My daughter will be applying to colleges as an MT major in the fall so I’ve been reading the MT threads on CC and have begun to realize how little we know about this. Can anyone explain to me how my daughter should prepare for her auditions? I gather there are coaches who prep students specifically for these auditions but I don’t know how to find a good one. She doesn’t have an acting coach or teacher. Would you recommend that she get one for help selecting appropriate monologues and preparing them? She takes voice lessons…are regular vocal coaches appropriate preparation or are there special “college audition” vocal coaches? What is music theory and do many schools test applicants on it (I know American does)? Is it better to go to each school for your audition or is it okay to go to unifieds? Do MT applicants need recommendations from vocal coaches, dance teachers, and directors in addition to academic teachers? The schools my daughter can get into academically are limited ( 3.0 GPA without many AP classes and no honors classes, 1140 SAT but she will take it again and will also take the ACT soon). Does anyone know of schools that she’d have a chance of getting accepted to that have strong MT programs? She loved Muhlenberg and Ithaca and is the border for getting in academically but she needs to apply to a lot more schools than that! Anything else that I don’t even know to ask?
Ask in the musical theater subforum http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/musical-theater-major/
Her current voice teacher can probably help her adequately prepare. She will need to know well in advance what the requirements are. Some schools want an upbeat and a ballad, others a classic and a contemporary, art song/light opera is fine for some but not others etc. Is there a drama teacher at the high school who can help with monologues? Maybe someone from a community theater? There are resources online for monologues, but it’s much better to have a real person. Music theory is the technical side of music. For this setting, probably knowing your scales and triads, solfege, and music reading skills. (If she can’t truly read music, she needs to start learning now) A school might include elementary piano skills with that.
Going to unifieds doesn’t hurt, just know that not everyone sends representatives to unifieds or at least the one closest to you. The benefit of going to the schools to audition is getting to see the campus, talk to students, meet professors, try the food, check out the town etc.
You should definetly hit up the MT board. My kids didn’t go that route but we’re in the business most of their childhood and had tons of friends that did. I have to say, the most successful had coaches specializing in college admissions. They not only could help them find programs but knew what each school expected and could tailor each audition to those specifications. It’s not just learning 2 songs and 2 monologues.
Make sure your child applies to some “middle” programs. This is the biggest mistake we’ve seen… kids only going for the Carnegie Melons and ignoring decent and more probable programs in Arizona. A program like Carnegie Melon will take 10 kids… 5 boys, 5 girls. They are casting their shows so they are going for types which means a kid could really only be up for one slot. Just make sure to cover your bases. Are you in New York? I think it’s Suny Fredonia (or something like that that has a good program that some see as a safer bet.) We know several kids that had luck with Ryder when they didn’t get into the top 10 (and Ryder has a bigger program… takes more kids.)
Keep in mind that there is little scholarship and it often goes to males. The schools these programs are in can be really expensive. Often they don’t care much what your academic stats are (as long as you aren’t failing) if you are accepted in audition but make sure.
I’d also find a safety she can get into academically which has a good, non-audition theatre program.
Just had an event at Ds Performing Arts high school to cover this topic. It’s very involved but doable. Big take away was to cast a wide net and include BA programs (non audition). MT Director (former Broadway) assured us you can get great training and show experience at BA programs and that casting directors really don’t care about your background, they care about your audition. He also said that lessor known BFA programs are excellent. The big difference between the name brands and the lesser known are showcases. The big brands attend annual showcases in NYC or LA so their kids get some additional exposure. Director definitely emphasized knowing the audition requirements per school. He said some require ballet for dance. He used that as an example and flat out said, “if you’re not strong in ballet, don’t bother. Just a waste of time and money”. He said others will have very little emphasis on dance; just want to see how you move so they can teach you.
He suggested creating a spreadsheet that included application and audition dates, type of program, unifieds, pre screenscreen, etc. Easy to track what’s going on.
@overwhelmed2019 if you haven’t started reading some of the MT board threads, start now and don’t stop, haha. One thread is called Coaches Corner and you will read about how the Audition coaches helped other students and their parent through this crazy roller coaster ride. We found out too late there even was such a thing as coaches. If you can afford one, it is definitely the way to go to help keep your sanity, and I truly believe that they give your child a “leg-up” with some of the top tier schools (if that is the kind of program you are looking for). Music theory is pretty important in the MT BFA programs, and most schools will have piano as part of the curriculum. Every MT program that we looked at had a different curriculum so in choosing schools to apply to you may want to check that out and see what schools are strongest in the areas your child wants to become better at or what your child enjoys more. If your child thrives on being on stage, then remember that at some programs freshman will not be cast in productions. There are colleges who have lots of performance opportunities and colleges that have very few. (I believe it it Nebraska Wesleyan who has tons of performance opportunities). Some programs think students learn best while “doing” and some programs think students need to learn in classroom and learn by being involved backstage. SO many things to consider. Good luck!!
Yes, you definitely want to get over the theater group. My kid is not doing this, he is probably going a music/academic route though he is interested in being involved in theater in college. He has been doing youth through professional theater for a while. Yes, you want a drama coach to help prep, though I would talk to your vocal coach/voice teacher first depending on their background. If the vocal coach is well qualified and experienced she can probably help you with auditions too at least on the singing end.
The auditioned BFA programs are SO competitive and like someone said above it depends on your “type” too. No school is going to cast all their females as blonde, leading lady types. Auditioning for those programs is almost like applying to a lottery school. So know and love your back up plan - is that a gap year, a BA/non-audition program, etc
What state are you in? See if any of your in state schools have good MT programs as those may be financially better.
You should definetly hit up the MT board
Surprisingly one of the more active schools on the Musical Theater board is Wright State University. It may not be a school you’re interested in but you might have a greater chance of having your questions answered.
Moving this thread to the MT board.
This thread may be helpful: http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/musical-theater-major/477658-preparing-to-apply-information-for-h-s-juniors-and-seniors.html#latest
A great place to start would be to read the book by college audition coach Mary Anna Dennard, I Got In! The Ultimate College Audition Guide For Acting And Musical Theater. It is available on Amazon.
Mary Anna has posted a great set of free videos (Vlogs) that you can browse on her website that cover a broad range of topics that will help you get an idea for what you are facing (College Audition Coach dot com).
I posted a long list of threads from this forum that may help at the end of this post.
Auditioning for top college theatre programs is an incredibly competitive arena in which you will be well-served to use a specialized coach to help you with songs, monologues, balanced school lists, resumes, headshots, etc.
Three excellent, nationally-known college audition coaching services are:
Mary Anna Dennard - website: College Audition Coach
MTCA (Ellen M. Lettrich) - website MTCA - Musical Theatre College Auditions
MCA (Chelsea Diehl) - website: My College Audition
Each year there are posts on this forum from anguished parents with students who did not receive any acceptances due to school lists too heavily weighted with the most competitive programs, poor choices of material, lack of adequate advice on how to prepare, etc. A specialized college audition coach can help you avoid these problems. Given the effort and expense involved in the process, many consider the money to be well worth the investment.
Music Theory is the study of how to read and interpret music, covering music notation, rules of harmony, ear training, rhythm, sight singing and so forth. It really helps to have a good grounding in Music Theory if you are considering pursuing a college major in Musical Theatre, but it is not a requirement. Many MT programs do give incoming students a Music Theory test - sometimes during the audition, sometimes when they arrive on campus for placement in Music Theory classes. If you have some basic knowledge of music theory, you will likely place out of an introductory Music Theory class. To my knowledge, programs usually do not weigh the results of Music Theory tests heavily in their determination of artistic acceptance, it is generally weighted very heavily (100 percent in many/most cases) on what you show in the audition room. However, once in the major, those with prior training in Music Theory will find their way much easier than those with little or no training. College Music Theory classes can be quite demanding, and Music Theory is a requirement in every MT program.
The general consensus seems to be that it makes no difference in the odds for admission. Unifieds offers the chance to audition for many programs in a short time, but some consider the atmosphere to be a little too intense. On-campus offers the chance to see the school and usually includes tours, parent info sessions with the MT department, etc., but requires much more effort and expense.
Generally speaking, yes, artistic references are required by most programs.
There are many schools with excellent MT programs where she will likely be accepted academically. For example:
U Arts
Ball State
Baldwin-Wallace
Boston Conservatory
Carnegie Mellon (they relax their academic criteria greatly for Acting and MT majors)
Central Florida
CCM (Cincinnati)
Coastal Carolina
Hartt
Ithaca
Millikin
Molloy
Montclair
Northern Colorado
Oklahoma City
Otterbein
Pace
Point Park
Roosevelt
Sam Houston State
Shenandoah
Temple
Texas State
Viterbo
Webster
Western Michigan
Rider
Wright State
This list is just off the top of my head, and I am certainly not an expert in academic acceptance counseling. A great source of information on academic acceptance criteria for every college is the website “College Data dot com.”
Here are some past threads that may help you:
http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/musical-theater-major/1880883-junior-year.html
… and this ^ is why you’ll never be allowed to leave this forum, @EmsDad. :x
The biggest things we learned after coming in completely blind:
I would not wait until unifieds to do all the auditions. If they go poorly, there is no time to course correct. Do at least one on-campus MT audition early in the season. It will eliminate some of the mystery, could be a good source of feedback, and can also give your kid a realistic view of the “competition.” We chose an in-state university with a pretty good, but not “I must go here or I will die,” MT program, for D’s fall audition and it was super valuable. We were able to drive there and back that day, so it wasn’t costly either. That was when we discovered some hilariously now-obvious things, such as, don’t use all depressing material, and maybe leggings and an old baggy sweater were not the right move.
Use a coach. Her voice teacher, the PA director, and the acting teacher, while well-intentioned, are very likely completely clueless about what is needed for MT auditions today. Even if they were on Broadway “back in the day.” My D’s Broadway-veteran PA acting director literally said it would be “easy peasy” for her to get into any program. Ha! You don’t have to do the thousands of dollars, several months, one-week workshop, yadda yadda, with a coach, but coaches can be so helpful with the list of schools appropriate for your kid, and the one we used, MCA, does ad-hoc sessions, even via Skype. So if you just need help selecting a monologue, a song, or want coaching on acting for the song, you can add those as needed.
Dance classes, especially ballet. Yes, programs will take “movers” and non-dancers. But being comfortable with dance, the terminology, and the foundational moves, will only help them be confident, and possibly eliminate one “strike” in a brutal, unforgiving process.
LOVE your safety!
@GloriaVaughn Wow! Thank you for this thorough answer!! She does sight read very well but I don’t even know what triads and solfege are. I guess she and I both have some work to do.
@rickle1 Thank you for all the information. You’ve answered another question I’ve asked on CC and both times your answers were really helpful. We visited Muhlenberg (BA program) last week and were really impressed with the tour of the theatre department. Ithaca was nice too but oddly not as impressive as Muhlenberg but that probably had more to do with the fact that our tour guide honestly didn’t know anything about MT and couldn’t answer anyone’s questions. On our way to Emerson this afternoon.
@CMB625 Great info, thank you for sharing it. I didn’t know that some schools don’t allow freshman to perform so that was very useful information. I am new to discussion boards but I have looked at the MT discussions here. I’d love to read the coaches corner thread that’s you talked about…can you tell me how to find it?
@overwhelmed2019 here is a link to the coaches corner thread:
http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/musical-theater-major/2069570-coaches-corner.html#latest
Another point we learned the other night from D’s school director is in the actual prep for auditions. He was emphatic about having an audition book assembled with 8 songs and 8 monologues “ready to go” for every audition. Your kid may have their go to material, but the audition folks may want to see a different style. If you don’t have it, they’ll listen to you but you basically have no shot (because you’re not prepared to show them what they want to see - you may have “the look” for a specific part they have in mind so they want to hear you sing that genre for a show they’re considering next yr or in a few yrs). So have your kids put the time in to build a great audition book. One of those better to have and not need than need and not have moments!