<p>Well I just got back from my Elon audition today and I’m really excited to share my experiences with everyone else, so here’s my story:</p>
<p>I left for Elon on Thursday after rehearsal for our school’s fall play Noises Off. Rainy rainy rainy, the whole way down. It took us about 5 1/2 hours to get there including food and such, so we didn’t get into our hotel room until about 10:30. We had originally planned on going to see Cabaret at Elon that night, but we obviously got there too late to do so.</p>
<p>This morning, I got ready for the audition day and it was still rainy… woohoo… I got all my audition material ready including my audition binder with resumes and headshots and my audition music, my dance clothes and 5 bottles of water. We got to Elon and then I had the sudden realization that I HAD FORGOTTEN MY DRESS SHOES! So I was freaking out about that. Great start to the day, right? I thought that this in addition to the rain must be an omen. I decided to see if everyone was dressed a little bit more casual to see if I could get away with wearing my converses. So by the time my mom and I got into the Performing Arts Center our feet were completely soaked and my hair was doing crazy things. We checked in and we chatted with some of the other auditionees as well as a couple of freshmen at Elon. Everyone was very lax, supportive and helpful. </p>
<p>So then we toughed the weather some more to sit in on the Acting I class which was across the campus. Needless to say, we got wetter. When we got to the acting class, I was surprised by the professor because he was a big, burly, biker-guy-looking man with a tank-top, athletic pants, bald head, goatee and earrings… yet he was a theater professor- a very good one at that. So I sat down and immediately realized that I had to pee, but I didn’t want to get up from the class to pee, so I held it until the end of the class. The class was very interesting. They did scenes where they had to repeat what their partner said but use different inflections to progress the storyline.</p>
<p>Anyways, back to the shoes: I called my mom and asked her if she could buy me a pair of dress shoes, size 11, and black socks because my converses and socks were completely drenched and my toes were freezing. So she did and I was originally going to return them after the audition so that we didn’t have to actually spend the money on the shoes, but I decided to keep them because they were comfortable :D.</p>
<p>When class is over, we go back to the Performing Arts Center to get changed into our dance attire and, in my case, pee. The dance audition started out easy with warm-ups and stretches, then we got to the across-the-floor stuff. Some of those steps were hard, but I survived them. Then she taught us the Charleston dance. We only had a couple minutes to learn and practice it until we had to perform it in groups of 4. I did alright on that, but I don’t think that the dance teacher was very impressed because she called back all of the guys except for 3, including me, to do it again for her. Of course, I’ve only had 2 months of dance experience, but at least I tried. My advice for the dance audition though is to learn the Charleston dance, it will help you a lot.</p>
<p>Then we had an information session with 4 Elon students and Cathy McNeela. It was pretty interesting and short. At the end of the session, 2 of the students sang Lily’s Eyes from Secret Garden for us. It was really good.</p>
<p>Most of us had some free time after that in which I went upstairs with my mom and went into one of their rehearsal studios where I just sat and played the piano in order to relax about the audition.</p>
<p>One thing that I loved about the Elon audition is that you get a chance to rehearse with your accompanist. My accompanist was Sharon LaRocco, who was absolutely amazing and very charming. She played my pieces beautifully and gave me some advice for when I went in for my actual audition. After that short little rehearsal, I had about 30 minutes to kill, so I chilled some more in the rehearsal studios and worked on my songs and monologue for a little while then went downstairs to talk to my mom and some other auditionees.</p>
<p>Then my name got called to go into Yeager Recital Hall for my audition. Thats when I started to get really nervous, but when I got in there, I calmed down because the atmosphere in the hall was very relaxed and non-intimidating. The panel was very excited for me to be there, which made me feel like they knew I was human, rather than just a name and a face. I did my monologue first. I actually had a little bit of trouble with this because my voice teacher (also the theater director for an Academy of the Arts) told me that I shouldn’t sit down during my monologue, which I had originally blocked me doing. I had never really practiced my monologue completely standing until I was in the audition room, so I think my monologue might have been off a bit. So after the monologue I did my ballad then I did my uptempo song. I think they were really impressed with my uptempo because when I finished they were all smiling and it looked like they had a lot of fun.</p>
<p>So my auditions were over! Yay!</p>
<p>Overall, my impressions of Elon were very good. I had visited Elon over the summer, and I wasn’t that impressed with their program and that put Elon lower on my list. But today when I met the students and faculty and learned about the opportunites at Elon as well as experienced the amazing accoustics of the Yeager Recital Hall, Elon has definitely moved up on my list.</p>
<p>So now the waiting game starts. I hear back by December 1st whether I was admitted or not.</p>
<p>Hope this was helpful for everyone!</p>