<p>Hi everyone!
My name is Adam Kaplan and I’m currently a senior music theatre major at Elon.
I’m happy to answer any and all questions about our program and the school itself. Please check back for updates on masterclasses and the 2011-2012 season! Hope to see you all at prospective student auditions!
Adam</p>
<p>Thank you, Adam. Hoping to see you in February when our son auditions. Enjoy your final year!</p>
<p>Hi Adam - My son is a HS senior planning to apply to Elon. He is wondering if Elon has a senior showcase or something similar. Any info on this you can give us would be appreciated!</p>
<p>@MusTheatreMom- We do not have a showcase per se. However we do something similar and something that has proven to be incredibly effective for our senior class. In the Spring we bring in agents and casting directors (from Telsey, Binder, Tara Rubin, Jim Carnahan/Roundabout) from the top NY agencies to individually audition the senior class. They each spend a weekend at Elon, get to know our students and work with them. From this past students have signed with agencies, booked national tours, regional work, broadway shows and it is an amazing networking tool!</p>
<p>Thanks Adam. That sounds great!</p>
<p>Hi Adam, My son is a HS senior and wants to apply to the music technology program. Do you know anything about it? We are curious how competitive it is to get in to? Thanks</p>
<p>Unfortunately, I don’t know too much about the Music Tech program. Is it part of the music department and while we are in the same building it is separate from the department of performing arts. Sorry!</p>
<p>Hi Adam! Do you know when belt/mix training occurs? In other words, do freshmen girl’s voice lessons include belting?</p>
<p>Adam - </p>
<p>My D visited Elon last spring and loved it! Unfortunately we live a great distance away & the only day we could visit turned out to be a Theater Planning Day, so we were unable to meet any instructors from the department. Luckily my D knows a current Elon MT student who gave us a personal tour of the department and answered her questions. We also attended the info session and then took a campus tour as well. My D already submitted her application and is looking forward to upcoming auditions.</p>
<p>My question is this…my D was hoping to audition this fall, but the 3 dates given conflict with her school show (tech week and 2 Friday matinee and evening shows). She has registered for a Feb. 2012 date (24th) but is worried that auditioning later could hurt her chances for acceptance into the program or talent scholarships if applicable. </p>
<p>Do you have any advice on this subject? Thanks for taking time to answer questions.</p>
<p>@ kksmom5-- It is totally dependent upon the voice studio your son or daughter is placed in. Once a student has been accepted into the MT program on the first day of classes they sing for the head of our department and the head of the vocal department. Based on how they feel your son or daughter would fit with a certain voice teacher they are placed into voice studios. However, I do believe that mix/belt training does occur during all four years at Elon! Don’t quote me on that though–I do think it is a case by case thing!</p>
<p>@ luvzthe8r–
No worries! The only benefit to auditioning in the Fall is that you will hear a “Yes, no, or deferral” in mid-December. However, they only give out a few "yes"s in the Fall so your daughter will have the same chance as everyone else! Hope that helps!</p>
<p>Thanks askelonmt! D has an audition this weekend and she will ask to be sure.</p>
<p>Hi Adam, I’m a Musical Theater Major at Shorter University… Bad changes are going down on campus, and were really worried about what it might do to the music and theater programs. Myself and most others will be auditioning around this year.</p>
<p>I love Shorter because the department is so loving and welcoming, and it feels just like family— I love that students are treated as individuals, and are constantly getting individual attention and performance opportunities— I’m looking for a program similar to Shorters… I was wondering if you believe that Elon is like this… do you feel that you get a lot of individual attention? Does Elon accept transfers? Do you have to be a kick-butt dancer to get accepted. </p>
<p>Your help and advice would be absolutely amazing!</p>
<p>Thank you so much!</p>
<p>Peace and Love
~Maranda</p>
<p>Hi Maranda,
I’ve heard about what’s been going on at Shorter and it is unbelievable to me how people can be so closed minded. I’m sorry to hear about these changes and hope that something gets resolved! I can tell you that Elon is an amazingly warm and loving family. That is what drew me to the school in particular. We just did a production of Hair, filled with all the drugs, nudity, sex, racism, and homosexuality, that filled the original and had the full support of the University behind us. The President came with his wife and had a party for us afterward. Everyone gets individual attention–we’re not a cookie cutter program and they nurture us to become the best Adam or Maranda performer we can be. No, you don’t have to be a kick ass dancer when you audition, but it helps :). You will get your butt kicked for four years and the dance training is incredible. They accept transfers…they like people to spend four years at Elon but they have made exceptions in the past. It’s a case by case basis.
Hope this helps–Peace and love to you and all the ppl at Shorter! Here’s to hoping they realize what they’re doing and wake up.
Adam</p>
<p>Thank you so much, Adam! I really appreciate your help! I didn’t really mind the small amount of censoring we had before in the program, but now we can’t even make any references to alcohol in any type of performance… it’s ridiculous. I’m nervous, because we are getting ready to open She Loves Me— I play Amalia, and we did not cut Dear Friend, which makes a small reference to wine… The President better not stop the show because I say wine. craziness! We cut every other small and large alcohol ref. from the show, but that one we just couldn’t. Censoring is only going to get worse, too because of the new president. Hair… jealous!!! what a great show! 
What’s up next? Were you in Hair? </p>
<p>OH! Do Elon students participate in SETC? We do here at Shorter, and I love it! </p>
<p>That’s great to hear that Elon doesn’t try to make you a cookie Cutter performer… programs like that really bother me… people like Bernadette Peters and Carol Burnett didn’t get famous for being like everyone else! ;-)</p>
<p>Do you think that My school situation would be enough to have them consider lettign me not do all 4 years? ha ha I’m a sophomore now… It wouldn’t be horrid to repeat sophomore year, but idk about affording 2 extra years, ya know? ( i know that isn’t up to you 
ha ha just sayin)</p>
<p>Thank you so much! Our protest is tomorrow, so hopefully that will knock at least a bit of sense into them…</p>
<p>It’d be awesome if anyone who sees this could sign this petition to chuck the Personal Lifestyle Plan the my school is trying to enforce…</p>
<p>[SignOn.org</a> Beta](<a href=“http://signon.org/sign/stop-shorter-university.fb1?source=s.fb&r_by=1486696]SignOn.org”>http://signon.org/sign/stop-shorter-university.fb1?source=s.fb&r_by=1486696).</p>
<p>~Maranda</p>
<p>Next up is actually “She Loves Me!” followed by “A Man of No Importance.” We just closed Hair this past weekend…I played Berger! </p>
<p>We do participate in SETC and many of the other theatre conferences. I can’t speak for Cathy, the head of our department, but can only say that how many years you spend as a transfer is very much dependent upon your audition and other factors! So I can’t promise you anything.</p>
<p>Just signed the petition, best of luck.</p>
<p>She Loves me is such a fun show! Will you be in it? I’ll have to get in contact with Cathy and hope and pray I have a good enough audition ha ha :-). Thank you SO much for signing the petition! The more the better!!!</p>
<p>Oh! Do you know what the acceptance rate is like? — especially for transfers, which I’m sure they are knit picky on.</p>
<p>I don’t know what the acceptance rate is, however I know that this year they will be accepting around 16-20 students and then going off of a wait list.</p>
<p>Hi Adam,</p>
<p>I was just wondering if you know when the decisions are coming out and if acceptances, rejections and waitlists will be announced on the same day?
Also, if you can give any insight about the audition process and decoding responses. I felt like I received positive feedback in vocals and a good response in dance. But for acting, which is usually my strong point, I felt like there was no reaction from the auditors. They both turned and looked at eachother during my monologue and put my headshot down, I’m psyching myself out and don’t know if thats a good thing or a bad thing. One auditor made a sound at the end of my monologue, responding to the last line, so he was still paying attention. But they didn’t say anything else to me and had a conversation about something completely off topic. Do you think I blew it? Or do you think they sometimes don’t give you a response and interact with you just to see how you react to that?</p>
<p>Thanks for your help!</p>