Soooo, I’ve been lurking around here for awhile, but I’ve never posted anything in here.
USERNAME: cocobardot
BACKGROUND: I was involved in pretty heavily the junior high, high school, and community theatre in a not so theatre-savvy area. Pursued and finished an A.A. in Drama from a small community college. I really wanted to pursue Acting at a University, but I had no way to fund it, so I joined the Air Force for 4 years. I was stationed in Germany, so the theatre options were very limited, but I still found a class or two to take in Frankfurt and I got to act in an Air Force commercial before I separated from the service. I knew I wanted to apply to UT Austin for years, because I enjoyed the area, loved the school for multiple reasons, and their acting program seems like it is always changing for the better. I knew I wanted to transfer, so I decided to go for their BA, instead of the BFA, because I would of had to drop all of my previous credits.
SUMMER INTENSIVES:
None, I was once accepted for one at Guildhall (Shakespeare Intensive), but I had to decline because I had no way to pay for it.
COACHING/TRAINING: An A.A. in Drama, a film acting class, and a Meisner class is the collective of my training. My ‘coach’ was my husband. I ran him through my monologues so many times, I am sure he can recite them in his sleep. He was game at trying to give me solid constructive criticism and, oddly enough, self-taping helped a ton, too.
COLLEGES APPLIED TO: UT Austin (It was my only hope…which wasn’t wise, but it was the only college I wanted to transfer to at the time.)
REJECTED: N/A
ACCEPTED: UT Austin for BA in Theatre & Dance (Performer’s Process)
FINAL DECISION: UT Austin….hahaha
AFTERTHOUGHTS: When I arrived at the auditions I felt awkward. I knew I was going to be much older than the other applicants, they brought crews of moral support, and to be frank, their acting resumes just seemed more fleshed out and impressive . My husband was working that day and I was scared to death. It had been quite a long time (easily 4 years) since I performed a monologue and both of the monologues I performed were the type often recommended against: 1. A comedic drunken monologue 2. A dramatic recount of a sexual assault. I chose them while I was still waiting to come home from Germany and I pored over so many plays that fall. I chose them regardless of things I read online about what they want at auditions, because these monologues truly made me feel, and I am glad I chose what I did.
-Lesson Learned: Don’t talk yourself out of auditions, just because you don’t feel like you’re what they are looking for. You don’t know what they are looking for, so wow their pants off. Read your plays fully. Choose monologues that really make your heart soar.
All the prospective and current students I chatted with that day were very kind and when UT took us for a tour I was impressed by their facilities. While waiting in the halls for the auditions to start, a few of their professors approached me and we had some very nice chats. Before the audition (I was first for the day), they allowed us to practice in a room. I got to run through my monologues a few times and then it was time to go. In the auditions room, the auditors ended out being some of the professors I chatted with previously. I enjoyed performing my monologues and the interview was very relaxed. They asked me about the military, what characters I really enjoyed playing, what I enjoyed most about acting, and where I wanted to go with my training. I felt they actually were tuned into my conversation and when the audition concluded, it further validated the fact that I wanted go to UT, badly!
-Lesson Learned: Be kind and gracious to everyone. All the prospective students are just as scared (if not more scared) than you are. Also, you never know if that person you chatted with before the audition is actually going to auditing you in the room, so make a good first impression. Really enjoy and absorb the experience, this is what you came to do!
Then came the wait we all dread. I passed the time by taking random paid extra work and doing some commercial auditions on top of working full-time. Transfer decisions take a loooong time and when I started seeing students from the BFA program get in, my heart dropped, then one random day in April, transfer decisions dropped for COFA and it was one happily tearful night for me.
-Lesson Learned: The wait is super sucky! Occupy your time with positivity and don’t lose heart. Sooner or later it will be over, and good or bad, remember the lessons you learned from the audition process.
So if I didn’t make it in this time, would I have attempted again next year? Probably, but I would’ve applied for a few other schools as backup. Luckily, I didn’t have to worry about that.