Better safe than sorry.
I also disagree. We know of several students who have been stopped by schools because they went over the time limit. They do want to see if you can follow directions. I wouldn’t risk it and would never recommend going over time.
@SRWard - Indeed- this is a highly individualized process, and sometimes taking a risk and going out of the box can pay off, BUT sometimes it doesn’t. BFA auditions are a very specific beast, and for GENERAL WISDOM, I would recommend following any stated rules set by a school you want to attend. No, many are not looking at a watch, and there are times when the “natural” ending of a monologue might take you a second or two over. But believe me, after listening to hundreds (or thousands) of kids, Auditors have a STRONG knowledge of how long 2 min is… without their watch. And being polite (and not cutting a kid off) does NOT mean they didn’t notice. I do completely agree that a couple of seconds isn’t necessarily a deal breaker- but your post #16 feels more like it’s implying time isn’t important, as does #19 - especially saying give them 3 when they have asked for 2. If they want to see something else, they will ask. As you say, to each their own, but I stand by my recommendation to follow rules rather than flouting them. Best of luck to your son with the results of his auditions
I agree 100% with @toowonderful. @SRWard is clearly entitled to his/her opinion, but I would urge any students/parents reading this to adhere to time constraints. In this very competitive process, there is no compelling reason to risk pissing off the auditors (to use a blunt word). And you certainly do risk that by going over. As @toowonderful says, just because the auditors say nothing, does not mean they aren’t annoyed, or at the very least, inconvenienced. I’m going to be frank: It says a lot about a person if they imply their time is more special than other peoples’ time, or that the rules don’t apply to them.
Regardless, best of luck to all.
It’s good practice too. My son’s been cut off at pro auditions, too. It’s disconcerting.
My D had one audition where they wanted two one minute monologues done within two minutes with a literal timer. She found out just before and cut a sentence from one to give herself a couple of seconds breathing room between the monologues. So, my answer is that time may or may not matter, but you likely won’t know which schools really care about the time and which ones don’t. Or which schools will let you continue if its a couple of seconds, and which may find it annoying or cut you off. Safest bet is to find a place to cut in the monologue to get it to two minutes or less.
I haven’t been through the individual school audition process with my D yet, she’s a Jr, but her 79 sec audition for a summer program was too long for the constraints of SETC auditions last week. They asked for 60 sec. Rather than go over, she cut some lines. I don’t know if it would’ve mattered or not, but she was accepted to 3 competitive BFA acting programs already. One of which was a school she really hoped to get into. Cutting it certainly didn’t hurt anything. She feels all of the pressure is off now that she has a good school offering decent money.