I went to Unifieds in Chicago this year and did my audition for DePaul University at their Theatre School. It was VERY fun but also VERY long, so here’s the rundown of how it all went.
The audition is divided into two parts. The first part is done by everyone who has an audition that day. The second part is done by those that the Theatre School calls back.
PART ONE
There was the check in, a short questionarrie you fill out, and information session before the actual auditioning started. They take a picture of you on the spot, but you are free to bring a headshot and resume if you want (not required!). The information session is a thorough outline of what the day will look like and what you can expect after the audition, how the admissions process works, etc. The dean of the Theatre School spoke to us; very thorough, very professional, but also very calming, TOTALLY not scary.
Then we were split into five groups, about 15-20 auditionees in each group. We were taken to a room and introduced to the faculty member that would be watching the first part of our auditions. Then we went to a classroom and waited to be called. We went one at a time and did one monologue for the faculty guy. They may or may not work on your piece with you–mine just said thank you and told me to send the next person in. (Don’t read into it!)
Then we did a mock movement class. We did exercises like just moving our bodies back and forth as we lowered and raised ourselves to and from the floor, moving around the space for a set number of counts, and some partner improv. Improv usually freaks me out, but this improv was actually really fun. You “gave someone a gift,” like some sort of pantomimed object, and then you had to come up with a “problem” with the gift that had to be solved. You and your partner just did this and got crazier and crazier. Since every pair of partners is doing this at the same time, you don’t get self-conscious and there’s no pressure to get laughs (phew!). The only person watching you is the instructor, who just wants to see if you’ll go with the flow and try things.
Now this is where it got scary. After the movement class, our group went back to the classroom and waited for what felt like an eternity for callbacks to be announced. Callbacks are scary because if you don’t get called back, it’s an official “no” from the Theatre School. A woman came in with a clipboard of names of people who were getting called back and read them to us. And oh my god, my name was on the list. It’s a bittersweet moment: you’re happy that you advanced, but disappointed because some of the people you got to bond with didn’t get called back. They’ll tell you “That’s the business you’re in,” but it definitely doesn’t make it easier.
PART TWO
After some time, we went to a new room where all of the called back auditionees were. All together, there were about 24 of us. We were called individually to do our monologue again, but this time for three new faculty members. Again, they may or may not work on it with you, and again, they didn’t work on mine (and again, they say not to read into it!). Then, they hand you a cold reading. Mine was a short excerpt from a novel. You have some time to look over it, and then you just read it. They said they aren’t looking for a big performance, they just want to see how you deal with an unfamiliar text. Then there’s a short interview. They asked me about things I had written on my questionnaire and if I had a cold (I did, and my voice was really affected. Thank god I’m not MT…). They were super nice and I didn’t feel like I was being harshly evaluated at all.
After everyone had done that monologue session, we did “open scenes.” These are just short, maybe 10-line scenes that have vague dialogue and no context. You are given a partner, and when you’re called in, you are just told to “go slow” and “really respond to what your partner is doing.” They don’t want you to try to perform and put some smart twist on the scene. They just want you to really see what your partner is doing, and play off of that. It’s a very intimate experience for such a vague scene in such a short period of time.
The audition is concluded after that. Even though the DePaul audition had WAY more activities to do than most auditions, it never felt high-pressure or pretentious. It was very relaxed and really very fun.