Audition Materials

<p>Yes, I know what I am in for...Shauna has taught all of us well, audition material is a very personal choice...I am just sooooo curious what all of you sang at your auditions, especially those of you who were accepted at the schools of their choice, just to compare notes, and yes, satisfy my curiousity in the process!</p>

<p>camtmom-</p>

<p>Welcome to CC. A thread for audition materials was started awhile back by dizzydani....I bumped it for you to read and refer to. :) </p>

<p>SUE aka 5pants</p>

<p>Thanks so much 5 pants. I can't believe I did that. I actually looked through the existing threads first, went through the FAQ etc. etc. (have been lurking for months now...), but obviously missed it. Thanks for "bumping it up"!</p>

<p>camtmom-</p>

<p>Not a problem...we are hospitable people here at CC. :) There are lots of various threads to read over, so I am not surprised it was overlooked.</p>

<p>SUE ;-)</p>

<p>( I copied my post from the main thread...)</p>

<p>I found this source-- The Rodgers and Hammerstein Library when I needed an interesting pre-1960's song. It is the online licensing catalog for hundreds of Broadway shows by Rodgers & Hammerstein, Rodgers & Hart and many more. It is also the sight to go to for theatrical licensing (for these particular shows). Just click on "Titles" and you can search for musicals, and hear little snippets of the songs. Better yet, if you click on "Advanced Search" you can search a song by vocal range!!</p>

<p><a href="http://www.rnhtheatricals.com/%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.rnhtheatricals.com/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>There are other musical licensing sites on the web. Stephen Schwartz's is here, but every composer has one.
<a href="http://www.stephenschwartz.com/music2.htm%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.stephenschwartz.com/music2.htm&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>Another obvious choice is THE PUBLIC LIBRARY!! Most libraries have some kind of Broadway Soundtrack collection. If not, they can borrow from another branch.</p>

<p>If you are lucky enough to live near NYC, the main Library branch has an extensive collection.
<a href="http://www.nypl.org/research/lpa/circ/sound.html%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.nypl.org/research/lpa/circ/sound.html&lt;/a>
Lincoln Center Library is fabulous. Colony Music store in NYC is the best place to find sheet music. The clerks there really know their way around vocal scores.
<a href="http://www.colonymusic.com/%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.colonymusic.com/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>Voice teachers, music teachers, artistic directors of local theatre companies, college drama departments and anyone involved with MT are good sources of songs.</p>

<p>One word of advice I have is to have more songs prepared than you think you really need. Prepare an up-tempo, ballad, bluesy, legit, pre & post 1960 in order to build up your repertoire. You might be asked to sing extra songs at an audition, or even do scales! (That has happened to many this year). I've also witnessed seeing an auditionee cringe while hearing "HER" unique song while standing outside the audition room. It's good to have an extra song in your back pocket.</p>

<p>Thank you so much Freelance! I included your links on my Favorites list. On a different thread Peggy mentioned how when you type a keyword under the 'search feature' it sometimes shoots back 17 pages of information! Just to show what wealth of information has been created by all of you.</p>

<p>I still would love to hear from all you "success stories" out there (congrats on your acceptances!) and share with us what pieces you sang/performed at your auditions. There are so many choices out there and I am just really curious what you chose. My D is not yet a junior, so we have a while before our "college audition frenzy" kicks in.</p>

<p>I forgot to add Accuradio as another source. It is a great way to find songs, or just be entertained--Broadway style. Listen to it while you putter around and have a pad and pen ready to jot down song names.
<a href="http://www.accuradio.com/broadway/%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.accuradio.com/broadway/&lt;/a> </p>

<p>This might end up costing you $$$, because you'll want to buy every album and track down all the sheet music. Have fun!</p>

<p>Thanks for the really practical advice. That's great--thanks! Since you have so much info, let me ask you something else. We kind of live out in the middle of nowhere (in terms of info and libraries and music libraries). The universities around here have nothing for music libraries, esp. Broadway music, and I can't find much in the way of musical "books" or librettos either. I even tried to order musical books through interlibrary loan at my campus and there is so little available at the UC and the Cal State libraries that it's a joke. Samuel French has very little available. Where else does one get copies? My D wants to read a lot of musicals this summer, particularly the ones that have songs she's considering using for auditions.</p>

<p>Mtmommy,</p>

<p>Your library can't borrow from another local library? I don't know anything about the CA system.</p>

<p>Forget the State U. How about some private universities or colleges?</p>

<p>I don't know where you are in CA, but there has to be some source--whether it is a school, a music store or music teacher that knows where to go for more info.</p>

<p>Do the universities near you have a music or drama dept? You can call the chair or ass't chair and maybe they can give you leads. What about a music dept?</p>

<p>Is there any repertory theatre, community theatre withing a hour or two? Contact the artistic director and see where that gets you.</p>

<p>Most musicals are not licensed my Samuel French. Have you tried MTI? (Music Theatre International). Have you tried Musicals101? It is a good research site.</p>

<p><a href="http://www.musicals101.com/research.htm%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.musicals101.com/research.htm&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>My library used to be able to borrow from almost any library, but now that the interlibrary loan is online they only access the UC and Cal State systems (the two public university systems in this state). I was appalled that Cal State Fullerton and UCLA (both with MT programs) don't have the material available in their libraries. I could try contacting USC by phone--maybe with their music school they have something. But they are a few hours away. There is a theatre about an hour away. I could try that route. I've tried Musicals 101. But I don't think MTI. I'll try that one. I can get copies of the most well-known Rogers & Hammerstein, but beyond that it's difficult to find much. My local library is a joke. That's one question I started being curious about almost a year ago--if the schools these MT programs are housed in have good music libraries or not. And if not, how do students find the material they need?</p>

<p>Ok, I'm still online- so I just saw your post. Why don't you start a new thread asking California MT people for sources? Anybody on the West Coast have some info?</p>

<p>One last thought. Every town has MT theatre geeks with huge collections of LPs and CDs. There must be some Broadway-obsesssed fans out where you live. Put out an APB; call friends and friends of friends. I bet there is someone close by with a HUGE collection of cast albums. Do you know anyone who takes piano? Plays gigs at weddings? Karaoke bars? Local choral groups? </p>

<p>CC posters, PLEASE help mtmommy!!!</p>

<p>I live in SoCal and am a bit of an MT nut myself. As far as songs are concerned, I do most of my research online. Apple iTunes music store (<a href="http://www.apple.com/itunes%5B/url%5D"&gt;www.apple.com/itunes&lt;/a&gt;) has a large list of soundtracks from which you can download some pretty cool songs, many of them are not the super popular MT songs. The only catch is that you have to download iTunes if you don't already have it, and the songs cost $0.99 to download. But it is a REALLY great investment. </p>

<p>If you find a song you really like on iTunes, you can probably find the sheet music on <a href="http://www.sheetmusicplus.com%5B/url%5D"&gt;www.sheetmusicplus.com&lt;/a>. </p>

<p>Also, try <a href="http://www.sheetmusicdirect.com%5B/url%5D"&gt;www.sheetmusicdirect.com&lt;/a> you have to know the specific song of composer you want, but once you find it you can listen to a little MIDI clip of the song, and you can print the music right off the internet, for a small fee of course. If you know the key you want the song in the site will even transpose the piece right there for you. It's pretty darn cool.</p>

<p>All of these things cost money, but they are definitely a useful investment.</p>

<p>I admit, I haven't really searched the rest of the forum for an answer to this question, but I'm curious...</p>

<p>Where do any of you find good audition monologues? I've looked in monologue compilation books and found some good ones, but I just feel like the monologues from those books are super over done. Any suggestions of sources or even specific monologues? Thanks!</p>

<p>You may have already done this, but I'd try checking the online databases of public libraries in area cities and towns / colleges and keep checking on their interlibrary loan policies. Some libraries are very accomodating.</p>

<p>And there's good old Amazon -- often you can hear a nice sized clip of some of the tracks and find a good used copy of a CD through their used CD service. I picked up an unopened CD of City of Angels recently for only three dollars. Amazon even carries some sheet music and compilation books. I have also had luck finding out-of-print scripts for very little money on Amazon. I also love the suggestions you get for related items -- I've discovered a number of lesser-known musicals I hadn't heard of this way.</p>

<p>iheartMTT - Very important to check requirements on the web sites of your particular schools under audition requirements, but the ones I've seen require the monologues to be from published plays, not musicals, the character should be age appropriate, and you must read and understand the whole play and be prepared to answer questions about the play and the character. My son is reading play scripts every chance he gets for this purpose.</p>

<p>Here is a great resource:</p>

<p>Music Theater International:
<a href="http://www.mtishows.com/default_HOME.asp%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.mtishows.com/default_HOME.asp&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>I go here regularly to read a synopsis of a show and to hear song clips and a whole lot more info.</p>

<p>Try this website...they have a ton of lyrics and a few libretti: <a href="http://libretto.musicals.ru/letter.php?language=1%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://libretto.musicals.ru/letter.php?language=1&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>Shauna</p>

<p>You people are fantastic. Freelance sends out an APB and a bunch of CC-ers run to the rescue! Thank you so much, all of you, for your great suggestions. OK, someone tell me (I have a thing about language) when it's librettos and when it's libretti. I even looked it up in the dictionary and it shows both, but not when to use which. </p>

<p>Shauna, I already printed out Rent from that source, just for fun! I'll play with the other sources as soon as I get a day off work. This is great!</p>

<p>And what does APB mean, anyway?</p>

<p>APB means All Points Bulletin (I think) and in terms of CC...well we reach all points of the country (despite assumptions we are all from the northeast, lol). MTMommy...you really got responses from "all points". It is late here but I hope to get back to you on this one though you already got great responses. From my point to yours...good night.
Susan</p>