I’ve been trying to figure out why this is such a big deal among some of my friends and their kids. Thank you @connections for this:
“High school students are familiar with learning by being in shows. That is how they fell in love with performing after all. But in college the learning is much deeper, in a series of classes, in which they do scenes, character studies, techniques, etc etc.”
It will give me a great talking point when I try to explain why casting doesn’t have to be most important priority in college.
There has always been quite differing opinions on this and no answer is correct. You have to allow your child to choose what is best for him/her. I agree that no casting director will care what part you played your sophomore year in college but I wholeheartedly believe that you learn by doing. (I am a school teacher). The more opportunities you have to audition, be on stage in front of an audience and perform the more you will grow as a performer. I also do not believe that if you can’t audition until junior year that that is in some way harmful to a student’s career. Do what’s best for you and choose the experience you want that fits with how you view things.
I’ve had one in each type of program. In the first, freshmen were required to audition and receive audition feedback. They were pretty busy freshman year completing the crew requirements anyway. Also, they had a student-run musical theater club that freshmen could be cast in, so she got her fill with that. In the second, my son was cast in a freshman show and he also had time to complete crew assignments because of the different structure of the program. BFA freshmen aren’t allowed to be involved in the student run performing group at that school. I don’t think that either should be a dealbreaker and there are pros/cons to either type.
I started an answer but see @lovetoact said almost the same thing! I have one in each and there are definitely pros and cons to both. My S was cast in the fall and spring of his freshman year and he had to run hard to adjust to campus living, a college schedule and rehearsals until all hours. It was really tough; especially the fall of freshman year. He was completely exhausted. My D is not permitted to perform on the mainstage but ended up on costume crew her first semester freshman year so she ended up at the theater until all hours as the performance dates neared. She said she is very glad she did not have the added pressure of auditioning and performing her first year (beyond the scene work and ensemble work they do in class).
UNCSA is the same as LAMDA, CMU, Juilliard and others. Not public performances until third year (unless they just need an extra body on stage).
There are other avenues to perform there the first two years (class scenes, intensive arts showcase, etc) and crew to work.
The reasoning is same as we heard described at Juilliard - first two years are ensemble building and breaking all the habits you came in with. Basically removing all you thought you knew and starting to build up new skills. UNCSA also has no auditions and just places you where they feel you need to be when it comes to casting.
My daughter did feel this was important when looking at schools but she was opposite most and said the deal breaker would be schools that regularly cast freshman. Lol. In her mind it was all about training and not the performing. So funny because I am sure both ways work very well. Just different perspectives.
Just for a little different persective…does anyone think that the opportunity or requirement to audition for shows as a freshman is more valuable than the opportunity to be cast? I’m projecting ahead to all the auditioning they will need to do - to book paid work in the future. I was thinking how important the audition experiences have been so far and will be over the years - researching characters, learning audition material/callback cuts, running lines, learning choreography from a variety of shows…plus taking direction from a variety of faculty, directors, choreographers, etc…at the auditions!?
Casting wasn’t a deal-breaker at all for my D last year. Her two favorite schools were on opposite sides of the spectrum.
Full disclosure…she has been cast as a freshman and it certainly has its perks and its challenges.
I think you can get the audition experience in multiple ways. For example, some school provide an abundance of masterclass opportunities, summer stock audition opportunities, etc. While the student may not be auditioning for a show for 1, 2, or 3 years, they may still be polishing, getting feedback on, and perfecting audition material. If you have a school that only auditions once a semester or year for all shows, that’s two auditions. What if you have multiple summer stock and masterclass opportunities throughout the year? I am not trying to encompass every scenario in my comments, just provide another perspective on how you can still audition without it being show casting.
I agree with @IfYouOnlyKnew, and I also definitely agree that audition experience and technique is super important. But you don’t have to audition for mainstage shows to get audition experience. On top of auditioning for summer shows, internships, etc, many schools offer classes that focus on audition techniques, on top of masterclasses.
My D was a theatre major at NU with an Acting For Film module. This module included not just practice with on screen auditions and very quick memorization (like, they would be told the lines and role the night before and be required to ‘audition’ on film the next morning), but also included figuring out their ‘type’ for marketing and presenting oneself in the audition. This is of course one example of how schools can teach audition techniques.
That said, if the student has limited or no audition experience, it is very important to build them before graduation. Although colleges shows are not really cast the same way the ‘real world’ casts, Auditioning for mainstage shows can be one way to continue to get used to auditioning.
At Montclair you audition for everything and if you are the right person for the part, you get it, even leads freshman year (I believe a freshman is Maria in West Side Story this year!). One acting teacher told me when we visited the school that “seniority” would only be a factor if ALL else was equal… . Mainly the message is: we pick the best person for the part per our vision of the show. One thing I have noticed about my daughter as her college years have gone by is that she is much more accepting of that. It is much easier for her to shrug off not getting cast than it was 3-4 years ago and not see it as a failure or take it personally. I think going through auditions and the potential to be cast/not cast every semester has helped her learn to roll with it, and though of course there have been disappointments and parts she hoped for and didn’t get, she moves on quickly. When EVERYONE is talented it becomes crystal clear that casting is about a million other things… and I do think that going through the process every year has helped with that and certainly if they continue in this field they need to get used to that. But like others have said, you can probably argue this in any direction and if you love your school you’ll be ok with however they do it.
UArts only allows freshmen to be cast in student productions the first semester, but freshmen can be cast second semester. (My D was the lead in a musical 2nd semester freshman year, and other freshmen were also cast then.) Although she was itching to get onstage first semester, my D liked this arrangement; she thought it gave her time to adjust to college life. (Pneumonia prevented her from auditioning for even student productions that first semester. It ended up being fine, and, although she was anxious to audition for things like student productions, I suspect it would have been okay to not be cast even without her illness.)
Besides the performing done in studio classes, there are often many ways to jump into performing even if auditioning for main stage productions is not allowed: student productions, cabarets, improv groups, student films… For instance, even though D wasn’t able to audition for student productions first semester freshman year, D was involved in short student films and modeling for photography majors. Another CC mom has a freshman MT at UArts who dove right into things immediately and seems to be taking advantage of every performance she can–even throughout that first semester, which I think is awesome. Others want to take time to get used to things. It all seems to work out.
Rightly or wrongly, my D didn’t want to be in a program in which one has to wait until junior year to perform (including CMU, which ultimately wasn’t on her list for other reasons, as well). She thought she’d get too eager to be onstage even if she performed during summers, she wanted to be in casts with upperclassmen and others, and she learns through performances in front of audiences. Neither of us thought freshman casting policies were a deciding factor, though; we both saw advantages and disadvantages of casting freshman year, only second semester freshman year, and not at all that year.
The no access to the stage policy as a freshman at Webster is why we took it off of our list. Freshmen get cast at Viterbo. D has been cast 3 out of her 4 semesters. A freshman is playing Lucy right now in Avenue Q. I also remember when we visited OCU that we were told it’s your job as a freshman to come in and “put in on” the upperclassmen. But, having said this, I would not advise any of my students in the future to strike schools from their lists because freshmen are benched. Not getting cast as a freshman is usually the norm. It does happen and often at some places. But, so much growth takes place in that first year as a performer that it’s not that big of a deal to not get cast as a freshman. I think what stinks for most of our kids is that they are coming from high schools and environments where they have been involved in theatre since forever and the thought of not being in a production for a year seems unimaginable.
It seems unimaginable . . . until the realize the rigors of a BFA program even without a rehearsal schedule tacked on. When my D came home for winter break, she compared class schedules to her friends. Most of them are taking four or five classes. She had seven her first semester. Sure, some were once a week like voice. But her daily schedule was still far more jam packed than theirs.
I’m a freshman at Point Park right now and I was down about the fact they didn’t allow freshmen to perform but let me tell you IT WAS A BLESSING. I can’t imagine having had to adjust to college and a BFA schedule and on top of that worrying about auditions for conservatory shows. We got a little taste of auditioning 2nd semester with the May Playhouse Jr. shows auditions and that in itself was probably the most stressful week of my life. I thankfully survived and even managed to get cast but I think a lot of these programs are smart to not let freshmen perform. I enjoyed the chance to really hone in and focus on my training and have that be my primary worry. I’m definitely ready take on any auditions you throw at me next year but I’m thankful for this year of focus on honing my skills.