Beth Nestor discusses an average week at drama school

There isn't an average week at drama school; every week is very different. The mainstays you can guarantee will happen are you working a minimum of 8-9 hours everyday. That is contact time, so it's not like university. A lot of time in the college and you'll be going between different classes. Your classes will last an hour, maybe two. You'll go to movement classes, voice classes, speech classes, acting classes. You have an acting teacher who stays with you for the first year. So you stay with that one person. The most contact time you have is with that teacher, so you have about nine hours a week - three, three hour sessions - with your acting teacher. Then you've got dialect classes as well, one to one singing, You have Alexander technique classes which work on your posture and the way you use your body.

So it is a very varied day and you are running from one thing to the next; maybe going to a dance class and then maybe going to a speech class afterwards. It is very hectic and very physically demanding, and mentally challenging as well. You can go from a physical class to a text based class; you've got to keep on top of many things at once.