Audition Information

<p>DCmom3,</p>

<p>I want to echo your sentiments about the Syracuse audition environment. I can only speak to the on campus audition last year as that is what my D did. I had EXACTLY, almost word for word, the same response to the presentation by Jim Clark, the department head. I was so impressed by his warmth, honesty and real world approach. No one will ever be able to come after him several years down the road saying, "But you promised........."</p>

<p>If my D had not been accepted to UM, we would have thought long and hard about accepting her offer to go to Syracuse. I think their program is along with UM, uniquely strong and balanced in all three "triple threat disciplines" and seems to have attracted a really great, supportive, enthusiastic group of students.</p>

<p>In reference to the comment about the accomp. not being able to play piece, so they left out the melody.... As someone who has accompanied a ton of auditions, that is often the preferred way - if the accompaniment doubles the voice line, it prohibits the singer from incorporating ANY nuance in tempo or rhythm. I would probably assume anyone auditioning for MT would not want the reinforcement of the melody. Of course, to be doubly sure, the best thing would probably be to write "Don't double voice" or "Play as written" onto the top of the music, and/or mention as you hand the music to the accompanist. And, the accompanist should have asked, if not otherwise instructed. It's POSSIBLE they couldn't play it, but in my experience, and my d's - ALL her college audition accompanists were truly marvelous.</p>

<p>In my daughter's case, all her accompanists (except the student at Ithaca) were great and could play all her songs, and all provided a moment before the audition to discuss tempo. Elon even allowed a 15 minute rehearsal with the accompanist beforehand. This song was "Speaking French" from Lucky Stiff. I'm not a musician or singer so I can't evaluate how difficult that music is or comment on your views about whether a singer would want the melody?!? I know my daughter wanted to sing it as she had practiced it with her voice teacher (that is, with the melody) and wanted it "played as written" and the accompanist said "whoa, I can't do that." My feeling is that in an audition situation when families are spending money on hotels/airfare etc that a theater department should be as accommodating as possible. Ithaca, which has an excellent music school, should have been able to find someone more skilled than an undergraduate music major for something as important as student auditions (a faculty member or trained accompanist from the community?)</p>

<p>dcmom3,
I have to agree with you regarding the fact that theatre departments should give auditioning students ( and families ) reasonable consideration. We found it varied HUGELY from school to school. My daughter's Ithaca audition left us all a bit cold. No apparent problem with the accompanist, but definitely a feeling that she was lucky to even be auditioning there. Although other programs had a similar number of students auditioning, Ithaca made her feel that she was a number moving along on a conveyor belt! It also made us question the strength of the dance component of the MT program when there was not even a basic dance audition. We had a student lead the tour of campus that was very unprepared and unable to respond to the most basic inquiries. We all left disappointed because we had high expectations for that program. I'm sure another family could relay a completely different picture depending on their experience. That's why the continuing advice about visiting the school and seeing what is really a good fit is so important.</p>

<p>RE: consideration for families</p>

<p>Your comments about consideration for families made me recall a comment we heard at a couple of schools in the introductory talk - if the chair of the dept, or the person speaking, takes just a moment to thank the parents for all their hard work/sacrifice in getting the student to the audition (not just the travel that weekend, but long term efforts!!), that school shoots to the top of my list! It shows understanding - not just the "aren't you lucky we are taking a look at you" attitude. </p>

<p>The recent comments about various schools make me wonder if any people connected to these programs visit this board? (besides the wonderful DrJohn, I mean....)</p>

<p>I'm with you Chrism. Even with all the trash talk that goes on here about CCM, I really tried to go to that audition last January with an open mind. They are clearly quite successful in turning out MT's who find work, there are parents and kids who attend the program that rave about it, so I thought it was worth a look see. </p>

<p>The administrator who gave the welcome speech literally began by telling us that while the school planned to accept between 22-24 students, they would graduate no more than 15. Nice start.......Great way to relax the kids auditioning.</p>

<p>But the thing that REALLY frosted me was that the Chair of the Department, the infamous Aubrey Berg (who my D described as "Dr Evil" after his short address to them just before they auditioned - he kept bragging about how the new CCM facilities cost "30 meeeellion dollars!!") couldn't find two minutes to come out and even say hello to all the parents sitting there all day while their kids auditioned. They did manage to roll in half of the school store, however, if we were inclined to buy CCM sweatshirts, mugs and other assorted paraphanelia. Nice.......</p>

<p>But I guess they did us a favor - made their priorities very clear. No thanks. Not for us.</p>

<p>Hi all, My s just heard from Ithaca and got accepted to the acting program but not the Musical theater. He also was notified that he would be receiving a Presedential scholarship. although he was disappointed about the musical theater rejection he is VERY happy about the acting acceptance and it is high on his list. While we were there for the audition the president did say that an acting major could still take voice lessons so remembering that made him feel good. And here I was complaining about the rolling admissions ... I should take that back now. His friend who applied for theater management at Ithaca also was accepted. They both heard on Saturday. He is considering withdrawing his application form Hartt and Muhlenberg. </p>

<p>Saturday he auditioned at Marymount Manhattan and it was a great atmosphere there. This was a group audition so it was a very different experience at first intimidating but turned out to be very supportive. A 2001 graduate came back to speak with the students. Since graduating she has been in Aida in the traveling show and on Broadway! That was very exciting. Its a great school in the middle of Manhattan with so many resources because of its location. They do not have a set # of students that they accept so if they think you are talented and have potential and will fit in to theirr program they wil accept you . Last year they had 900 applicants for their theater program ando 1 out of 5 was accepted. They only offer a minor in Musical Theater. but we felt there was plenty of opportunities at this school anyway. If all your college materials are in by Feb. 15 they will inform you of your acceptance by March 1. If you have any questions about the audition I did not anwer let me know.</p>

<p>MTwannabe, congrats to your son regarding Ithaca!.....Susan</p>

<p>MTWannabe - Congratulations on the Ithaca news! Sounds great!</p>

<p>My D auditioned on Sunday for Point Park in NYC. They didn't give any kind of a talk out loud to either the parents or the students. We walked in, signed up and sort of sat around on the main floor of the Alvin Ailey Dance Studio waiting for instructions. Eventually, we saw some people had numbers, so my D went and got a number. It's weird because they didn't hand them out in the order of arrival, but just whenever you walked up to get one! I guess it didn't really matter because after all 33 or so kids did their 1 song and monologue, then they all went to the dance portion. (By the way, the audition papers said 32 bars of one song; because there were so many people auditioning, they decided the kids could only sing 16!) The dance portion was very different for my D because it sounds like they did Salsa dancing and some other modern dance moves. She said she kept smiling, though, the whole time! She said many of the others looked kind of lost, too. The only other info. to report is that the man who was walking around organizing things said that they used to take 60 in their program and now they take around 40. That seemed like a lot to me. I didn't realize they took that many.</p>

<p>Congrat, MTwannabe, to your son. Ithaca is a wonderful school. It was one that should have been on my S's list, but for some reason he cut it. As he did his auditions, he was beginning to pay more attention to the actual schools that housed the programs, and finding that some were not what he wanted in a college despite assurances that the MT kids tend to stick together and are kept very busy. And the scholarship that he is offered there is certainly golden.</p>

<p>Im leaving for my Penn State (sat 22) audition tonight. Anyone else gonna be there? Got any last minute advice for me!?</p>

<p>mtfan - YES! BREAK A LEG! :) edit - I won't be there. just being supportive.</p>

<p>Mtfan Break a leg.. We have not gone to Penn State yet. We are going to Syracuse for a Sat. Jan. 22 audition and a very large snow storm is threatening the entire area. ( including where we live) Anybody know if they ever cancel auditions???</p>

<p>How many auditions could a person realistically fit into a day at the Unified auditions? I am planing on auditioning in Chicago next year and, although still early, I was just curious. Thanks in advance.</p>

<p>-Nick</p>

<p>PS...is CMU affiliated with the Unifieds? I noticed their Chicago auditions are the same time as the Unifieds, but are not listed on the Unified site. Just curious.</p>

<p>Is anyone headed to Phila. for the UARTS auditions this Saturday? Or Does anyone have experience with auditioning there? Good Luck to everyone this weekend with their auditions and safe traveling. Big snow storms are expected in Pa. Sat.through Sun.</p>

<p>Falloffstage -
Yes, CMU is part of Unifieds. Last year they had half of a floor in the hotel; lots of kids audition for them. They ran a very nice & well-organized audition process. My S is a freshman in their MT program this year & auditioned at Unifieds.</p>

<p>Monkey -
We had the same reaction when my S auditioned for Ithaca last year. We knew immediately it was not a match for him but he does have a friend there who loves it.</p>

<p>Good luck to everyone auditioning this year. So glad to be in the cheering section & not the arena! I know how stressful this is for parents & kids alike. Fingers crossed for everyone!
TX Mom</p>

<p>I'm anxious to hear how the UArts audition went and how the blizzard impacted the audition, etc!</p>

<p>My friend auditioned for CCM today. Said there were about 150 kids there today, 50/50 guys and girls. The administration said only 700 were auditioning this year, which was down from the usual 900. They had her sing her songs 4 different times. We obviously can't read into that too much. Overall, she said the dance ("Let me Drown" from Lippa Wild Party) wasn't too difficult, but she is definitely a dancer. She said it was a long day, but she feels confident. She said they told her she would find out in about 10 days. </p>

<p>If you have any other questions regarding the audition process, definitely email or post here.</p>

<p>-Nick</p>

<p>It was no problem getting to the UARTS audition Sat. at 8:30 am. We were hoping people who had to travel long distances would cancel, so we could get out of there early. We are 40 min. NW of the city. The snow started by 9 am. at a steady pace all day. In UARTS main building, at 9:15, A woman from admissions talked to the group of (I estimate) over 250, for about 10 min. Just a brief overview of the flow of the day. Then the auditionees were split into disciplines... dance, music, theater programs, etc. They left the main building, we were in, and walk down the street to audition in different buildings. The parents were invited to a financial aid session, across the street in another building, and then returned to the atrium in the main building (which is absolutely beautiful..glass roof with snow falling). Two students (an acting and musical theater major) did a question and answer session. They were both engaging, personable, and informative. Tours were offered of the campus buildings, but there was no access into any of the classroom or performance buildings because that was where the auditions were taking place. There were also no dorm tours. We attended a Fall open house so we had already seen everything. I felt bad for people who traveled long distances and could't see the facilities.</p>

<p>Our D returned to the main building by 1:15. She said that one of the UARTS student helpers said that there were 150 auditioning for MT at each audition. I spoke to a guy auditioning for MT and he said that there were 50 present. D did not find the people critiquing the students to be warm and fuzzy. Same as other schools, as far as, large group for dance and individual for voice and acting. We quickly got on the road, which was snow covered, and traveled on major highways at 20 mph. to get home in 1hr and 45 min. It was treacherous. The airport was closed, so out of towners couldn't get home. Many were not even aware of the BIG GAME (EAGLES) on Sunday!! Hopefully they got out this morning. The snow just stopped at 10am.</p>

<p>Overall, I was very impressed in the Fall with what I saw and heard at UARTS and I had the same impression yesterday. If you have any more specific questions I can try to answer them here or email me. I hope this was helpful.</p>