<p>@Lulusmom2 - Did you say your D and her friends are “quietly” freaking out? I didn’t think MT belter-kids did anything “quietly” (and mine is a relatively calm version)! ;-D </p>
<p>I hope your D has a blast with her final HS musical.</p>
<p>Can’t wait to hear the endings to more of this year’s wild audition stories!</p>
<p>Not one of them is quiet, that is the truth…I think it’s more that they aren’t letting each other see how nervous they are. And they are all auditioning at the same schools. In fact they are auditioning at the one school all together the same day…how nerve-wracking is that?</p>
<p>On the “quiet” note, when we went to visit Wagner, the loudest corner of the after visit luncheon gathering in the gym was the MT corner. Go figure, :)</p>
<p>Auditioning in a pack must be fun at the time, but it may be rough when the results start coming in. Good luck with that!</p>
<p>We once told our D that trained belters should have to register their voices as lethal weapons, and were only half kidding. ;-D</p>
<p>It’s tough, but they all have differing strengths so that helps. They aren’t carbon copies of each other.</p>
<p>I thought it would be rough for the mom who has MT identical twin sons auditioning together, but so far it seems like they’re getting into the same schools, which is so cool! ;-D</p>
<p>D did flute and vocal competitions (I hated them) where parents could watch all performances, and even when she won I rarely agreed with all results. Art is SO subjective – not to mention the behind-the-scene politics involved.</p>
<p>I noticed a trend in competitions, though. The performer who had a memorable ordeal – they locked their music in the practice room and had to climb over the walls, or got stuck in the snow, or forgot their instrument and had to borrow one, or was deathly ill but soldiered on, or forgot their piece partway through and cried before starting again and playing it through, etc. – often fared better in the judging than expected. </p>
<p>I bet adjudicators get exhausted after a long day so maybe the odd mishap sets a performance apart, which might result in a seemingly disastrous audition ending in an acceptance.</p>
<p>@Gwen Fairfax, Great quote! – “I think auditions are like car crashes and acts of war-- the adrenaline gets going and you’re focused so entirely on what you’re doing every second that you can’t really process anything else.”</p>
<p>I can’t imagine how loud Unifieds in Chicago are going to be next week. MT kids seeing their friends from all over and definitely, not a quiet one among them</p>
<p>I’m feeling really weird with the whole audition process, I know its normal to over analyze & nitpick but I can’t help it. While some auditors seemed to respond positevely to my material some seemed very dismissive at the end. Sort of just saying “Ok, thank you”. Does anyone have experiences where the auditors were very dismissive but thwey still got in?</p>
<p>The whole point of this thread is you can’t read into the reactions of the folks behind the table. I’m certain the auditors practice their poker faces just like your dog practices his “I’m starving” face. Sometimes you can get a hint from the student “helpers.” At an early audition my D said the people behind the table had totally blank faces. No chat. Just “thank-you, goodbye.” But in the hall afterwards the student monitor attacked her with hugs and squeals. She was accepted a few days later.<br>
The student monitor guage isn’t always accurate, however. It’s just another way you can make yourself crazy during this process! ;)</p>
<p>My daughter has also received comments such as “beautiful work” and “excellent sellections” which actually led to disappointing results. I think of those comments as “the kiss of death.” They are trying to soften the blow. (As if they could! 
)
Many times audition results are not entirely a product of what happens in the audition room, so you can understand why the people behind the table try not to give anything away.</p>
<p>This is fun! Another example, from the documentary “Every Little Step” (which should be required viewing) about the casting process for the revival of “A Chorus Line”: Young man auditions his monologue. People behind the desk politely say goodbye. Door shuts. People behind desk fall into each others’ arms, sobbing.<br>
Isn’t that great???</p>
<p>My D auditioned For UCLA as a transfer. It is well known that they accept 0-3 transfer students each year, usually 0, so she knew her chances were slim to none. She felt like she had a great audition- nailed the voice, really felt good about the monologues, clicked with the Staff, etc. Their dance audition is done as a group, and it was one of the more difficult ones she did; everyone learns it together and then you go up with a line of people for your turn. She again felt like she was really getting it, went up for a high kick, and next thing she knew she was on her rear end! She told me she figured she had nothing to lose, so jumped up and kept going. When they came to the 16 bars that the kids had to choreograph, she said she really got into it. By that time she knew she had flubbed so decided to just finish it out and have a great time. The choreographer did mention after they were all done that all dancers fall during a show at some point and the trick is how you handle it after. We drove home after and she pretty well blew that audition off. A few months later, she got an acceptance letter in the mail- could have knocked her over with a feather!She found out later that she was the only transfer they accepted. She ended up in a different program, although UCLA was one of the top on her list. Anyway, it goes to show that no matter what happens, just do your best and keep going!</p>
<p>I love these stories!</p>
<p>My first audition was in December, for Chapman’s theater program. There were only two auditors-- the department chair, and one of the senior professors. I delivered my monologues, and received redirect on some very basic mistakes I made, largely due to being a big ol’ ball of nerves: don’t act to the panel, don’t stand so close, don’t pace back and forth, be less flamboyant/overtly theatrical, etc. With that undermining my confidence, I sat down for the interview, which I stumbled through-- I contradicted my own answers a few times, put my foot in my mouth with at least one eyebrow-raiser, and basically just stuttered and asked rather simple questions. I walked out feeling like I tanked it, but a few months later I got the acceptance packet from the school and the letter said I was in for BA Theater; the letter from the department confirming this arrived two days later. I was absolutely floored, but I’ll take it if they’ll take me!</p>
<p>A few of my better performances at Unifieds didn’t make the cut, though. I felt as though my very best was at Texas State MT, and the auditor (Kaitlin Hopkins) was extremely friendly and positive, but I wasn’t even put on priority hold; I felt like talent-wise, I did equally well at Coastal Carolina MT, and they expressed further interest in me, but I wasn’t called back-- possibly because I hurried into the walk-in flustered and unprepared, and modestly downplayed my dance ability in the interview (they’re pretty intensive). They may still contact me, though, based on what the auditor said. </p>
<p>I also thought I did reasonably well at DePaul Acting in the audition and group session, but didn’t make it past the prelims (only five of our fourteen-person group made it to the callback, all girls). Didn’t have as good a feeling about Point Park Acting, but I’ll hear back from them soon enough-- the one that’s got me really worried is Emerson Acting.</p>
<p>I got absolutely schooled on my monologue-- a Tennessee Williams piece. Really fiery and big. Prof. Cranmer, the auditor, asked me on redirect to approach it from an ENTIRELY different angle; I did, and he did seem pleased with the adjustment, but as I left I couldn’t shake the feeling that I had just screwed up a very well-known piece in front of a guy who’s seen it well over a hundred times. We’ll see how that goes…</p>
<p>Oh, and one more: TCU Acting. The auditors didn’t offer corrections, but they were extremely friendly and I felt most comfortable with them of any of the interviews I did last week. I also think my audition was alright, so knock on wood for that one…</p>
<p>what about when the adjudicators ask us if we have questions at the end of an audition? does it matter if we do? i really regret not thinking of a question to ask at my last audition. i just said “the information session was really helpful.”</p>
<p>theaterguy94, I am not an auditor. However, I volunteer to do admissions interviews for my alma mater and I have been doing it for many years. At the end of the interview, I ask applicants if there is anything they want to ask me about the school. I must admit that those who have nothing to ask come across as not as interested in the school or not as engaging or curious. There truly should be specific questions you want to ask about the program after researching it as in depth as you can beforehand. While the school is choosing you, you also are choosing a school (from among the ones that accept you) and so you should show an interest in wanting to know about them too. It is important, however, when you do ask questions, that you reveal that you have already explored the school so that your questions are not so basic that they are in the literature or in the information session but more specific. Don’t worry about the auditions you have had so far, but keep these tips in mind for future auditions and job interviews and the like.</p>
<p>My D felt great about a MT audition and the head of the department came over and hugged her and said he hoped to see her again. They asked how her grades were and she said she had been a candidate for a full ride at the school. They even sent her over to perform for an acting audition. Meanwhile, she auditioned for another school and they barely looked up and she thought they were “cold”. She was rejected from the first school and accepted from the second.</p>
<p>My D had a very similar experience. with the same outcome!</p>
<p>Bumping this thread though please don’t think it just because I started it. It has a slightly different twist and agenda than the “2019 Sharing and Venting” along with “Audition Day Review” threads. I thought it might be helpful to bring this specific subject back into the mix as you all are starting to receive responses from prescreens and are actually starting the auditions. Might be a good time for a more recent update from when I asked the question back in the day when MT dinosaurs roamed the world. The stories will probably be different but I’m assuming the same message of you need to be prepared to both buckle up as well as to be surprised sometimes will still apply. I know that at this point in my daughter’s journey I was looking for science instead of art. Learned later that it was a mix and overthinking it just meant sleepless nights. Hopefully this bump will bring out some recent “veterans” of the process to share. </p>
<p>All the best! </p>
<p>Good idea to bump! Really reinforces we will never figure it all out lol</p>