Hi!
I’m a rising senior, soon to be applying to the school of my dreams and more!! Most of the schools I’m applying to (BU, Chapman, Emerson, DePaul, etc.) require auditions, and I will probably have to fly over to the States to do them (I live in Southeast Asia). Any advice on how to prepare for 10+ auditions/cure for nerves/making it so I don’t have to memorize a different monologue for each school? Thank you!
For acting programs (not MT), you will probably need at least one classical and one contemporary. One of these should be straight and one comic. A lot of kids have more. (It’s typical to have one comic classical/one tragic classical/one contemporary comic/one contemporary dramatic, but certainly not required.) It is not uncommon for auditors to ask for another one. Time them and make sure they fit individual school requirements – which vary – better to under than over. But really you’ll need to go to the website of every school you’re auditioning for and see what they want. You’re probably not going to need 10 monos, but you may have to use them in different combinations, and you may need shorter and longer cuts for some schools.
In terms of saving money, you should probably look into one or more of the Unifieds, which bring together lots of schools into a city (New York, Chicago, LA) so you can do a bunch of auditions on only one plane flight.
To add to the great advice above, some schools want two contemporary monologues and say to not do Shakespeare. Most want the combo of both, but not all. Can’t recall which schools but I think Webster or U Arts may have done this. Each school will have specific directions
If you have four monologues you should be ok. You can use different cuts for different schools depending on requirements and also have 1-2 in reserve if they ask for more.
DePaul and Syracuse both ask for no classical.