Morning campers (evening/afternoon - whatev's) its been a while since I blogged and I know I promised to keep you all informed about my new adventure. . .
Now here's the thing -
As this title above suggests, I am kind of prohibited from speaking about my new adventure at RADA. I can blog as I normally do about my trials and tribulations as an Actor and I can chat generally about myself, new discoveries and that kind of thing, but I cannot give any specifics about my course/classes or the school. Anything I do want to say about the school must be OK'd by the school's Enterprise team before published either on my blog here or the MA Theatre Lab RADA blog page.
At first glance this all seems very secret society and a bit draconian BUT as it goes, I actually think I agree with the school and here's why:
The school have imposed this rule for a number of reasons. Since the revolution of social media our every waking thought is now out there in the virtual world for all eternity. What you had for lunch, when you went to the loo, what happened in your failed relationship, who you hate, who you love and ERRRRYTHANG!
| http://www.google.co.uk/ |
I have been guilty of putting stupid stuff out there into the big wide virtual world. Stuff I meant 1000% at the time - but after a glass of red or a good sleep I would be embarrassed to repeat. Or WORSE stuff I have put out there AFTER a glass or two of red! Words, pictures and comments that frankly do not become me. We all have, social networks have become our online diary that is accessible to the world.
RADA is one of - if not THE best drama school in the world. Look at the history: Sir Richard Attenborough, Kenneth Branagh, Joan Collins, Anthony Hopkins, Vivien Leigh, Alan Rickman for crying out loud! That's a BIG responsibility for new RADA students to live up to. We are the future and we carry with us the amazing legacy of the past. Then there comes Tanya Vital tired, stressed out, dramatic and drunk on twitter "Oh I f*ck%ng hate such and such a person in such and such a class" - can you even imagine?! *face palm*
The prestigious name of this world renowned school brought to it's knees by little old Tanya Vital in 2.5 seconds on Twitter. That AINT a good look.
Along with that, there is also the safety of my fellow students. Drama school, as some of you will know is a place for experimentation. In the outside world we would call it 'messing about'. Because to the outside world its just a bunch of grown-ups playing around and acting like kids, but now even I understand it's much more than that.
As students we are exposed to so many different kinds of training, physical, mental, emotional and these classes have many different formats. What you or I may think is a load of old twaddle has actually been developed intensely over years/generations/centuries to help the artist give truth in their performance. (NOTE: When I talk of Artist/Actor I DO NOT mean celebrity)
Think of it like this - regardless what your opinion of drama is or regardless of your opinion about drama school. Think of your favourite film/book/poem/song/play. Think of the last film that touched your heart, made you cry or resonated with you. That magical stuff doesn't just happen overnight. Despite what you heard - overnight success does NOT exist. The reason that particular piece of art touched you was down to generations of hard work by artists passing down information and experience to others.
The way RADA sees it is that the school should be a safe place for us to train, to experiment and to try out weird and wonderful things. See what works and what doesn't WITHOUT the added ridicule of the outside world or fellow classmates making the strange experiences even harder. I for one am down with this! I do NOT want pictures/videos of me sweating my ass off in a downward dog Yoga pose, seething words of Shakespeare coming to haunt me when I collect my Oscar - I just do NOT want that, so I have to also respect others who feel the same.
Anyway with that, I hope you understand and don't get too frustrated with me if I can't give the full in's and outs. I will endeavour to blog as much as normal and thank you for your patience.
As a treat I leave you with this - the reason we go to Drama School
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