How to get into drama school. How to enter a theater school, university or institute

How to enter a theater university or a higher school is a question that torments thousands of talented people who seek to realize their creative potential on the stages of great theaters and cinema. However, this is a very difficult task that requires complete dedication and the realization that even the most famous artists did not pass the competition the first time. Admission to the theater institute is completely different from admission to any other university. USE scores play the last role here, since the main attention is paid to the results of creative exams. What should the applicant impress his examiners with?

Criteria for the selection of candidates for a theater university

What do you need to enter the theater and what qualities should an applicant have? During the creative competition, teachers evaluate applicants according to a number of basic parameters, including:

1. Education. Only applicants who have completed 11 classes or graduates of technical schools and colleges can enter the theater university.
2. Age. As a rule, age does not matter, but still, most often, examiners prefer the younger generation.
3. External Data. This is one of the most important criteria, which does not imply a beautiful face. The future actor must have a bright, memorable appearance, have his own zest, capable of striking the hearts of the audience. It can be a kind of facial expressions, or a deep penetrating look, or the funny features inherent in a comedian.
4. stage charm. Also, it should not be confused with appearance and beauty. This concept means that charisma and talent, thanks to which people are interested in watching the artist, admiring him. It is due to these qualities that an applicant can establish himself as a promising actor.
5. Sense of rhythm. It is known that an actor must be talented in absolutely any direction. On stage, he has to sing and participate in dance numbers, so the future artist is unthinkable without a sense of rhythm, which is also very important for setting the right diction.
6. Inner emotionality. Here, teachers assess the ability of the applicant to touch the viewer with his game, to cause an emotional outburst and mixed feelings in him, to make him believe in the reality of what is happening.

If you meet these criteria, then your chances of entering an acting school at a theater university increase significantly. However, it is important to remember that many talented individuals are eliminated in creative competitions, so be prepared for the fact that you will have to prove your skills more than once.

Qualifying rounds for admission

To understand how to enter a theater higher school, it is necessary to analyze the examination procedure, which consists of three stages.

First stage

You need to pass the Unified State Examination and submit its results to the admission committee of the university. For admission to the theatrical compulsory subjects are the Russian language and literature.

Second phase

At this stage, you will have to pass an internal test colloquium, which is an interview in which you will be asked various questions, for example, such as:

1. Why do you want to go to theater school?
2. Do you understand the essence of the profession?
3. Why did you decide to become an artist?
4. What kind of actor do you see yourself as?

It is necessary to briefly tell about yourself, about your childhood and adolescence, about how you realized your need for creativity. The main purpose of such a procedure is to reveal not so much cultural and art history knowledge as the moral and ethical aspects of the applicant.

Third stage

You will be asked to pass three creative tests, which are the most important stage in admission to the theater. When making their verdict, the examiners are primarily guided by the results of this particular test, which includes three tasks:

• speech,
• acting,
• dancing and vocals.

Consider each of the creative exams in more detail:

1. Speech. For this test, the applicant must prepare and memorize several passages from prose, fable, play or poem. During the exam, you will be asked to recite a passage of your choice, but teachers may not like the passage you are reading. It is for this that it is worth preparing several works at once, in order to read out another piece if necessary. Here your diction, voice, ability to present material to the viewer is tested.
2. Acting. This test involves staging an etude: usually 2-3 people take part in it. The commission allows any themes for sketches, that is, you can use both a plot from a famous work and a situation from everyday life.
3. Dances and vocals. Applicants must prepare vocal and dance numbers in advance. For the song exam, it is best to choose a classic romance or a famous work from Soviet cinema. The experience of former applicants shows that the commission is skeptical about the modern repertoire. You also need to come up with a dance number in advance.

So, the exam, an interview and three creative exams, this is what you need to enter the theater for acting.

How to become a director

The process of admission to the directing department is somewhat different from the acting department. Future directors are invited to go through five stages:

Exams in such disciplines as literature and the Russian language (USE format).

1. Acting(practical test). At this stage, the applicant must read several works of various orientations. It also tests improvisational skills for playing stage etudes, a sense of rhythm and musicality.
2. Practical directing. Applicants must put a sketch on the proposed topic. The theme can be a classical piece or a musical sketch. Applicants-actors take part in an impromptu production. On this test, the commission tests the ingenuity, initiative, taste and imagination of future directors.
3. Paperwork. The topic of this assignment may be a plan for staging a particular scene or play. They may be required to write instructions for the cast, composer and artist.
4. Colloquium. It involves an assessment of the applicant's knowledge in the field of directing, culture, theater criticism and world drama. Here, the intellectual abilities of applicants and their skills in figurative thinking are tested.

If you have already firmly decided to enter the theater, then start preparing a year or two before the intended attempt. You can prepare for admission both with a tutor and on your own. Be sure to read a lot of one school literature program is not enough.

Remember that it is impossible to engage in theatrical activities on a schedule. They always do theater or don't do it at all.

1. It is necessary to start preparing not the day before and not a month in advance, but certainly a year, if not two, before the intended attempt. A hastily learned text is not what the commission needs. You are not asked to demonstrate memory, but the ability to appropriate the text, make it your own, analyze and visualize the analyzed :)) According to the acting (professional) take, it takes at least 2 weeks to shrink the parsed text in your head. This is after all the rehearsals, showdowns and so on. 2 weeks of pure existence time in this text for a professional. But you're not a professional yet, are you?

2. It is best to prepare with a tutor, i.e. with a person who knows what it is - theater. It is best to try to find a theater teacher as a tutor. Just because they know how to explain what is required, because every day they do it with their students. The cost of such classes in Moscow is from 20 to 40 dollars for 2 hours. According to those who used the services of tutors, private lessons really give a lot of new things, reaching literal revelations. Just remember: NEVER ADMIT AT A COMMISSION THAT YOU DO THEATER anywhere or with anyone :))

3. You can also prepare at preparatory courses, which are usually available at every theater university (at least in Moscow). Typically, courses last from a month to three, classes one or two days a week. Again, according to the reviews of those who tried it, the best preparatory courses in Moscow are the courses at the Shchukin School. They last 3 months, classes are held on weekends, two couples a day. The principles of stage speech, the basics of acting, rhythm are studied, and lectures are given on the history of the theater. The latter is not found anywhere in Moscow, and the department of theater history in Shchuk is the strongest among other universities (IMHO, of course). The cost of the courses is about 3500 rubles (data for 2003). At the Moscow Art Theater School, courses last a month and cost about $50. You have to enroll in courses, i.e. go through something like an audition. However, the selection there is much less strict, completely unsuitable comrades are weeded out. Classes in the courses are held in a group, therefore they are inferior in quality and richness to classes with a private teacher. Although it is useful to combine the teacher and courses. During the courses, you have the opportunity to find out the general level of those who will enter this year (as they say, look at others and show yourself), get to know the teachers of a particular school and the requirements that apply to applicants.

4. Self-education is mandatory. You have to read a lot and hard. Here, knowledge of the school curriculum is not enough. Here you need to comprehend it. :)) In addition, you need knowledge of the works of Stanislavsky, Chekhov (and your own opinion on this matter), read more on the history of theater and literature. You are still entering a creative university, and not at a machine factory :)). An actor cannot be stupid and uneducated.

If you do not have the opportunity to use the services of tutors and courses. It's hard, of course. But, in the end, statistics say that our biggest stars are residents of just the provinces. Usually they also, having reached the zenith of fame, nevertheless admit that they participated in amateur performances or attended a theater studio :)). As for my personal opinion, it seems highly doubtful that one can enter a theater school without having ever dealt with the stage before. Perhaps the teachers of theatrical universities are right in some way, fearing graduates of amateur theatrical studios ... For, of course, there is a great chance that you will get a good stamp there. But after all, you have been given a head not to stamp, but to work on yourself. None of the normal directors of theater studios tolerates or likes clichés. Exactly the same as the venerable theatrical figures. According to my observations, the presence or absence of a stamp depends only on the personality of the actor. Some buy into the first applause they get after reading the verse on the New Year tree in the 5th grade - and now they continue to read further in the same way as before Santa Claus, like - I'm already smart, I know how to play :)). Others do not perceive awards at festivals and competitions as the limit of their capabilities, but carefully analyze their videos, read, think, polish their technique and speech.

6. About completely independent work (it is also the most important). Remember, you can’t do theater on a schedule. Either they do it all the time, or they don't do it at all. Those. in your head there should be continuous work on passages, on the accumulation of factual material, observation of those around you. All drag in "your piggy bank" of acting experience.

In the last 10 years, our education system has undergone great changes. Almost all exams are now taken in the form of testing, and in order to enter the history or mathematics departments, it is enough to pass the USE and submit the results to the selection committee of the chosen university.

Fortunately, the selection to creative universities is still carried out "live". Applicants of theatrical universities, the conservatory, the literary institute still take creative exams, pass several rounds of qualifying tests, during which their abilities are fully revealed.

There is an opinion among applicants that the main thing is to be gifted by nature, and everything else is secondary. At the entrance exams, there are a lot of pre-arrogant girls of model appearance who consider themselves ready-made actresses. True, at the very first exam, it turns out that these girls have nothing but a model appearance ...

Of course, natural data is very important. Rather, it is not so much the data that is important, but their correspondence to the character and temperament. After all, not all masters of the stage are hand-written handsome men with a sports figure.

Entering the theatrical university must be relaxed, expressive, capable of reincarnation, owning his voice and body. He will show these skills at the entrance exams when reading the program, performing a dance, performing sketches. However, in addition to creative exams, applicants to a creative educational institution will have to pass an interview. For some reason, many people neglect the preparation for this exam, considering it to be something secondary, but in vain. During the interview, teachers try to identify the cultural level of a potential student, the degree of his erudition and interest in the chosen profession.

I must say that it is impossible to fully prepare for an interview. No one can predict what question will be asked in the exam. Even the teachers themselves do not know this. Nevertheless, we will try to highlight the main areas in which questions are asked.

Theater

You should be guided in theatrical directions, know the history of the emergence and development of the theater, be familiar with the theatrical life of the capital and your hometown.

Be prepared to be asked to list the theaters in Moscow that you know, to tell which of them you have been to, what you have watched, and whether you liked it. They often ask the names of your favorite actors and actresses, in what roles you saw them, why you like them more than others. It is good if you know the biographies of your favorite actors and directors. Many of them are the authors of books of memoirs - acquaintance with them will benefit you, it will not only increase your cultural level, but also give you the opportunity to show off your erudition in the exam.

Applicants to the specialty "musical and theatrical art" should be familiar with the history of world opera, the main works of Russian and foreign composers, know the outstanding opera singers, be able to talk about them and their creative work.

Cinema

You must imagine the stages of development of cinema: from silent films to the present day. Know the names of prominent actors of the past and present, be able to list the films in which they starred. Be familiar with the work of famous directors, imagine their filmography. Be ready to name your favorite directors and actors, list their works that you liked the most, and justify your choice. Examiners can also ask directly: “what was the last movie you watched?”. This question does not have to be answered honestly (especially if you decided to relax the day before by turning on an American comedy). Name a movie that you watched recently and that is still fresh in your memories, tell us what you remember, what you liked, what seemed inappropriate.

Literature

In order to successfully pass an interview at a theater university, you must know well the directions of development of Russian and foreign literature, be familiar with the largest works within each of the directions. You may be asked to talk about your favorite authors: prose writers, poets, playwrights, list their works, express your opinions about them. Do not be afraid to voice your own opinion: believe me, the commission will be glad to hear from you not only “I liked it”, but also something more detailed. Be prepared to recite a few poems by your favorite authors.

You may be asked to list the plays of any author, name those that you saw on the stage, in which theater it was, who is the director.

Almost all theatrical universities post lists of required reading on their websites. They include the most famous examples of world classics, many of which you probably had to read as part of the school curriculum.

Please note that apart from fiction you should read some theater art books. Lists of these books can be found on the website of your chosen university. Just in case, we list a few works, acquaintance with which is absolutely necessary for the future actor.

K.S.Stanislavsky"My life in art", "The work of an actor on himself in the creative process of incarnation" "Ethics";

V.I. Nemirovich-Danchenko"Theatrical heritage";

M. Chekhov"The Way of the Actor", "Lessons of a Professional Actor";

G.A. Tovstonogov"Mirror of the stage";

B.A. Pokrovsky"Professions"

All these books are written by outstanding figures of theatrical art. In them, they summarize all their life and stage experience, talk about the people with whom life brought them together, about the difficulties and joys of their work, about the mistakes made, about the solutions found. Such literature is not just interesting to read - through it you can join the amazing world of art, the road to which for you will begin with admission to the institute.

However, you may be asked the same questions about painting. In addition, they often ask one of the geography(for example, list the continents, oceans, seas, name the capital of a state) and stories.

As you can see, it is not so easy to get an interview at a theater university. Your whole previous cultural life should be the preparation for it. If you sincerely love art, go to theaters and concerts, watch movies, read books, visit exhibitions and museums - you have nothing to fear. The commission will definitely see in you a cultured, erudite, interested, creative person. If you are not interested in all this, think: did you choose the right future profession?

So, let's say you are an applicant and flasks, beakers, test tubes, along with numbers and logarithms, do not appeal to you. What are you to do and where to go? Oh, you must have heard about creative universities, the famous "Sliver" and SPbGATI.

Even if you are not an applicant, but a fully-fledged adult, then do not lie at least to yourself, and honestly admit that you are not at all averse to exchanging life and routine for your legitimate fifteen minutes of fame and applause from the public, at least once.

Creative trends in one way or another seduce everyone, because only here you can be an astronaut, a chemist, a writer, a spy with a fatal beauty, or the most fatal beauty five times a day, while remaining famous and loved. For some, this happens in childhood, after the first failed entrance exam, someone stops at the level of their companies and corporate competitions in production, but someone goes for life to where a normal person would never even think of, but namely, in art.

How is training in a theater university? Oh, very simple and difficult at the same time.

To get started, you must pass an entrance test. It takes place in several stages depending on the direction, but you will always read a fable, verse, prose of your choice, or everything in a row, and during the break you will talk about life with the selection committee. Be prepared that you may not be asked about art at all, and this will be normal.

What you will see at the entrants, in front of the admissions committee, namely: memorizing the role, flying people, acting out scenes and other standing on their heads in the corridors - in a word, all this should in no way surprise or alarm you. If this happened, then write wasted - you have nothing to do here. But don’t be discouraged, you won’t be alone in this, because according to statistics, out of 30 people who entered the workshop (and this is the only way to learn directing and acting), only 10 people will reach the diploma, and even then in the best case.

This happens for the very reason that many of those who entered do not fully understand that the talent they have needs to be developed.

The master, that is, a person who has experience, passes it on to his students. He may ask to come on Saturday and even on Sunday. And not for an hour or two. And from morning to evening you will have classes with the master, and then also without him. Of course, not everyone can withstand such a pace purely physically. Try yourself seven days a week to play a chair, then the same!

Moreover, it should be understood that no one has canceled standard items such as stories with English, but there is one caveat - the display priority. At the end of each semester, students must bring their skills to the public and show them to the rest of the department; if something does not fit with the rehearsal schedule, and the English teacher "does not allow to create", then the whole course can arrange a riot for him and unanimously score on attending this subject. How to take it is another problem, but the show is above all. In fairness, it should be said that standard teachers understand this and for the most part do not bother students much; In extreme cases, you can negotiate through the master.

As you already understood, the course is called a workshop, because it is supervised by a master. This is very important and determines the further development of a young actor / director, which is why articles about famous people on Wikipedia sometimes say who was his master.

The five year course itself looks like this:

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1 semester - installation. Students put sketches. It is here that chairs, socks, dumplings and other dandelions play. Here the foundation is set. In the future, it develops or not. Who immediately realized that it was not his - goes to mathematical engineers

2nd semester - circus. Students learn circus arts. In short, the same "Circus with Stars on the First", only without the stars and ORT. Juggling, clowning, illusions, parody of the circus. That's all. Many thought that it would be easier, but they could not stand the flickering of tennis balls and also left.

II course

3rd semester - fairy tales. Everyone chooses a short fairy tale for himself, or rather an excerpt from a well-known one, and puts it on. This is already more serious, but so that life doesn’t seem like honey so that no one runs away and goes to do it in a corner according to the principle “to each his own”, the course receives one fairy tale for everyone, which will be a general course and for which it is also necessary to allocate time, which, as you know, is always missing .

4 semester - stories. The same principle as with fairy tales, only there are fewer people on the course, and more workload. The only difference is that not everywhere they put a general course story, and the dramaturgy of everyone and everything should not be too serious.

III course

5th semester - musical. Briefly it looks like the previous work, only here you still need to sing (or at least hit the notes), learn the claviers and much more to "get" into the genre. If for some reason you haven't left the workshop yet, this is your last chance to do so.

6th semester - drama excerpt. In essence, this is the same story, but with more emphasis on the game and the dramatic component. Treason, murder, suicide, wasted years, betrayal of loved ones and the soul inside out, that's all. Everyone who wanted to - has already left, the rest, who did not cope, will be taken out of the stage with a massive heart attack, and so on.

IV course

7 and8 semesters - are preparation for the graduation general course performance, that is, to a full-fledged two-act action with an intermission of ten minutes to air the hall. Depending on the workshop and the direction of training (directing, acting, directing and producing, directing and acting), you can make such performances from one to several. It is clear that in two semesters to do such a trick and not throw back the hooves of utopia in its purest form, so in some courses they start doing this already from the fifth or sixth semester and sometimes continue on the fifth, in some workshops they usually put stories first, and then fairy tales, everywhere differently, but the first course is definitely unchanged. It is also true that a graduation course performance is an admission to the delivery of one's diploma.

V courseDiploma performance. Everything is simple here - each student submits his graduation performance, writes a work on it on a hundred sheets and receives a diploma. Or does not receive; but more often than not, he still gets it, because only those who are in the subject are left here.

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Agree, the difference from solving logarithms is that the result is unknown here, but this is the charm. Everything depends on you. In art, twice two is five and eight and sixteen at the same time. And sometimes the root of the minus first degree.

The theater is a voluntary dictatorship. Only in a theater university can they study until 22:00, the rector can issue a decree so that everyone after that is driven with a filthy broom, and students do not want to leave with go until 4 am (by the way, a real fact).

That's it. And you think that everything is simple: went out - played, put.

Next time I will tell you about it in more detail, I will start with how they pass theater exam. Believe me, Shakespeare never dreamed of such a thing.

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The main selection criteria for admission to a theater university.

“There are only two criteria for admission to a theater school: this can be corrected for a future student, this can never be corrected ... This is what we must proceed from!” Leonid Volkov, the great theater teacher.

When entering a theater university, college or VGIK, there are selection criteria for applicants. Until recently, in front of acting teachers who listened to applicants at the final creative competition, in front of each actor’s skill teacher, there was a lined sheet of paper in which the teacher put his assessment in front of one or another creative criterion of the applicant. Primitively, point by point.

Now there are no such "leaflets", but for every acting teacher, a professional in his field, such "fads" exist in their heads. These points are parameters, creative criteria, selection criteria against which the teacher speculatively assigns points to the applicant. Let's try to figure it out. What are these points?

The first point is: "External data of the theater university entrant".

For an actor - his external data - his calling card. This is something that he cannot develop, this is from God and parents. Eyes, face, smile, height, figure, whiteness of teeth, shape of lips, color and naturalness of hair, absence of obvious physical defects - this is a reality and, of course, teachers of acting skills pay paramount attention to this.

But don't be confused "external data" theater university entrant with his/her "stage charm" . So far, in the first paragraph, it is not considered. As is sexuality. As is beauty.

The concept of beauty, by the way, is conditional and subjective. The concept of beauty, especially female, is changing in humanity, like fashion. For the Renaissance - Leonardo da Vinci's Gioconda - was the standard of beauty.

But… if today we put a photo of some Miss Universe and a reproduction of Mona Lisa next to each other – I assure you – the choice of the modern average man will not fall on the “standard of da Vinci”.

Putting a mental assessment in the line "external data" - the teacher for the skill of the actor (acting) looks not at your beauty, but at the degree of expressiveness of your external data.

You can be far from beautiful, but have such expressive and penetrating eyes, which seem to reflect the slightest “rustle of your soul”, as the great K.S. Stanislavsky said.

Or, again, not to be handsome, but to have such a lively expression(“live face”), which “mirrors” any nuance of your experiences. You can have rare "external data". For example, very funny, comedian appearance. Have you met people on the path of life, the first glance at which causes a smile? Not often, but certainly met.

Or, on the contrary, if you look at a person, you will be taken aback!

So he seems somehow unusual, bright, his face, eyes, movements - excite, cause emotional response. It happens even less frequently, but it does happen.

This is the kind of natural rarity that we, teachers of acting, call unique external data. But this is rare! The presence of these expressive means does not depend on you and me. I repeat, this is an objective reality - it is on it that teachers first of all turn. Because they know that most of the bottom lines of the “evaluation sheet” (voice, diction, plasticity, even ear for music) can be developed by the student in the learning process, but external data and their natural expressiveness are not subject to development.

They either exist or they don't...

(From the article by Eldar Tagiev “Who is admitted to drama schools?” - the newspaper "Culture" September 1993.)

Yes, there is a concept "stage charm"- is also a very important criterion in the selection for admission to theatrical universities. But what is "stage charm"? This is a "sub-point" of what I was talking about above. Stage charm - again, do not confuse with beauty - stems from "external data".

“Stage charm” is, simply speaking, what explains why it is interesting, pleasant, exciting to watch a person who is on stage space. This, again, is an objective factor: either it exists or it doesn't.

"Stage Charm" can be both positive and negative.

For example, let's take a well-known example - the film "Brother": Danila Bagrov (actor Sergei Bodrov - Jr.) - positive charm, his brother (actor Viktor Sukhorukov) - negative charm.

But it is fascinating, interesting, pleasant for us viewers to observe the existence of these diverse actors. Our eyes do not get tired of either one or the other.

Both have the magic of "stage (in this case, cinematic) charm."

The stage and screen have a truly magical effect.

Sometimes handsome people in life - they turn into gray mediocrity, and - vice versa! I do not argue that there are internationally recognized standards of male and female beauty on stage and screen. For example, Marilyn Monroe is the standard of female beauty and sexuality for many Americans. She was charming both in life and on stage. But, you see, Marilyn Monroe has never been recognized as a Great Actress.

The world "prayed" for her as an icon of charm. To objective factors (criteria that cannot be corrected), I include, no matter how strange it may seem to anyone, a sense of rhythm.

He was asked: - "Yuri Andreevich, is it possible to become an actor without an ear for music?

Yuri Andreevich replied:

“Hearing is needed, although sometimes we accept applicants with a slow musical ear to a theater university. But if there is a problem of rhythm, then that's it. And you want to take a person, and sometimes you even take it, but by the third year you understand: this is insurmountable. Children without hearing begin to sing through rhythms, and hearing improves. But if the rhythm is lame, a person will not even be able to hear and perceive where to reproduce it. The teachers let him out of the university, realizing that they are letting him die. God gave him much more: charm, mobility, good susceptibility - everything is in him, but he is not able to perform an elementary action. He can accidentally pierce someone with a sword, inflict an accidental blow on someone, he falls out of dance numbers, and most importantly, he is motionless in speech, and all speech is on rhythms. He does not perceive the special style of the author, he is the same everywhere: thumps, thumps, thumps .... "

And the third "whale" of those criteria that are given to the applicant by God (after external data and sense of rhythm), I think this is an inner emotionality and contagiousness.

I think it is not necessary to explain in detail what is meant by this.

For me "contagiousness" - this is when an actor starts on my back from an emotional experience « goosebumps." But unlike the first two criteria, your emotionality, fortunately, can be developed and it is not developed in a good theater university.

And after graduating from a theater university, a good actor has been doing this all his life - with every role he "grows" your emotionality, increases the degree of impact on the viewer.