Audition Horror Stories

College Majors Theater/Drama Majors
1

<p>The results are almost all in, so there's nothing to be afraid of by describing what little my D shared with me during audition season (she was fairly terse, not wanting to jinx anything during the process, and now she's just glad it's over...). </p>

<p>Call them sour grapes or tales of woe. Call them what you will, but I call them "The Faces BFA Colleges Chose To Wear" while expecting us parents to fork out $50,000+ a year for the privilege of admitting our kids to their schools! </p>

<p>An immediate caveat: I KNOW -- everyone's experiences differ wildly. I KNOW. </p>

<p>And an invitation: Anyone and everyone please feel free to chime in with your own "horror story" (minus preachy admonishments!)</p>

<p>Here goes:</p>

<ol>
<li><p>Snooty-patooty Juilliard: Delay after delay posting callbacks to 200 anxious auditioners, then the sheet goes up -- blank. (This happened on a different day than my D's date - when she was there, 8 twenty-somethings got the nod.)</p></li>
<li><p>Tell It To Me Straight, SUNY Purchase: "Don't read anything into it if you don't get a callback." Oh, okay. How many admitted students didn't get a callback during their on-campus auditions? (Answer: zero.)</p></li>
<li><p>Sarcastic Syracuse: "Great, you can walk and chew gum at the same time." (Auditor's comment after asking my D to rearrange the furniture during her Shakespeare monologue)</p></li>
<li><p>Instant Gratification: Surly Rutgers auditors who didn't glance up once, before, during or after the audition (D threw her extra headshot and resume in the garbage after she left the room)</p></li>
<li><p>Who The Devil Knows St. John's University (they're new to this scene, with a brand-new BS program run through AADA in NYC): lost the SAT scores, lost the transcripts, never sent notice of audition dates, called us to ask for audition, and then said oops they're over</p></li>
</ol>

2

<p>Okay here’s the tale of my first audition—U of M Guthrie.</p>

<p>I’m on deck, next to go in. So I do some stretching to warm up. Im wearing skinny jeans.</p>

<p>Butterfly stretch leads to a giant rip in my pants. No time to change! </p>

<p>So Im in there with ripped pants, just pretending like it was totally a fashion choice, and then I remember I was supposed to have a song prepared…not being a MT kid I didnt have one.</p>

<p>Sang “The Oscar Meyer Balogna Song”. </p>

<p>Made Ken Washington laugh!</p>

<p>Quite an experience.</p>

3

<p>This is fun! And cathartic! </p>

<p>We could include any funny audition stories. I don’t really have any for my D - mostly I think through the audition season she was nervous and held herself in, had a pretty quiet time of it (but also didn’t get many auditioned acceptances).</p>

4

<p>Thanks for sharing, Ohhaicollege - Reminds me of a fantastically funny scene in Mamet’s “A Life in the Theater!”</p>

<p>Truth is always better than fiction!</p>

5

<p>I used to have this thing where I’d get nervous before my auditions and tell the accompanist to go a much different tempo than I actually wanted him to go, so I’d end up singing ImetaboycalledFrankMills… etc. MT but still. Luckily, I think I’m mostly past that one. Hopefully.</p>

6

<p>@nalajen, Do you mean that they actually posted a <em>blank</em> sheet instead of announcing that no one was getting a callback? Also-- did they only accept applicants in their 20’s, i.e., no high school seniors?</p>

7

<p>I am going to have to be careful here to not let it really FLY!!!</p>

<ol>
<li> Carnegie Mellon University - Is My Flight on Time?</li>
</ol>

<p>My S’s first choice, application complete and audition scheduled on October 1. Arrived to audition, waited four hours to audition (because of alphabetic order of name), got in there, and auditor (not Barbara Woods, one of the acting teachers)was flipping through her iPhone during the whole audition because she had a flight scheduled to LA (we were in Chicago) and there was a big snow storm moving into the midWest. Nice. Professional. Attentive.</p>

<ol>
<li> Florida State Universtity - Head Game City?</li>
</ol>

<p>S told as he was literally walking into the audition room by another student that they were over loaded with guys, so would only be taking 1 male (about 400-500 people there that day). Did not get into BFA program, did not complete app, got accepted anyway to BA program and got email last week asking for his resume, headshot and possible return to Florida to re-audition (guess they need more guys than 1). His response; check your surveillance camera video. I was on campus on -----date at ------time. LOL! </p>

<ol>
<li> Rutgers University - BattleAx City</li>
</ol>

<p>Was on the elevator at the Palmer House Hilton for Chicago Unifieds. We were not sure if Rutgers audition was at the other hotel (as stated on our confirmation letter) or on the fifth floor of the Palmer House (as stated on the information provided to us by the hotel). On the elevator, I said to my S, “Let’s go down and check with Rutgers U where you are actually scheduled to audition.” Unprovoked, some surly BattleAx starts yelling at me. “We’re here. I’m telling you . . . .” As it turns out, she was wrong though insisted she was right. The graduate auditions were at Palmer House, undergrad at the other hotel. Withdrew application after that event.</p>

<ol>
<li> Ken Washington of U Minnesota/Guthrie.</li>
</ol>

<p>KW:“Do you have any questions for us?”
S: “Yes, what is the physical relationship betweeen Guthrie and U Minn?” meaning where is it in relationship to the school.
KW:“Well I’m from the Guthrie and she (Judy) is from Minn. and we’re sitting together so I guess that is a physical relationship?”</p>

<p>Ken, you have been doing this for way too long. Get some fresh blood in there who actually likes nervous, seventeen year old aspiring artists.</p>

<ol>
<li> Credit Unknown</li>
</ol>

<p>Forget who gets the credit for this comment heard at some info session in Chicago;
“Even if you are Meryl Streep, you may not get into our program.” Really!</p>

<p>On the other hand, my S met some really wonderful, kind, supportive people. The people from Fordham were very nice to him - encouraged him to step out of the box and he did a very original monologue for them. BU, UNCSA, Evansville, SMU,TCU - great auditors who obviously like working with high school students.</p>

<p>Anyway, that felt good. Nalajen, fantastic idea for a post.</p>

8

<p>It is very naughty of me but after months of being so tense we go PING when anyone bumps into us, oh and our kids too hahaha, this bit of release here is really welcome.</p>

<p>D only had one real snafu: somehow the untransposed version of “Nobody’s Heart” got into her book instead of the transposed one and she starts in on it at TCU audition, after the fist note realizing she’s like an octave or something too low - she just finished it on out in that key, which she has a good range and could juuust barely get all those notes…but that was supposed to be her higher register number…lol. I mean…they must have thought she was trying to be a baritone or something.</p>

<p>She didn’t get an offer to their BFA, surprisingly!! lol. That’s okay, they didn’t offer her enough merit aid to make it happen anyway. Lesson learned about those books and too many sheets of music floating around. </p>

<p>We never had any rude auditioners: we were very blessed.</p>

9

<p>Between canceled flights, a change in a performance schedule that conflicted with Unifieds and torrential rain in California during auditions, it’s been quite an adventure.</p>

<p>But here’s a fun little story from the chaos:</p>

<p>US Airways canceled son’s flight to Dallas the night before his scheduled SMU audition. He and H get up the next day to catch another flight to be in Dallas by 9. At precisely 9 a.m., my phone rings. SMU is on the line, wondering where S is. I tell them about the canceled flight and say he’s in a cab rushing to make audition.</p>

<p>When S pulls up to the front steps of SMU, theater department lady is standing on the steps waiting for them. S is a wreck. She calms him down, sends him inside and turns to my husband: “Oh, you’ve had such a hard day already, do you mind if I give you a hug?” </p>

<p>Gotta love that Southern hospitality.</p>

10

<p>@glassharmonica, I know one HS Senior who has been accepted to Julliard for next fall. If you’re interested, PM me and I’ll send you a couple of links with this Julliard-bound student perfroming with DS, currently in his first year at Tisch.</p>

<p>Our “horror” story surrounded the NYC auditions for CalArts last year. When DS registered online for the audition, the email response came back confirming his date and time, with the location being the Crowne Plaza hotel on Broadway. In a follow up letter, CalArts confirmed the audition, but now at the DoubleTree hotel on Times Square. So, being the parent I am, I called the admissions office for clarification. “Oh, we used the website from last year’s auditions, and we thought we’d be @ the Crowne Plaza. Auditions will be @ the DoubleTree. We’ll be sending out a correction to everyone.”</p>

<p>Fine. Although we never got the correction email, I did get DS to the DoubleTree, where CalArts had a nice large space set up for the auditions. Only three other auditionees were there. Apparently, there were many other auditionees @ the Crowne Plaza, looking for CalArts auditions, and of course, no one there could tell them anything. I told the CalArts admin rep sitting at the desk about the confusion. For better or worse, no one else came over for auditions that morning. I can only imagine the panic of both the parents and the students at the Crowne Plaza. And no, I don’t know if special arrangements were made with these auditionees, even though it was 100% CalArts fault that this screw up occurred.</p>

<p>DS did get accepted to CalArts. However, paraphrasing Nalajen in post #1, we didn’t feel comfortable to “fork out $50,000+ a year for the privilege of admitting our kids”, when they couldn’t get the location of the audition set.</p>

<p>I hope this isn’t “too preachy” ;)</p>

11

<p>I have to say we were pretty lucky, it certainly helps that we did not audition for a lot of the schools mentioned. I will give a brief little frustration, and I think I will leave the name of the school out for their sake. One of the schools my d applied to was a non-audition BFA program, and she was never told that she could audition for a talent scholarship. Not only that, she was specifically told there were no auditions for this school at all. Oops, there were, and we only found out after she was accepted and the week before the last weekend of auditions (which was not going to work as we were already heading out of town for auditions elsewhere). Needless to say, she did not audition…</p>

<p>I will give a positive experience, my d auditioned at Julliard the day they called back the 8 older kids. The list was posted very late, and we had hoped that if she did not get a callback (which we really did not expect to get, truthfully), she could go to the NYCDA and audition as they were holding auditions until 3:45ish. Well, there was just not a way in the world we were going to make it, so we left a message for the school that we were so sorry, the timing was just not going to work. We finally left Julliard at 3:30, took a subway back to our hotel, changed into comfortable and much warmer clothes and then got a phone call from NYCDA that they knew we had come from a long way away and rather than miss the opportunity, they would audition her anytime before 5. We jumped back onto the subway and received a warm greeting from the staff, my daughter had a wonderful audition and her spirits did a 180 as she felt that there might be someplace that really wanted her… Although she has decided not to go for various reasons, this school and their staff will always have a special place in my heart.</p>

12

<p>It was great reading your experience. My son had the SAME EXACT audition with Rutgers. He was first to go in the morning in NYC, walked in the room which was right next to the waiting room and within 5 minutes walked out. We were shocked. He said the guy never even acknowledged he was there. He asked the woman if he should wait for the man and she said no go ahead and begin. He did his monologue, the woman asked if he had any questions, he said no, and she said thank you and he left. They didn’t even ask for his portfolio. He left it with one of the students before we left. Literally no more than 6 minutes. The good thing was we were in NY for another audition and Rutgers was one his fallback schools. He was accepted into Depaul, Emerson, and other what I would consider quality programs that he totally enjoyed auditioning for. The people from those schools were wonderful, interactive, and treated him with respect. The Rutgers people were both rude and disrespectful.</p>

13

<p>No horror stories, really, except the day that three important rejections came in, all at once in the mail. I admire these kids that can pick themselves off the floor after the bad auditions and rejections and then try again. We parents deserve medals, as well.
Did have one story that could have been bad but ended up happy:
Daughter was momentarily transfixed by the pianist who went galloping off in a grand waltzy version of her song, and she found herself singing the lyrics to the 16 bar cut instead of the 32 bar cut. She stopped, asked the nice lady listening if she could start again, and the lady said “of course!” So she started again, this time making a point of not listening to the pianist (!) and sang the right bit.
The funny part is she didn’t tell me about starting over until months later when the acceptance was in hand (or on her phone, as it were) and she was bawling her eyes out - “maybe I don’t suck…”</p>

14

<p>I am so impressed with our children, they have chosen fields where they may well constantly feel rejected, untalented and insecure and yet, have this inner strength to pick themselves up and do it over and over. I for sure do not have that ability.</p>

15

<p>It’s so funny how “your mileage may vary.” My kiddo auditioned quite some time ago (she is a junior in college now) but she found Juilliard (which she only auditioned for because a special teacher of hers twisted her arm to at least try it) to be very warm and welcoming, as did I as the parent waiting around.</p>

<p>I think the most unfriendly people I heard about my D’s year (among her friends) were at SUNY Purchase. According to kids we know who auditoned there, several kids came out of the audition room crying that day. A friend of my daughter’s, who is an AMAZING actor (she was called back at Juilliard as a 17-year-old and I have no doubt she will study there someday if she wants to), was reportedly really treated roughly during her audition. When she stated she was going to do a monologue from Shakespeare, the auditors reportedly said “Who says YOU can do Shakespeare?” (I told her I wished she had said “Just watch me,” but she is a polite kid.) A current student was describing one of his first classes to me one day and I said “Wow, sounds like they use the tough love approach” and he said “No love. Just tough.” So maybe the auditions just prepare you for what is in store. Now, as a disclaimer, I know there are lots of young people who attend this program and love it and it’s unquestionably one of the best. I am just relating the experiences that were related to me.</p>

16

<p>My D auditioned for U Minn Guthrie in Chicago. She had a nice, long, relaxed audition there with “Ken” and “Judy.” It couldn’t have gone better, until. . .Well, Ken Washington looked at her resume and noted the roles she has had in high school. He asked her to run some lines from a few of her characters, starting with Helen Keller. My daughter, surprised, remarked that while Helen spoke no lines in the show, she was great with the tantrums and she would be happy to recreate one of those! He quickly stammered something about needing an Annie Sullivan to do that, and moved on to Frenchie in Grease.</p>