time to admin@peerproductions.co.uk and we can arrange a time to chat that suits you.
Good luck with your application!
