In Focus: Audition and Showreels

Focused on employment in the theatre industry including auditioning practices and techniques, self-taping, casting calls

Focused on employment in the theatre industry after graduation, this module is all about auditioning practices and techniques, self-taping, casting calls, character break-downs, working with your ‘pages’ and pulling together your showreel.

What you'll be working on

Showreels

Students will learn the best approach to making a showreel. We’ll discuss what's required, what the structure could and should be, how long it should last and what it should include.

Students will be taught in a way that encourages them to discover in themselves what and how they're trying to sell, creating a real-life positive employability aspect to the learning.

Audition Techniques

We’ll conduct a variety of mock auditions; some open to the whole cohort, others specifically coming in one at a time - as you do in the real world. We've done Shakespeare auditions, duologue auditions, commercial auditions - all sorts of things.

Real-World Experience

The acting industry is tough with so many people putting themselves forward and so little time in an audition, that you must hit the ground running. You've got to know how to get into the room, make an impression and leave. And leave in a good way so you don't leave a bad impression as you walk out.

This module attempts to help students understand and experience the mercurial quality of what auditions can really be like and show them how to present, from the moment they walk in, to the moment they leave. We’ll try to address that unpleasant experience of entering a room, not knowing what you’re going to be asked to do.

The idea is that at the end of the course students will have an insight into what it’s like to walk into a professional audition space in addition to a usable digital showreel that can be used and adapted immediately.

student performance, acting, theatre, musical.

“One of the bits of advice I always give them is: after every audition, always have something to do or somewhere to go. Don't get out of the audition and hang on the street. You've just got to get on to the next thing and forget about it. Leave it behind, move on, and persevere. You've got to be proactive, you've gotta be proactive. Proactive and resilient.”

Garth Bardsley
Lecturer in Musical Theatre

Academic staff

Garth Bardsley draws on a highly successful and varied career to deliver this module.

Gareth Bardsley

Award-winning opera director, Garth Bardsley studied at St John's College, Cambridge, and at the Royal Northern College of Music. He made his operatic debut with the D’Oyly Carte Opera Company and was a soloist for various opera companies. and festivals. He has extensive experience in musical theatre and starred in the West End productions of Jerry Herman’s The Best of Times and as the Phantom in The Phantom of the Opera.

As a director, Garth has produced for numerous leading conservatoires and international festivals. He has recently returned from a year’s Visiting Associate Professorship at New York University in Manhattan where he was Director of Opera and Musical Theatre.