Lucky Number 20
With past alumni including a Golden Globe winner and multiple Olivier winning performers, the Guildford School of Acting is one of the highest-rated theatre schools in the UK. Getting in is tough but one young student has made the grade, writes David Fearnhead. Photography: Kim Williams
On a cold January day in 2018 a group of students gathered at the Guilford School of Acting (GSA). The school has an impressive reputation for bringing through the likes of Michael Ball, Bill Nighy and Celia Imrie. Competition for places is fierce. Amongst those auditioning is Cara Murray from Old Langho in the Ribble Valley. The former QEGS pupil is no stranger to auditions. This will be her twentieth, and she’s only just turned 20.
Most times there are recalls before rejection, but you have to be made of something more to survive in an industry where even the very best have been through countless rejections before establishing themselves. Fred Astaire was once casually dismissed with the words, ‘Can’t act. Can’t sing. Slightly bald. Can dance a little’.
“It was my first actor/muso audition, all my previous auditions had been for musical theatre,” says Cara. “Every person that walked in I was thinking, have they got brown hair? What instrument are they carrying? Because you’re not competing against everyone in the audition. My competition is not the guy who plays the tuba, but the other brown-haired girl who went in with the flute piece. I found it actually calmed me down, knowing I was standing there in a line of 30 people but I was actually only competing against five of them.”
Cara started on the flute aged eight before later adding the saxophone, but it was her singing that first attracted attention. It was the one thing that brought her out of her shell. Even today, Cara is flawlessly polite and well-mannered, not one for jazz hands and treating the whole world as her stage. Yet put her on one and something remarkable happens. The shy, quiet girl transforms.
An A* pupil, nine in total, she could have studied anything, but Cara recalls when she came home from school, singing was the first thing she did.
“Other things interested me but nothing like singing.”
A casual trip to the theatre with mum Tracey was something to do while visiting London but seeing Cara’s enthusiasm for West End musicals it became more a regular treat.
“My parents have always been very supportive. They just said, ‘If that’s what you want to do then give it your best shot. Otherwise in 30 years’ time you could look back and think, well if only’.”
Auditioning for the GSA is a rigorous process. Students are assessed on movement, singing, recital of Shakespeare, aptitude at reading and playing music, before being quizzed in an interview process.
“Singing is probably the thing I love the most. It wasn’t the best singing audition I’d done but compared to previous years I could see how far I’d come. Being on a foundation course and having to perform in front of your classmates every day made it easier in the room. When I get nervous my throat tightens, but it didn’t this time.”
“During the interview they ask you what makes you right for this industry, why haven’t you got in so far. They want people who know what direction they want to head in. Honestly, because the interview was so negative and they were asking why I hadn’t got in the previous year, I went outside afterwards and phoned my mum and cried. I thought they’ve noticed that I’ve been applying for so long and hadn’t been accepted.”
In fact so convinced was Cara that she’d failed the audition when the notification came through she couldn’t face reading it right away.
“Once the television programme I was watching had finished I thought, okay let’s just get this over with. It took about an hour because I’d forgotten my UCAS password and had to go through the whole, ‘Do you want to change your password’ thing.”
“When I finally opened it and saw I’d got in I was in floods of tears. I’m not a massive crier, but I’d been applying to the GSA for two years and I’d loved the place ever since I first went at the age of 16 to have a look.”
Part of her new course at the GSA will require her to learn a new instrument from scratch. So Cara went shopping. Dad, Andy advised that with all the travelling to think practically. On previous trips the car had been so crammed full they’d had to pass sweets outside the car through the windows. Cara returned with a cello.
And if that doesn’t make you like her, I don’t know what will.
