<p>The only school at which the auditor had a stopwatch placed conspicuously on the table in front of him during my kid's audition season was Ithaca College, and this was an off campus audition in Virginia, outside D.C. Lee Byron, head of the theater/musical theater programs there was the auditor. He didn't even pick the watch up, but it was there, no doubt as a signal to the kids that Ithaca was serious about the time limit. </p>
<p>Frankly, people who want to be performers need to get used to this kind of constraint, because time constraints are, I hear, in place at many auditions. I think some of the summer stock auditions give performers something like 90 seconds to do a song <em>and</em> monologue. Experienced auditors say that they can tell in that short period of time whether this is a performer to be taken seriously (and of which they want to see more) or not. So, the sooner young performers can grow accustomed to showing their best stuff quickly, the better for them.</p>
<p>Learning to audition well is a skill that performers need to have. As one auditor told me, auditions are not a perfect way to decide who to admit to a program or who to cast, but they are the only system we've got.</p>
<p>Best of luck to all the young performers heading out on college auditions.</p>