This summer, graduating actors from LAMDA (London Academy of Music & Dramatic Art) will present three exciting productions at the Lyric Hammersmith: Bruce Norris’s provocative Clybourne Park, Alan Ayckbourn’s celebrated farce, Absent Friends, and the stylish, fast-paced musical, City of Angels. But the best news is that tickets are completely free of charge, so there really is no excuse not to go and see them all. See below for more information about the productions including booking details.

Presented by students from the academy’s Two Year Acting Course and Two Year Stage Management & Technical Theatre Course.

Clybourne Park by Bruce Norris
An amateur production by arrangement with Nick Hern Book
28 May, 1 & 5 June 2013 | 7.30pm
31 May & 4 June 2013 | 2pm

It’s 1959 and – despite their neighbours’ protestations – Bev and Russ are desperately trying to sell their house in up-market Chicago suburb, Clybourne Park, to a black family.

Fast-forward to 2009 and Clybourne Park is an all-black neighbourhood in the process of gentrification. Now it is a white couple, Steve and Lindsey, who must jump through social and bureaucratic hoops to buy the house.

Winner of the 2011 Laurence Olivier Award for best new play, Bruce Norris’s provocative comedy pushes marital and racial tensions to breaking point and back again.

Book your free ticket here

Absent Friends by Alan Ayckbourn
An amateur production by arrangement with Samuel French Ltd
29 & 31 May, 4 June 2013 | 7.30pm
3 & 6 June 2013 | 2pm

Diana, Paul, Evelyn, John and Marge are hosting a tea party for their estranged friend, Colin, to lift his spirits after the death of his fiancée. However, no sooner have the friends assembled in Diana and Paul’s front room than their good intentions give way to simmering resentment.

Alan Ayckbourn’s celebrated domestic farce, revived last year at the Harold Pinter Theatre, parades the insecurities and failings of a group of middle class friends, who seem to be in far greater need of comfort than Colin.

Book your free ticket here

City of Angels by Larry Gelbart, Cy Coleman & David Zippel
An amateur production by arrangement with MusicScope and Stage Musicals Limited of New York
30 May, 3 & 6 June 2013 | 7.30pm
1 & 5 June 2013 | 2pm

Desperate to get his detective thriller made into a blockbuster film noir, Stine makes endless alterations to his plot to please Hollywood director and big shot, Buddy Fidler. Life soon starts to mimic art as Stine’s personal circumstances become as compromised and confused as his screenplay.

Winner of six Tony Awards on its premiere in 1990, this stylish and fast-paced musical explores artistic integrity and the relationship between the creator and created.

Book your free ticket here

This week I have portrayed a sex-starved parade of men, a historic civil rights campaigner and an authoritarian father figure from a bygone era. But enough of my personal life…

(N.B. these were all assessments!)

It’s official – I have finished all my classes and am slap-bang in the middle of my first year performance, and to say that I’ve been cast against type would be an understatement. For those of you struggling to imagine the transformation, imagine Julian Clary as Stanley in Streetcar and you won’t be too far off the mark. On the one hand, I’m excited by the opportunity – it’s so easy to stay where one is comfortable and to focus on what one already does well (indeed, let’s be honest, this is pretty much going to define my career – we may all be trained to play ‘anything’ but it’s unlikely we’ll get the chance). On the other, it’s a certain kind of pressure – I want to be believable as someone who is so far removed from me and pretty much anyone I know that we are as strangers.

Here’s where the ‘falling in love’ begins. My eternally quotable director – he of the incitement of mass ‘WTF’ thought bubbles – is a fierce advocate of this and I actually – shock, horror – really understand it. Exploring the play has made the challenge seem more surmountable – there’s always something in a character that makes one say “okay, I get you”, and from there, hopefully, one is able to layer on everything else – body language, movement, voice – and build outwards. I guess that, in terms of creating characters, people have more in common than they realise – reactions, thought processes, a sense of morality – which provide an inroad. Simply put, people are people at heart and the rest is window dressing. So all I have to do is find the right outfit for the mannequin. That’s the plan, anyway.

In other news, there’s a real sense of wrapping up at school – the third years are preparing to leave and there’s a pervading sense of expectation in the air as they embark on their showcases and, hopefully, their careers. Strangely enough – despite having had a career of sorts already – the idea of being in this position in two years terrifies me. It’s incredible how safe one feels whilst at school – wrapped in a blanket that offers intriguing glimpses of the industry, but shields one from full exposure. I guess it’s the dread scenario in which I do my showcase and… that’s it, everything goes away – the link to the business, the network, the guidance… it all comes down to that moment.

I’m sensible enough to know that’s not true, of course, and that one should think of the three years purely as a training ground, a pre-battlefield in which to strategise, but the sense of desperation pervades. HELP ME.

Meh. I’ll worry about it next year…

Hamlet2B

Image: All Wrapped Up

We asked AYT readers what they’d like to ask our RSC diarists…

Q: “I’d love to know how rigorous the rehearsal period is; time-wise and the level of depth with textual analysis.”

Rosie: Well, it varies according to the director’s process and the parts you play. In Hamlet, we spent the first few weeks going through each scene in detail and discussing it, then slowly putting it on its feet before we moved on to the next scene, and after an initial read through we were only called for the scenes we were in which we explored bit by bit. But in As You Like It we were all called for a two week movement workshop which had no text at all, before we even read the script around a table together. The workshop had us dripping in sweat for eight hours a day pretty much, whilst the read through was a week long and at times it could lead to hours of discussion on one scene.

As for parts, I thought that as a newbie cast in small parts I wouldn’t be called that much, but both David Farr and Maria Aberg had us in for group scenes again and again (they can be very choreographed and technical), as well as song, dance, movement and voice calls.

So I’ve done 12 hour days, five to six days a week for the last two and a half months, and what with the understudy runs and All’s Well That Ends Well coming up, that doesn’t look set to change until the 7th August. It’s amazing, but exhausting.

Dan: Rehearsals at the RSC are very in depth. We’re lucky enough to get ten weeks to explore each play. Both processes included a great deal of textual analysis and table work as a company, to discuss the meanings of all the lines and words within the play so we would be able to communicate them to an audience properly. With As You, we also had a two week workshop period where we improvised and tried out various movement ideas for establishing the two worlds of the court and Arden.

Q: “Is there any chance for those of us who don’t go to drama school after university due to cost?”

Rosie: I tried to get acting jobs without an agent and without drama school, and it varied from hard to impossible. Unless you know someone like a radio producer, or director, or want to put on your own stuff, go to drama school. It’s hard to get an agent and without them you don’t get seen for paid jobs. I know RADA can take on tuition fees if you can’t afford them, at least they could when I applied. Otherwise, the Actor’s Centre do courses which at least means you meet professionals and peers, and Paines Plough do fantastic open auditions.

Dan: I think it’s getting a lot harder for people going to drama schools, especially with the recent increase in fees. But don’t be put off, there are various bursaries and scholarships you can apply for which help towards funding. If this is your first higher education course, you can take out a student loan to help with the costs too. Also there’s nothing stopping you working for a year or so to stockpile some cash to help get you through your training as well.

Q: “Do you have any tips on how to make yourself more open and vulnerable in acting?”

Rosie: Being centred and remembering to breathe helps to focus your concentration on listening like you’ve never heard stuff before, which means if the situation is sad or funny it should make you laugh, cry, sigh automatically. I need to know who my character is through movement, rehearsal, and what they are thinking, then I can relax and stop worrying about back story because it’s in my body and I can just listen. It’s hard though; I’m easily distracted and it takes concentration.

Dan: There are so many ways for this to be achieved and I think I’m still figuring it out myself to be honest. There’s not one correct way; I suppose it’s finding what works best for you. A good warm up and some physical exercise (run, gym or yoga) before a performance helps to clear my mind before a show, so I can be as much in the moment as possible and not over think stuff too much, and just let it happen to me.

Q: “How does an actor transition from being his cheery self backstage into a sad character on stage in limited time?”

Rosie: For me, having explored a character’s physicality really helps, and costume helps too. If I change how I move, that makes me a different person, or at least body memory reminds me to be a different person in a different situation. Lighter or more tense, slower or more jagged. I’m not a very intellectual actor. I’d rather my body did the work, and I can just try and be available to the other actors and immediate situation. That’s where repetition and rehearsal come in.

Dan: For this I think it’s just a case of giving yourself enough time to focus and relax, and doing whatever is necessary to allow you to do this whether that’s a warm up, or a cup of tea and a sit down. Different things work for different actors so I suppose it’s just a case of trial and error until you land on something that fits. It also depends on what you’re doing in the show and what the role requires of you, so adapt and change what works for you accordingly.

The RSC runs a £5 ticket scheme for 16 – 25 year olds. Find out more here.

Images: Daniel and Rosie in rehearsals for Hamlet. By Keith Pattison.