<p>My advice is don’t do it.</p>
<p>I usually advise folks not to use Shakespeare AT ALL for auditions (unless the school specifically says they require or prefer Shakespeare, like Central and Juilliard.) But if you are doing Shakespeare, for heaven’s sake don’t do Hamlet!!!</p>
<p>Kenneth Branagh made the mistake of doing Hamlet when he auditioned for RADA when he was 17. He didn’t know any better. But the RADA people were very nice to him, and suggested some better monologues, and told him to come back with one of those. I don’t know if you can expect something like that to happen these days, even if you are as talented as Kenneth Branagh.</p>
<p>Are you an American? Remember that the British have a stereotype that Americans are stupid. Often when a British person meets an American, they assume we are stupid until we prove them otherwise. They may think that you are someone who doesn’t anything about theatre history except Shakespeare, doesn’t know anything about Shakespeare except Hamlet and his other well-known plays, and doesn’t know any better than to play a character of opposite gender from themself.</p>
<p>RADA is a much more “traditional” school. I don’t think they are looking for a female Hamlet (I don’t think they would even want a male applicant to do Hamlet, they would think of Hamlet as a role you work towards. If you can already do Hamlet, why would need any acting training at all?) I think they are looking for women who can play women’s roles in classical plays. My suggestion is for your RADA classical, find a part that is right for your type (including gender!!), that comes from some English playwright other than Shakespeare from before 1800. Remember that from 1660 we get English roles specifically written for women (before then all women’s roles were played by female impersonators), and we even start getting women playwrights (I think Aphra Behn was the first English woman to become a professional playwright).</p>
<p>For somewhere like RADA, you are going to need to rely on your actual acting ability. Don’t try to make do with a “gimmick” like cross-gendered casting. Something like this could very well backfire.</p>
<p>There are a lot of reasons for avoiding overdone monologues, like just about anything from Hamlet, and a lot of reasons for sticking to your “type” (including gender!!) when auditioning. I won’t go into all of them now, unless you have more specific questions.</p>