Katie Kennedy is currently studying Foundation Acting at the world famous Arts Educational School after being a Swish pupil for over 10 years.
1) It’s been your first term of full time drama school – what’s been the hardest part for you and why?
Mentally being able to switch off thinking about acting – even after school there will be rehearsals of assessments, scenes and monologues and in lessons it’s all about using your experiences and emotions to relate to characters etc. So to switch off completely and not think about acting can be really difficult sometimes.
2) What does a typical day look like?
I get in early at 8:30am to make sure I’m not late as even by a minute you’d get barred for the day. I will have at least one movement or physical class a day and others consist of audition technique, Shakespeare, voice, devising, singing, improv etc. The timetable is full with no free periods.
3) Did you feel prepared once you started or was it a huge shock to the system?
Yes I did feel prepared, although I’ve done a lot of lessons I hadn’t previously imagined doing. I found the main thing was to just put myself out there and get stuck into everything as it’s not possible to feel self-conscious about anything.
4) Is there anything you wish you’d done before starting?
Before you start you are sent a reading list – I wish I’d been a bit more diligent and read more of the books on it so that I wouldn’t have had to do so much work on researching practitioners mentioned in class after I’d started.
5) Do you feel behind/ahead in any subjects?
I really enjoy the movement classes and having previously danced really helped this as a lot of other people hadn’t before so I think they struggled doing ballet and physical theatre for the first time.
6) Is there any advice that you would give to Swish students about to audition?
Just throw yourself in and expect to be asked to do anything and just go with it, even if it is something you are not used to or may feel uncomfortable such as to sing your monologue as an opera!