audition songs/ monologues

<p>From what I've read on this board, I'm not sure there IS an expectation that new freshman MT majors should belt at all. It also depends on the school. Some will like it if you can already belt, but others (according to this board) prefer that you don't because they assume you must be doing it wrong. The way I see it, it's best to just play up your strengths and make your weaknesses as unnoticeable as possible. Therefore - if you can belt up to a certain note but no higher without straining, don't worry about it! Just belt to where you can comfortably. Or if you don't feel comfortable belting at all, don't! Sing one high legit song and one low legit song, ya know?</p>

<p>I've got three song pairs that I'll be using for auditions, and only one of them has a true belt song - the other two have a belt mix and a legit.</p>

<p>When did you all start preparing your monologues/songs for auditions?? How long did the process take to read and search for appropriate material?</p>

<p>for me, i started seriously preparing this summer when I was at Carnegie Mellon's pre-college program. We were given a lot of material there, both monologues and songs, and then I settled down to looking at a song and saying, "Okay, i like this song a lot, but i know it's not a good audition song." it was good because at carnegie mellon, the instructors gave really individualized attention to finding you material. for example, i was the only person given the specific monologue i was given and my friends were the only ones with their monologues. </p>

<p>now we'll see if starting looking really really really seriously this summer was early enough! first audition a week from tomorrow at baldwin-wallace!</p>

<p>Hi BroadwayWannabe:</p>

<p>Congrats on your Otterbein academic acceptance! You wrote above: " i was the only person given the specific monologue i was given and my friends were the only ones with their monologues." This surprised me because everything I have ever read on CC about CMU's summer program was about how you guys learn the PROCESS of finding your own monologues. Under what circumstances were you given a monologue? Is this a monologue to use for college auditions? How much time would you say you spent searching for monologues at CMU last summer? I'm so curious because this is so different from what I thought happens at the program. Thanks.</p>

<p>to Elliotts mom,</p>

<p>I and others have posted on a thread somewhere about finding material. I will see if I can find it for you.
In the mean time, regarding monologues.....</p>

<p>Best case scenario, I begin with my students the summer before their junior year reading plays and going to the theatre. ALOT. Then by senior year we make hard decisions and work up between 3 and 5 monologues. 2 or 3 are ready by November and the rest by late January.</p>

<p>Worst case scenario. I have had students come to me as late as fall of their senior year and although that's not what one would want, it can be done if you work quickly and intensely. I hate that for the student because they don't have the level of confidence with their material. But what can you do?</p>

<p>I will look for the other thread.</p>

<p>Good luck,
xxx,Mary Anna</p>

<p>I am happy to give you suggestions on how to FIND good monologue material. I am an acting coach who specializes in BFA auditions. My students are attending many of the top schools including Tisch, CMU, SMU, USC, Webster, and Elon. </p>

<p>DON'T use monologue books. Find playwrites that you like and get their collected works from your public library. Find roles that are right for your age and type in the cast of characters and then see if that character has a monologue. If you find one you like, read the ENTIRE play and reassess. </p>

<p>Also, look in the webites of some of the more prestigious regional theatres and see what their season was last year and the year before. That might lead you to something you like. </p>

<p>For new /contemporary plays, looks at Playwrights Horizon and Actors Theatre of Louisville and Williamstown Theatre websites. They are always producing new works. You might have to call New York 's Drama Bookshop to buy those plays or go through the playwrites' literary agent.</p>

<p>And go to the theatre OFTEN. This is a great way to learn about plays and playwrites. </p>

<p>GOOD LUCK!</p>

<p>In response to mtmommy's question about finding monologues vs being given monologues at cmu, i can very easily explain!</p>

<p>we were required to take an audition class (by far the most amazing class i've ever taken). in my class at least (i cannot vouch for the other teachers), I had Don Wadsworth (the most brilliant man alive). What he did was have us find a monologue for the second class and do it. Afterwards what he would do is give us all an individualized list of all monologues he found fitting specifically for us. He'd give about 10 or so. These were merely suggestions. We weren't required to use the monologues by any means. For me personally it happened that the main monologue he gave me was just so good for me that I'm using it for all my college auditions as my comedic monologue. </p>

<p>We still were required many a time to go searching for material (songs and monologues). It happened for me that I found better songs on my own than monologues, but we had to do a lot of searching. A lot of my spare time was spent in the CMU library.</p>

<p>So all in all it was really a combo of both searching and being assigned.</p>

<p>I had no idea they gave the students so many monologue suggestions. It sounds like a wonderful gift LOL. I remember when people posted about CMU in the past about the library experience you mentioned!</p>

<p>Thanks to BrodwayWannabe and Mary Anna for those suggestions on when and how to prepare. My S is a Junior, and so I'm encouraging him to focus on the pre-work now. We've read the recommendations about not using monologue books, but continue to fish around for a good way to figure out plays that have age-appropriate characters. I did find a monologue book that indexed the monologues by age. Perhaps that would give us some starting point by which to find characters/plays. </p>

<p>A trip to the local libraray didn't yield much (we're in a semi-rural area). Lots of Shakespeare, Arthur Miller, and "Best Plays of _____" series but not much else. </p>

<p>Meanwhile, while searching for local plays to take my S. to, I found some interesting selections at the local Community College. They even had a listing for an acting class in classical theater. So, I contact the Dept. Chair to inquire if the class would be held next term and if H.S. students could enroll. This person directs the local outdoor play (official outdoor play of California) which my S had roles in for three years. He also directs the Shakespeare Festival which is a joint venture between the College and ampitheater. We were thrilled when he wrote back that the class was not being offerred but that he would be happy to work with my S to prepare for the classical auditions.</p>

<p>Somehow I found the Samuel French website where you can search for plays or parts and a synopsis is given. It seemed like a reasonable way to find roles for teens. I tried to figure out excactly what this Samuel French is. We do have a few old, old plays in book format that are published by Samuel French. It looks to be a site where the scripts can be purchased for performance (and royalties paid). Also, looks like you can purchase one copy of the script for a reasonable fee. Is this a viable way to try to find material?? Any other ideas for getting our hands on plays??</p>

<p>My D is not auditioning for college yet, but for summer programs and building her reportoire and I have a few questions.
I know the general rule is not to use running broadway shows but I wondered about Shadowlands from The Lion King? </p>

<p>I am VERY unmusical so I cannot really speaks specifically about range and types but I do know she has a large vocal range, a strong belt, and a strong high head voice. I cannot tell when she switches from chest/belt to a low head voice (my husband can but he is a singer) and I do know with some kids its almost like another person starts singing. D can sing the low notes of Shadowland, which is a reason I am interested in it, but has sung Lily's from Secret Garden (in a revue) and can do them easily and higher, to give some idea of range. </p>

<p>D does not sing gospel, but has some of the vocal qualities that I usually think of as being gospel like and I figure that this is something different she can bring to an audition. So if Shadowlands is not good, are there other's that can be suggested? Either ballad or uptempo? I am currently looking for something specifically black, as a contrast with a non-ethnic role.
She has also used Dreambabies from The Me Nobdoy Knows, and Sidewalk Tree from Raisin, (as a 11 year old she played Travis) but i think she is too old for this. She has worked on Home from The Wiz and will continue working on this but this is hard and she is currently not convincing.
(I am not sure that I could convince her to sing from Ragtime since she saw it when she was WAY to young (we didn't know what it was about) and then was cast in the Harlem chorus at 11 (needed to add kids to fill out the harlem chorus) whic was still probably too young, so she has a serious block on Ragtime.)</p>

<p>Keepingcalm--I think "Home" is on some "don't do for audition" lists. It's very overdone. I am NO EXPERT, just a mom, but in my "travels" in research for my d, I don't think too many people use material from The Me Nobody Knows, though my d has a song from that in her repertoire. Does your daughter want to use an "ethnic" song specifically? My d is Asian and for the longest time she was deadset against a song from a role that was specifically Asian; it's only been recently that she's branched out and incorporated a song from Miss Saigon into her repertoire (although Kim is one of her dream roles, she didn't want to be pigeonholed at auditions--she always said, "They can SEE I'm Asian.")</p>

<p>mtmommy-
funny you should ask about using ethnic material. This is something she has grown into and she still has time to grow as she is not yet applying for colleges. She is begining to recognize in herself that vocally some of the songs written explicitly for AAs bring out a quality in her voice that is not present in the more standard MT and that her friends do not have this quality. So yes she is thinking about capitalizing on this.
And her one of dream roles is Nala. As a 11 year old, she got all the way to meeting with the Disney producers in NYC for Lion King for Young Nala, the type folks took a 5 second look at her and declared her too tall. She had gone through several rounds of auditions and met the director and this was the final meeting before signing (so we were told). So I think she feels like she would show them that she can be Nala (just not Young Nala).</p>

<p>I want to clarify something. Home from Beauty and the Beast is the song SOME people say not to sing. I am not sure if MTmommy was referring to that, as opposed to a song I guess that has the same name from The Wiz.</p>

<p>(By the way, when my daughter was at CMU this summer they encouraged her to sing B&B's Home, because they liked the way she did it. So remember, to an extent, the issue is whether you really sing it well.)</p>

<p>Nytheatermom--Gee, I'm an idiot. I thought for sure it was the one from The Wiz because that's the one that all the kids out here know and use. I just thought all the B&B songs were off limits. Maybe it is just the B&B one that is being referred to. </p>

<p>Keepingcalm--I love your story about Nala. I think it's great when our kids latch onto dream roles like that and it becomes part of their determination to succeed. The original role my d wanted was a character in Cats that I think is called Victoria; she's the white cat that dances. My d was entranced with that role when she was really young, and it was her first Broadway show. Then after she saw Miss Saigon, she flipped out because she loved the acting potential in that role.</p>

<p>Funny-
I had forgotten all about Home from Beauty and the Beast, which is stupid of me since D is currently doing B & B! But all the music in that is a perfect example of music she can sing but is just not suited to her.</p>

<p>And mtmommy, I know the role of Victoria in Cats, because that was the first role D wanted to do also (first musical in a theatre for her too). She would sti8ll like to do Cats, eventhough she knows it's not cool to say so, but she is a very strong dancer and loves it for the dance.</p>

<p>MTmommy: Well, maybe it is the Wiz version after all or also that is a no-no.. Too bad so many songs have similar or identical names. It's hard enough to keep track of one song with a particular name. </p>

<p>By the way at Balwin-Wallace auditions last weekend my daughter was surprised to find out that one girl was singing Defying Gravity and AT LEAST 3 others were doing Millie songs. Also, several were doing Les Miz songs. </p>

<p>Just to ramble on a few more points, some kids didn't have dance clothes at all (not even shoes) , or a binder with their songs, or any kind of resume/headshot. </p>

<p>CLEARLY NONE OF THESE WERE CC READERS.</p>

<p>I'm laughing with both of you, keeping calm and nytheatermom. I know what you mean about Cats not being cool, esp. amongst MT people. But it was a phenomenon for my d as a kid, and yes, she loved Victoria because she too is a dancer! And about the Baldwin-Wallace audition, that was very funny when you uppercased "CLEARLY NONE OF THESE WERE CC READERS." How much anxiety to be "perfect" has CC created anyway? But I guess it's necessary, given the competitive nature of the business. I feel for those kids who showed up without dance shoes or resumes. Haven't they ever gone to an audition before?!</p>

<p>Keeping Calm, sorry to make this so quick due to time at the moment but as you know, Home from The Wiz is not the same as Home from B and B. My D has sung both. The one from The Wiz is a great song for your D and perhaps she can grow in confidence with more work on it. How about songs from Once on this Island such as Waiting For Life to Begin? There are other great songs from this show and it can be ethnic too. </p>

<p>NYTheaterMom, I was surprised at auditions last year too. First, we did hear those same songs many times and the big "no no" ones. I know how utterly competitive and selective BFA admissions are and assumed the entire talent pool was very experienced and of a high level of talent but through meeting various folks at auditions along the way, it became apparent that there is also a significant number of kids who are less competitive in the pool of applicants or less experienced and simply like MT and have done a little but are not experienced at auditioning and some of the many other little aspects that you brought up. As you say, they clearly are not in the same level of preparedness or "know how" as the folks ya meet on CC! LOL! Truly, there was a much bigger range of those going for the BFA programs than I realized until we met people at auditions. I'm not saying that those kids cannot be admitted. Any talented kid can be admitted. I am simply saying that the range of experience and even general knowledge about the field or about auditioning and so forth, was wide ranging. Before auditions, I mostly knew kids who were applying who were very very strong contenders (who subsequently have been admitted) or folks on CC who seem in the know (always learning but still in the know...lol), but I have come to realize that the entire applicant pool for BFA programs is not amazingly talented and experienced and all that jazz. However, there are surely enough of THOSE out there to make it very selective and competitive nonetheless.</p>

<p>Susan,
I had forgotten about Once on this Island. She has worked on Waiting for Life in the past and could/should probably dig it out again. I don't know the musical well so maybe we should listen to it. We did see a school production of it, but can't say I actually remember much except thinking what an odd choice they made casting TiMoune.</p>

<p>As for audition preparedness, the CCM discussion of does and don'ts is really rather hysterical and you figure they must have seen it to include it. My D's favorite is the no lip-sinking during the vocal audition! The comment about the transformation scene from Jeckyl and Hyde is my favorite as the image it conjures just is great.</p>

<p>It's funny you should mention the Jekyll/Hyde transformation thing from the CCM Audition Dos & Don'ts - a little anecdote from U of Arizona...</p>

<p>At the first rehearsal of Encore my freshman year - it was the first time all the new MT majors were together in the same room - we all had to present a song of our choice to the directors, Dick and Monte, in front of a video camera. I'm pretty sure it was our audition to be considered for solos in the show, but I could be wrong about that. So long ago! Anyway, this one really tall, handsome guy, announced that he was singing "Facade" from Jekyll & Hyde, and we were like, how? So this guy turns around, cues the piano player, and when the time to sing comes, he whirls around REALLY fast, hunches himself over, and sings the whole song with one hand extended under his face like a claw. Everyone in the room jumped out of their seats! It was sort of scary!</p>

<p>This was AFTER getting admitted to a BFA program...</p>

<p>But to his credit, he had the best voice of any of the guys in the class - just a little misguided at first. ;)</p>