2013/2014 Audition day review

College Majors Musical Theater Major
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<p>JMU - BA with concentration in MT</p>

<p>Drove up to JMU this morning from Elon (sooo glad we decided to spend the extra night in North Carolina, I very much prefer the 3 1/2 hour drive in the light as opposed to they dark after a long day at Elon ). D received her schedule by email a week before the audition date so she knew she didn’t have to sign in until after 11am which was very much appreciated (she has been “winning” the later in the day singing “lottery” with many if her auditions, lol!
D danced first. They break the dance into three parts, beginner, intermediate and advanced and each auditioner decides how far along they want to go. Beginners just do the first steps, intermediate do beginner and intermediate steps and advanced do intermediate and advanced. D did the advanced, thought it was challenging and fun.
After the dance call all of the MT auditioners changed into their nice clothes then we had a parent/auditioner info session in the beautiful mainstage theater. Th Forbes Art Center where the theater kids perform and have many of their classes is new (only 5 years old I believe I heard), enormous and gorgeous! It is connected to the music school which is beautiful too. You can tell they really value the arts at JMU! The info session was led by Kate Arecchi (an active presence on CC so I’m sure she"ll see this, only good things to say about today!). There were several students at the meeting which is always nice and many questions were answered. They really value having well rounded actors who know about the world around them while at the same time making sure that the kids are well trained in singing, acting and dancing. They also required that the MT students learn about the backstage aspects of theater by requiring them to take practicums in costuming, management, lighting and scenery.
After the info session, an enthusiastic sophomore MT student took the parents and auditioners on a tour of the Forbes Center. We saw dance studios, the costume shop and the scenery building shop. The whole building is very impressive.
Next the group of auditioners was in was led upstairs to wait for their turn to audition (D’s group did their songs and monologues together, the earlier group who were applying for both acting and MT did them separately and had a longer day than D). D got to perform both songs and both monologues which she appreciated then had a nice chat with Kate and her audition was done. She left JMU with a very favorable opinion of both the program and the school.
D applied and was accepted EA so she will get her MT decision in early March, RD candidates will hear later after their JMU decisions are made but you have to get into JMU before you can be accepted to the MT concentration.</p>

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<p>preklbt- Thanks for the report on Temple! My daughter auditions there on Feb. 23rd.</p>

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<p>BAL to your daughter! Let us know how it goes!</p>

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<p>Will do!</p>

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<p>@cellomom51, thanks for the great review of Elon! Did you take a tour, either of the whole campus or just the MT program, or had you already seen Elon on a prior visit? We’ll be there in a month (last audition date on March 7!) and had heard there was no tour offered on audition day.</p>

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<p>Otterbein was a vocal performance acceptance. She had her cmu audition today in la. 90% of the attendees were wearing blue sleeveless dresses with conservative necklines. Boys in blue as well. My d was wearing a brown print dress and was the only hispanic in the group. She sang her two songs for Gary. She sang a Rodgers and Hammerstein song for her ballad and a contemporary comedic belt for her uptempo. He loved the range of the choices and said that she sang them “beautifully”. She performed her monologues for Barbara. She performed her contemporary comedic first and than her Shakespearen. Barbara than asked her to come set and talk with her. They talked about students that d knows at the school and what other schools she’s applying to. D said that both were absolutely amazing experiences and that she would be honored to have either as a mentor. The fortunate few that are accepted into cmu are truly blessed. </p>

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<p>maMTma, the admissions office offers a talk and maybe a tour at 3pm during the day but we had already visited during the summer. I walked around both the campus and the arts building myself but no formal tour of the facility was offered. The kids might have a bit of down time throughout the day but it was still jam packed, not sure they could have handled that extra element</p>

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<p>Thanks for the wonderful audition reviews. I’m trying not to have any regrets that I didn’t encourage my son to apply to more schools as the recent reviews sound awesome (though he did audition for CMU). Now that it is the weekend and my son is home, I asked him for a fashion report. The only thing he could tell me about Chicago is that he saw a lot of blue dresses :)</p>

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<p>preklbt what’s wrong with the part of Philly where Temple is located and what are your concerns?</p>

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<p>I swear if my S didn’t have so many female friends I would have no details at all @ entertainersmom!</p>

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<p>Temple itself seemed ok, I was a bit concerned when we were on the subway, from the hotel (walnut st) to Temple, we had a bit of an encounter w/a person on the subway, nothing major, just worry about my D in a big city & I know I have to get past that! So I think based on the subway experience it concerned me in general w/my D possibly being there.
Do you know the area & can you put my fears to rest?! The students had nothing but great things to say about being at Temple & being in the city of Philly & all there is to do there!</p>

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<p>There is another thread on Temple I think you might want to look up. Basically, Temple is located close to a bad section of Philadelphia. There is a tremendous amount of security on campus and it is safe. But the surrounding areas can be dangerous. My neighbors son lives in an apartment off-campus and he had his car stolen and his apartment broken into twice. In one year, this past year. He doesn’t seem very worried by any of this though; just chalks it up to living in a city. You have to review the situation carefully to decide if you and your child are comfortable with it.</p>

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<p>dramamom-I am familiar w/the thread you are referring to, I have read it & have been a bit concerned about Temple for that reason. I was however impressed w/the campus itself & the security we noticed while there. It will be definitely a factor when we were are on the other side of this & making decisions, we are hoping our D has offers, but as you know we don’t know for sure & for the program Temple would make a great “backup” for her at this point. We will just have to see how it all plays out.
Thank you for the feedback!</p>

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<p>cellomom… glad it was a good day for you and your D. Sorry I did not get to meet you face to face! :)</p>

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<p>preklbt, That was why I recommended against the subway earlier (but was over-ruled!). It can get dicey in some stops sometimes, especially if you’re not familiar with the area. As for Temple, many people go to Temple quite happily. For what it’s worth, I have many friends, well over a dozen, whose children go there and none of them has had their car stolen or anything broken, and they are very happy there. So sorry your neighbor’s son has had that experience, dramamom0804, but I do think that’s an unusual experience, one that would depend on where you live, mostly. </p>

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<p>I’m going to JMU on the 17th, will any other CCers be there? Also @KatMT I saw that the day is completely full, do you know how many people are scheduled to audition and is there a chance that we won’t be asked to present everything due to time constraints? I know this happens a lot at other schools.</p>

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<p>prekblt my husband got his masters of fine arts from Temple and I have been to the city numerous times. The only problems I have ever had in Philly were in the downtown area with derelicts. The people in the area around Temple are great and are very aware of the fact that they live near and around a large college with kids from all over the country. That school has been there for so long that there is no way they are gonna take those kids safety for granted. But big city life is big city life and crap happens. Depaul is in Chicago’s most affluent neighborhood and also the one with the highest incidence of sexual assault. Love love love Philly! And so close to NYC.</p>

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<p>Dradsmom-thank you so much for this post!! That is so good to hear! I’m not sure if where we stayed is considered downtown, but we did encounter a derelict on the subway & it made my uncomfortable, luckily it wasn’t a big deal & my hubby was w/us too & he’s a retired police officer, so he’s always paying attention & picked up on this guy right away & was keeping himself close to our D.
The faculty at Temple couldn’t say enough good things about Philly & the students raved about all there is to do there & the theatre opportunities there.
Thanks again, nice to hear it from a parent! :-)</p>

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<p>connections-thank you as well, it’s good to hear positives about the school, as I said the students seemed to love it & almost seemed oblivious that there is a bad neighborhood nearby. I guess I’m really sounding like a country hick huh?! I’m sure if she ends up there I will come to love Philly just as much as NYC & if this is what she wants I need to get comfortable w/it! Next time will be easier because we know what to expect, unknown is never easy!
Thanks again!</p>

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<p>Coastal Carolina University</p>

<p>OMG OMG OMG! I can’t rave enough about this day. Having been on CC for a few years, I had read the many accolades about this program but after yesterday, I’m going to have to jump on the bandwagon too.</p>

<p>D had received an email a couple of weeks ago with a preliminary schedule for the day, which stated that things started at 9:30. It also said that we were supposed to receive a final schedule in the mail, but D never received it. The new schedule stated that things started at 8:45, so unfortunately we were late. No problem at all though. :)</p>

<p>We missed a brief tour of the campus (but it was raining anyway and D is already sick). She was given her schedule for the day which split them up into groups and she was assigned group three, which started with a Q & A session with several students (freshmen through seniors). We were all in a circle which I really liked. General conversation was about classes, credit load, housing, safety, etc. There was one faculty member present who also gave some feedback. </p>

<p>Then the entire group went into a group warmup for about ten minutes. </p>

<p>Next, the individual auditions began in 7 minute intervals. D went in nervous and came out ecstatic. She did both of her monologues (she’s doing physical theatre ) and was done. </p>

<p>Next lunch was served and then the workshops began. There was a dance one where they were taught a combination and did some ballet barre. D enjoys dance calls and the faculty appeared to enjoy watching her (when things were done, one faculty member came up to D and did the little jazz step in front of her. D said that was her favorite step and apparently it showed). </p>

<p>Onto a “movement” workshop where they experimented with movement in relation to others around you, or something like that. D was a little vague on that one. </p>

<p>Finally, all applicants went into the blackbox theatre and several students were told to perform their monologues and were critiqued by the wonderful faculty. Just a note, the parents were allowed to stay for all of the workshops, but D tends to be more “free” when we aren’t around, so we went shopping at the Tanger Outlets! Anyhoo, we returned in time to see the last monologue performance/critique and it was AMAZING! This young woman’s performance transformed right before our eyes. Good training at its best. </p>

<p>My D said that they had her perform her monologue too and worked with her on it (not everyone was called to perform and they had already chosen who they wanted to perform. For whatever reason D was chosen, I’m glad that they worked “on” her because she needs to see that.)</p>

<p>At the end of the day, the faculty answered parental questions. Ken said that “No” decisions could come soon but “Yes” decision wouldn’t be made until several weeks after the last auditions. He said that two “Yesses” (sp?) had been given and one had already accepted (from the first audition). </p>

<p>They are building new dorms and everything else looks fairly new as well. </p>

<p>They mentioned the Performing Arts scholarship that is available and said they would not evaluate your audition unless an application was already in. Fortunately, D got accepted back in September so she’s safe there. </p>

<p>Saw “Into The Woods” that night and left utterly speechless. We saw Ithaca do it last year and D did it two years ago and there was no comparison. Because D had done it, I have seen it many, many times, but when I saw it last night, there were so many things that I finally understood. The “story” was so very clear. The director did an excellent job with this one. “Agony” finally made sense because of the way the two actors sung and acted it out. Bravo!!</p>

<p>This is D’s first choice and we wait on baited breath for an answer. Oh, and I only saw one blue dress/nude pump combination. All of the other applicants looked “business casual”, which was actually more like the feel of the program. </p>