<p>So I just got back from Shenandoah Conservatory where I auditioned for Musical Theater, so I’d like to tell you about my trip and such. This is kind of a follow-up on my Elon audition journal/ review:</p>
<p>So on Friday, Nov 9 we had a half day at school so my mom, dad and I tried to leave the house by about 12:30 for Shenandoah which is about 3 1/2- 4 hours away. Well in the natural course of events, we didn’t get out the door until about 3 PM. So the drive up was very pretty and it was just generally a very easy drive-- then it starts to rain. Wouldn’t you know that so far on all of my audition weekends that it has rained. This wasn’t anything compared to Elon though. Anywho, we got to our hotel which was about 4 miles from Shenandoah and exactly 6 1/2 miles from the West Virginia Border. I could talk all about our dinner, but no one cares, so I’ll cut to the good stuff:</p>
<p>Woke up this morning and the forecast was that it was going to be snow mixed with rain. AKA: COLD!!! So I dressed appropriately. I made ABSOLUTELY SURE that I brought my black shoes :D. So we got to Shenandoah and checked in. At first, there were tons of students and parents in the lobby and I was like “oh my god, all of these people are auditioning today!” I signed up for my audition slot at 12:18 PM (which was actually pretty late in the day compared to everyone else’s). Then we went to the auditorium for a welcome session and to see the student performance. The student performance was actually just the Opera majors doing a scene for us. It was good, but I would have much rather seen some of the musical theater students perform something. Much to my pleasure, they divided the groups of students and parents up. It actually turns out that there was just an open-house thing as well as auditions for Musical Theater, Instrument Performance, Acting and Theater for Youth. Musical theater was the most popular though.</p>
<p>So all of the MT prospectives and their parental units went into their studio theater to listen to a couple of the professors and auditors talk about the program and the audition process as well as answer a few questions. I looked around and noticed that there were about 35-40 people auditioning and I was one of 6 guys. We then were told which rooms we would be auditioning in. Basically you were either auditioning in the room with the guy with the grey hair or in the room with they guy with the beard. We were all put into a holding room where we could wait for our names to be called. We were put in there at about 10:20 so I had about 2 hours to kill, so I started making friends. So a group of us talked for a while, then my name got called so I grab my music and a water bottle. We first got to rehearse really quickly with the pianist then went straight into the audition room.</p>
<p>I felt pretty comfortable in the audition room. They first had me do my uptempo, then my ballad, then the classical piece. On the ballad the pianist screwed up a little bit and I think the auditors thought that I had gone off-key, but it was just that the pianist didn’t play the right notes. Then they had a piece to sight-sing then you had to do a series of notes which were played for you and you had to repeat the same series which was pretty easy. I then did my monologue and then they asked me a few questions. They asked me for my GPA, SAT scores, other schools I’m looking at and my acting experience. They also asked if I dance so I responded truthfully saying “I try to…”</p>
<p>Then it was back to the holding-pen. I stood around there and got changed into my dance clothes. We were told at about 12:40 that we should start warming up because the auditioner will be here pretty soon. So I started to warm up. So about 20 minutes passed… then another 20… and another… as soon as I knew it, it was 1:45 and the auditor still hadn’t gotten there. So we were talking and saying how it must not be a movement audition but rather an endurance audition- whoever can stay in the room the longest wins- like Survivor. Finally the dance auditioner guy came in.</p>
<p>He kinda seemed like a jerk. When he came into the room he was like “I need complete silence from here until the end of the audition”. So he taught us the dance step and stuff and we performed it in groups of 5. It was easier than Elon’s dance portion, but it was a lot quicker. I think I did relatively well for this dance audition, so that was pretty exciting. So that was over at about 2:20 and I peaced out to go get some long-awaited lunch.</p>
<p>We left Shenandoah at about 3:00 and my parents dropped me off in Fredericksburg, VA because my school was performing their 1-act play in the VHSL one-act competition. Our show is a comedy called Pillow Talk and it is a 2 person show. We actually had a very unfortunate event happen last Friday, 4 days before the District one-act competition. One of the 2 guys was found to have drugs and alcohol in his car on school grounds and he ended up running from the police and trying to break into someone’s house. Needless to say, he got arrested and we had to pull someone in our fall play Noises Off to fill in for his part. He learned this whole part by Sunday of that same week, having been given the script that Friday. So we went to districts on Tuesday and out of over 110 actors, our two actors recieved first and second place Best Actor Awards, the guy that stepped in got first place. Our show won first place overall, so we moved on to districts. Here we won Best Ensemble Award and Second Place overall, so now were moving on to states! I’m really excited for them.</p>
<p>I guess you guys really didn’t care that much about the one-act crap, but I felt the need to share. As for me now, I’m gonna go downstairs and indulge in my icecream craving.</p>
<p>So this was my last audition until January 12th, so I have a 2 month break!</p>
<p>I hope this helped you guys. Also take a look at my journal about Elon on the Elon subtopic and keep an eye out for my Syracuse journal coming up in January and other various schools around the country later.</p>
<p>Any questions, go ahead and ask away!</p>