BFA Acting Pre-Screen and Auditions. Class of 2022 - Sharing!

@actorparent you guys are on a great roll right now! Everything seems so positive. About the chair thing for her classical, both rooms had auditors reworking the same piece and the director of the school had him sit down and would stop him mid sentence and ask him to think about the line and ask what is going on here. I think the change is just to see if your kid can take direction. Also, if anyone else is reading this. They want you to understand what your play is about. Watch it, read it, purchase a no fear shakesphere book to read along so that you can Really grasp the concept. Im glad we did this because my S was caught up with deeper questions about it. It can sound nice but know it

Thanks, @actingdreams! But it wasn’t the auditors who asked my D to sit - it was just the woman filming her. What happened was, she did her audition the usual way, then the auditors talked her to for a bit about herself and why she’s interested in their program etc. (they did not give her direction on the monologues at all), and then they said “Okay, wait in the hall.” She waited in the hall, and then someone came and took her to another room and handed the woman there a note. The woman looked at the note and said, “Okay, we’re going to film you.” She had my D sit in a chair, then she set up the camera and said “Okay, state your name and then do your two monologues”, and filmed her while she did it (with no comments or direction from the woman). So I think the woman put her in a chair just so she could focus the camera on her and leave it in the same position while she did both monologues - it was just easier and more efficient to to it that way. Which is fine, but D is just wondering if they filmed EVERYONE that way, or if she possibly could have asked to do the classical standing up (again, second-guessing herself!)

@actorparent ahh Makes total sense! Maybe they have all of the interested ones do this just so that they can remember who is who after the auditions. I’m really pulling for your D! all of you! It’s nothing like seeing kids work so hard and end up where they really wanted to be

CalArts Question: My D auctioned with CalArts this weekend. It was a fun interactive audition where she got to explore the text with different directions. She really loved CalArts. I didn’t’ tell her that I heard on CC that in the past “a card” was given to students who were seriously being considered. I’m hoping that students have been accepted without this card or perhaps they no longer using the “card” to signal potential acceptance. She thinks she messed up by focusing on Los Angles and not CalArts at the end of the audition. She was asked to do 3 monologues and enjoyed the various versions she was asked to perform. should she follow up with an email of interest?

Thank you for all of these insightful posts! We are from the SF bay area. My son attended the USC audition on Friday on campus. They had a 1 hour information session that mainly focused on the differences between the BA and BFA program. They will have a BFA class of 18-22 next year and will take 70 BA students. Students will be notified of their application status online on April 1st. There is an Open House on 4/8. The kids were broken into 2 groups in alphabetical order. The first group went to do their monologues. The second group stayed in the info room for the interview with the Dean of Admissions for the Dramatic Arts. Parents were allowed to wait there if they wanted. Most of us left. They also had 1 BFA student and 1 BA student that stayed with the kids while they waited which was nice. It was a lot of waiting as my son was second to last in the second group. So, for us it was a 4 hour event.

This was only my son’s second audition. He did a regional audition for Marymount Manhattan on 1/5(accepted 1/10 with 2 scholarships) and said that the 2 auditions were the polar opposite. Marymount was a workshop style format and USC felt much more formal and intimidating I guess. Although he thought everyone at USC was very nice. We head to LA Unifieds next month! Good Luck to all!!

@123Mimi IMHO EVERYONE who is granted an interview/audition should be sending at least an email and preferably a handwritten thank you note expressing their interest to any school who took the time to see them. It’s always appropriate and will never hurt your chances. NOT sending one could.

Just wanted to say that we loved Pace. This was a surprise and it moved way up for my daughter. It was one contemporary monologue but they also paired the kids off and gave them sides and had them do did scene work. The community of student helpers were lovely, diverse (as in all over the world), and extremely articulate. That part of downtown NYC is fascinating. We really loved it and daughter enjoyed the movement call (she’s acting BFA). The callback thing is a little brutal but it had a sort of "this is reality"vibe that I both dreaded and appreciated.
I thought the school felt very exciting and up and coming BUT we were deliriously tired from the weekend and my head is still fuzzy from it all. Met super nice people also!

@123Mimi I would definitely have your daughter reach out to calarts if she is truly interested. In the past they did hand out cards to kids that they were interested in and invite them to shadow, but I do not know if they still do this. My daughter is a BFA 3rd year actor, if you have any questions about the school let me know!

Hi @actorparent1 . I just asked my D. She was filmed by the auditors. She sat for her first monologue and got up for her second. She just got up and didn’t ask. I totally wouldn’t read anything into this - at all. It is such a small part of the process. There were Rutgers auditors both in NYC and New Brunswick this weekend so they needed to be able to discuss potential candidates. My D said the auditors she saw weren’t even faculty, they were Mason Gross admissions people. Your daughter probably did awesome!! She did her best and now it is on to the next one
 And totally agree on the thank you notes!! Super important!! We have sent email thank you’s and it is nice to receive a note back thanking D for the thank you. :slight_smile:

@laylamom congrats to your D for making it through the Pace callback. That is awesome!! Pace is in one of the best parts of NYC.

2 of my S classmates that he worked with in school plays actually go to Pace and seem to love it. I also must add that they both won several awards and scholarships outside of anything Pace may have given them. They could’ve gone elsewhere but both of them chose Pace. They are finishing up their freshman year and I hope to ask them a few questions about the program soon. Although my son has received an academic scholarship and have yet to audition, I hear there isn’t much funding for Talent.

@ginaf1102 , thanks so much for the info! Good to know! (but I won’t tell my D that your D stood up after her first monologue, because I know she’ll say “Darn! I should have stood up!” and it will mess with her head!) As you so wisely noted, she did the best she could in the moment, and now it’s over and done with, and we need to put it behind us and focus on the auditions to come!

@laylamom , congrats on the Pace callback! And thanks for sharing all your positive impressions of the school. It is so helpful to hear everyone’s experiences!

Question for anyone who auditioned for Rutgers at NYC Unifieds (for thank you notes) - there were 2 rooms on Friday & D was in the room with a man and woman. She can’t remember the man’s name - she looked at the website and couldn’t figure out who it was. Anyone know?

@actorparent1 and others at Unifieds! We did it. I am so truly awed by my D and all the kids and parents who put themselves forward in that high pressure environment. We did our best at keeping it fun, and succeeded pretty well. My D had a good experience at UNCSA too. She was asked for a 3rd piece and the interview seemed reasonably long, given how jammed their schedule was. But since others are saying the same, who knows? Likewise, I was pleased to hear it could be late Feb or early March that we will hear! Maybe a few of us will have kids ending up together at a happy place! Think that! Believe it!

For the SUNY Purchase auditions on Sunday, there was a room with a woman (Pamela) and a man. Would anyone happen to know the name of the man in the room? Can’t find him on the website.

@Jamesdm25 D says it was probably David Gideon.

Are they 100% sure? I would hate to send a note to the wrong person.

@Jamesdm25 - your kid could call the department and probably get an answer. Or maybe Google images? Faculty Bios? Linked in? (Thank heaven for this internet :wink:

Regarding DePaul callbacks on campus - do they have an info session for parents, or should we just drop S off at the door (or send him on the el)?

hi @Atreuh I just checked my email. It just says to be there at 8am and there will be a brief info session. All kids must be there for 3-4 hours. Oddly the email also says it’s from 8-2 (6 hrs.) 
 What I’ve heard in the past is that you go through a long participation process then they cut some students I’m not sure how it will work this time 


This is for their on campus audition. Will you be there this Saturday ?

The DePaul callback for me lasted in total about 2.5 hours. They no longer have that cut system, because you are already in the “callback.” My mom stayed with me at the beginning for the info session. Then we warmed up as a group, did our monologues in front of everyone, were assigned scenes and scene partners, performed the scenes in the room with just our scene partner and the adjudicators, and then had a short interview. I went in at 1pm, was out by 3:30pm.