Reporting on how the auditions went, what to expect at individual schools...

College Majors Musical Theater Major
1

<p>Hi! </p>

<p>My D is auditioning at Syracuse on Friday. When return I will post information about how it went: where we stayed, the order the audition went in, who she auditioned for (staff or grad students etc.), how well organized they were, etc.
D is auditioning as part of one of their "Welcome Sessions". She did'nt know if there would be time to change clothes etc. The department of drama told us that we will start out with the "welcome wagon" and then will be bused to the drama building after an hour or so. She said to wear dance clothes and bring something else to change into for songs/monologues etc. More later.....</p>

<p>Sarahsmom42</p>

2

<p>Sarahsmom42, my D and I just attended one of those "welcome" sessions. (I think they call them "fall receptions" or visiting days.) Though my D was not auditioning (she is a junior), several girls who were auditioning were along. You might want to check out the Syracuse thread (SU is listed with the other MT schools at the top of the CC page for Musical Theatre) as I think others who have auditioned have posted there. From what I observed, the auditioning kids attended (with parents) a general welcome session at the Schine student center and then were bused (thank goodness, as it was a lousy, cold and rainy day in NY State!) to the Syacuse Stage, which is where the Dept of Drama and MT are. That day, Doris Roberts was visiting, so they ushered us into the Storch Theater and we observed a Q&A session between Roberts and a professor, with students being permitted to ask questions at the end. They then shepherded us into a room for an info session. That is when it seemed to me that the girls who were auditioning were taken out to do a dance audition. From there, I believe they had the time to use the bathroom to change into other clothes for their monologues and songs. The parents still in the info session caught up with their kids when they took us on a tour of the Syracuse Stage.</p>

3

<p>Thanks! I'm picking my D up in 45 min. and we're off. She's excited and a little nervous since this is her first one. It will be a good chance to see what she needs to work on and also to see how well her material is received. Hopefully it will set her up many great auditions to come.
Thanks for the support, this forum has been a so helpful for ME as well as my D. </p>

<p>Sarahsmom</p>

4

<p>My mom and I are heading to the airport for B-W in a minute and I'll be sure to report when I get home. Good luck to all auditioning this weekend.</p>

5

<p>Just got back from Syracuse today for my audition! I am happy to say that I got to meet two CC Mom's and daughters, and it was great! We all were able to eat together and take a tour of a residence hall. We even invited another mom to join the CC forum!!</p>

<p>So I had a really nice time at Syracuse. It is a big campus, more spread out than other schools I have been to. The morning started out with a general information session, and then we went to a session at the school of visual and performing arts (VPA). The building which houses VPA, Crouse College, is beautiful, and we were able to listen to the organ teacher (I think that's who he was) play a piece for us. Next those of us there for drama were bussed to the Syracuse Stage, about a 4-5 minute bus ride. This is where they also hold classes for the dept., I found out today.
We had a Q & A segment with Jim Clark, and I really liked him. He seemed really accessible and down-to-earth.
There were about 20 people auditioning today, if I recall. We were taken to the dance rooms to get prepared for the dance audition first. We were given time to change first, into our dance clothes, although, it was a pretty quick change, let me tell you. :) Then we divided into two groups to learn our dance combination. In my room, the combination was pretty fast and jazzy, including things like, a double pirouette. At the end, he even included a little tap thing. (Although we were in jazz shoes, I think he just wanted to see if our feet could do it) We practiced the combination several times, and then performed it in pairs. Each pair got to perform it 2 or 3 times.
Then we changed clothes and headed upstairs to do our songs and monologue. A word of warning...make sure you bring plenty of water. I don't think I drank enough while I was sitting there listening to the information sessions, so after dancing, I was pretty thirsty!!
The singing happened in two rooms. I believe everyone I talked to afterwards was asked to sing both of their songs, and then the monologue was performed either in the same room or in another room down the hall. </p>

<p>Syracuse seemed like a cool school...I definitely think it is the kind of place where there is a lot going on. I met a lot of musical theater majors who were assisting with auditions, and they were all extremely nice and supportive. They were saying things like "Oh, I remember when I did this!"
I liked the campus a lot. The dorms seem a little small, but they have things such as split doubles, which give you a nice bit of privacy. The food I ate was pretty good, haha, although after the audition maybe I was just starving! The city of Syracuse seemed pretty industrial. I didn't see much of it, but it seemed like any city. It actually kind of reminded me of Hartford, CT a little bit.
Anyway, that's a pretty brief retelling of my day. It was a really good day and I had so much fun! Overall, he biggest impressions I got today were that the musical theatre students and faculty are exceedingly nice, and that the program has a ton of opportunities. And plus, I really liked the feel of the campus...and I have visited a LOT of schools in my time. :)</p>

<p>Good luck to all, and soooo happy to meet you today Sarahsmom and evasmom</p>

<p>:)
Amy</p>

6

<p>Thanks for that! It's nice to have a detailed experience of a typical audition at these schools. I do have a "newbie" type question though.</p>

<p>With the water situation, are you allowed to bring it in the audition room? Specifically when you do your songs and monologues, because I don't want to be carrying in my bag of dance clothes and what not, but I don't know if I'm allowed to bring that kind of stuff into the room with me or if it's too unprofessional.</p>

7

<p>It was really nice to meet Amy and Sarah and her mom yesterday. Even being jaded Syracusans we were very impressed with the drama program and as was said, especially the students. Before we were even out of the parking lot two students called over to my D to ask if she was auditioning and wished her luck!
I would agree that the cities of Syracuse and Hartford have similarities. I do think that the University in Hartford is more in a suburban location and SU is more in the city. I think we get more snow too!
One thing re: Syracuse - there is a Drama Living Community that can be requested in the dorms, so the students live with other drama students and have activities they can participate in.</p>

8

<p>Hi! </p>

<pre><code>First of all, Break Into Song- I'd carry the water bottle with you into the auditiorium and dance space, and maybe even leave one in your dance bag for after. If they don't want you to bring it in, they'll tell you. Hydrate before, during and after if you can. D wore her leotard and tights under black pants and a sweater in the morning to make the quick change before dancing easier. They give you plenty of time after dancing to change, but not much before.
Amy gave a great account of the day so I just want to add a couple of things.. We had to be at the U at 9:00, but the actual audition did not start until about 11:30. An energy bar would have been great. D was starving during the auditions! (Meeting new people, anticipating etc. is stressful and burns energy!)

If you are traveling by car, be sure to examine the map and don't trust map quest as a sole source of directions. (We missed the turn and ended up way out of our way.)
We are going to pack a separate travel bag today with everything D will need for coming auditions: toiletries, makeup, baby wipes freshen up after dancing, extra copies of resumes, headshots, Motrin, water bottles etc.. From now on, all she will have to do is grab the bag and go. She'll bring the same outfits and dance clothes, so those will get washed and put in. Hopefully this will eliminate some stress! I'll put directions to the hotel, a receipt of the reservations etc. in my own travel bag and will be sure to add a MAP of the directions as well as the city and school to my files!
Last thing..Although we had registered and were confirmed for the fall reception with admissions, they did not have us on the list when we checked in. It was pretty unnerving, because I was worried that they she would not be on the auditions list! Luckily I had confirmed with both the admissions office AND the drama department and will do so for future trips.
</code></pre>

<p>Sarahsmom42</p>

9

<p>speaking of water, i brought my water bottle into one of the dance studios and then they informed us we were splitting into groups...so I left my water bottle in there! no wonder i got so thirsty...man, that was no fun :P hahaha</p>

10

<p>My mom and I just got back this morning from my audition at B-W this past Saturday and it was a blast. First off, it was freaking freezing. Now, I am a born and raised Tucson, Arizonan so for most of y'all it would have been good weather but, holy mackrel, I froze. Anyway, I got to see a workshop given by Vicky Bussert (the head of the MT program) on Friday and that was really impressive. She had two current students and two high school students sing a song and then worked with them and the results were amazing. She transformed the songs into performance pieces. I was throughly impressed. </p>

<p>Then, on Saturday, all the auditionees came together at 9 am and were herded into a tiny room where we discussed the school with current students while the parents discussed other stuff with the admissins lady and a few other students. During this time, those who had chosen to do a piano evalution did it. It consisted of playing about 30 seconds of a prepared piece and then sightreading a really easy, chordal song. While you weren't doing that, they took us one by one to audition for Vicky, the dance head lady, and the music head lady, who doubled as a great pianist. The whole thing is very laid back; you go in with your student guide (who sits at the back and smiles encouragingly at you) and Vicky asks what three pieces you brought and she chooses two. You then sing them, then announce your monologue and perform it. You are then led out and back to the tiny room with the other folks where we waited until it was time for the masterclass with Robert Longbottom (famous director who directed the original Broadway production of Side Show). At the masterclass, the seniors, juniors, and then sophomores got up and sang for him and listened to his comments. It was very instructional and pretty cool, too. </p>

<p>After that, all the auditonees walked to the big gym where we did the dance audition. Overall, I'd say it was pretty simple. There wasn't any move too complicated; there were simply lots of steps put to very fast music. We learned the dance together and then did it twice (with a student leader in front) in groups of eight. It was quite relaxed and very fun, as well. That was pretty much it for the audition but I had the distinct privilege of seeing their production of Side Show, which was incredible. Breath-taking from start to finish. I loved it. The cast was great, especially the sisters who were perfect, and the staging was exhilarating at times and chilling at others. If I had any doubts about B-W left, this show quenched them. That's pretty much the whole trip. Was anyone else from the board there?</p>

11

<p>danimal88...i am so glad you enjoyed your audition here at bw! i am a current freshman MT. if you have any questions, do let me know by IM/PM/email. </p>

<p>i remember that from last year's auditions, the first audition (the november one) had the most acceptances out of any audition day. she accepted 7 that day out of the 22 total she accepted out of 250ish who auditioned. 16 took the offer...we have one of the largest classes in the department now. </p>

<p>you'll be hearing from bw soon! hope the rest of your auditions go well.</p>

<p>-nick</p>

12

<p>danimal,
I'm glad you had a good trip to B-W. I'm thinking about you and your auditions!</p>

13

<p>Thank you, Nick and Ms. Chris! Nick - Did you help at all with auditions or anything? Would I have met you?</p>

14

<p>I didn't help out with auditions...but I was definitely around since I had some friends auditioning. I have brown hair a little past my ears, was wearing track pants, a grey pull over, tennis shoes, and had just rolled out of bed- perhaps you remember me? ha! i came into the classroom everyone was waiting in around 11 or noonish to say hi to my friends.</p>

<p>i sat in the back during the robert longbottom master class.</p>

15

<p>Has anyone auditioned at Michigan yet? If so, please let us know how it went and how long it took. D is really excited to have been invited to audition at U Mich. and can't wait until Jan. 12.
Sarahsmom</p>

16

<p>Has anyone auditioned at UArts, or does anyone know about how the audition process works? I would love any tips or info! Thanks</p>

<p>Katie</p>

17

<p>Has anyone attended the auditions at UNT?</p>

18

<p>This thread has been languishing for a while, so I'll try to revive it by reporting on our daughter's experience at her Otterbein audition last Friday, Dec 1st.</p>

<p>If you haven't already read [url=<a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/member.php?u=6135%5Ddoctorjohn's%5B/url"&gt;http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/member.php?u=6135]doctorjohn's[/url&lt;/a&gt;] excellent discription of their audition process, I encourage you to check it out [url=<a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=78857%5Dhere%5B/url"&gt;http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=78857]here[/url&lt;/a&gt;] on the Otterbein forum. To this I'd like to add only a couple comments from daughter's point of view.</p>

<ol>
<li><p>As doctorjohn relates, the auditionees were split into 2 groups of 12. And they actually sat in on the auditions of each member in their group. I think daughter enjoyed the opportunity to hear/observe her fellow auditionees. But she was the last in her group to audition, and by that time the combination of an extreme adrenaline rush and a loss of focus on her own performance resulted in a less than optimum audition. So her advice to future OC auditionees is to just be aware of this, and don't let the other's auditions pull you away from your own game plan.</p></li>
<li><p>Daughter really appreciated the fact that Otterbein took the time to interview all of the auditionees. This added a very personal touch to the process for her and provided the opportunity to get to know doctorjohn and Harriet Hill a little better. She felt that this in itself made her Otterbein audition a much more pleasant and positive experience than her previous two.</p></li>
</ol>

<p>So kudos to the Otterbein team for providing a little sunshine on an otherwise blustery late-autumn Midwestern day. :)</p>

19

<p>Thanks, SrMoment. It's interesting to me that all of the kids auditioning got to witness each other's auditions. I wonder if that's unusual. Anyone? One thing your post left me wondering: you said that the Otterbein team interviewed <em>all</em> of the auditioners. Were the interviews done in private?</p>

20

<p>NMR, I think it is not the usual way that most schools run their auditions. At least when my D auditioned years ago, along with many of her friends who were going through the process, most auditions are done individually with only the auditors observing. </p>

<p>SrMoment, I, too, have a question about your interview comment. I'm surprised, I guess, that you've been to two schools so far who have NOT interviewed applicants. For some reason, I thought all schools would interview those who were auditioning. Maybe things have changed in the past few years, or perhaps those two schools are ones with which I'm not familiar. Best of luck to your D on the rest of her audition season!</p>