UNCSA High School Program

College Majors Theater/Drama Majors
21

<p>You sound like you’re at least a junior, since you’ve taken SAT and ACT already. Going to a summer theatre intensive is a great plan - I do hope you get in. </p>

<p>Most of us don’t know the specifics of the UNCSA summer program or its admission requirements, although we know lots of students who have applied there as undergraduates. If you are following the rules for this summer program, as I’ve said, you should be fine. But we are trying to help you understand the finer points of auditioning for university programs - summer or otherwise - if you are planning in another year or so to audition for the actual schools.</p>

<p>You said that the summer program seems to take 22/75-100. That is less than 1/3 odds, maybe less than 1/4. That is not high probability. That is highly selective. We aren’t going to comment on your talent - we have no way of assessing that, and on these threads we all just assume all of the kids are very talented (why not?). You have a lot of experience and dedication, and that is important. We know you want to have a good audition, so we’re giving you our perspective.</p>

<p>If we sound like we are suggesting you exceed the summer program’s expectations, we are. There are 2 good reasons for that: </p>

<p>1) You will have an edge over other HS kids who do overdone material, inappropriate material, or just plain unsophisticated material. Don’t you think the people auditioning you have seen Juliet about a million times? Or Lady Macbeth? Will they be excited to hear it yet again? Are you really going to do it better than they’ve ever seen? Does it show that you really care about plays that you picked the 2 absolutely most familiar female Shakespearean characters? Shakespeare itself is basically all overdone - but there are 100 female parts that at least could show some creativity in your choice. I saw Troilus and Cressida a couple of weeks ago - Cressida has some great speeches, and I bet no one’s going to be doing those at your auditions. As for MT monologues, I don’t know why they are generally discouraged or forbidden, but they are. They are fine in certain situations - my D used one when auditioning for MT, for example, and she has used a couple more in her acting classes in college. But rules are rules, so whatever you are auditioning for, just make sure you are following them. It is absolutely pointless to question them; these auditors have all the power, and you want something from them, so just suck it up.</p>

<p>2) If you are a junior or senior in HS, and you are considering auditioning for a college program, eventually you are going to have to develop the proper audition material for that process. This will mean age appropriate monologues from full-length plays, period. They will ask you to contrast time periods and styles. You will need probably 4-5 monologues minimum to meet the various schools’ requirements (classic/contemporary/comedic/dramatic/Shakespeare/non-Shakespeare). If you go to a summer program, you will likely get a ton of help picking these out and learning to prepare them. That is great! But it wouldn’t hurt to come in with an idea of what are the right kinds of monologues for college auditions. Don’t you think the people who are teaching HS kids (especially rising seniors) what they need to do would respect someone who already has learned what is appropriate material, who is ready to get to work? Another aspect of doing monologues from plays in college auditions is that they expect you to have read the entire play, to have understood it and be able to talk about it. I suspect this is one reason why MT material is discouraged; many MT librettos aren’t written for that kind of study. Many are - but I think it’s just convenient to drop them all, rather than nitpick, just as they do movies or anything that isn’t a full-length play.</p>

<p>You can do what this program asks - a HS program is a HS program, and that is great. Just please try to absorb what we’re saying, because very soon you’re going to have to work to these other requirements, just like everyone else who wants a spot in a theatre program. And no auditioned program - summer and then undergraduate - is going to give you better than about 15-20% acceptance rates, often less than 10%. There is no room to question why the rules were made. You just have to show what you can do within them. It especially doesn’t matter how well you’ve done in theatre otherwise; at the audition you generally don’t get a chance to explain any of this, and you definitely don’t want to stand out as the person who didn’t follow the rules or came full of rationalizations.</p>

<p>I’m not just saying this for your benefit - I think you’re taking a very thoughtful approach. Lots of kids read these threads, so I’m speaking generally for anyone who might be going through the same experience.</p>

22

<p>Another way to think of this is that you want your audition to be the best they have ever heard that monologue delivered. So if you are choosing a monologue that is well-known, they will have already heard it so many times that the odds are they have heard it MANY times done better than you are going to do it.</p>

<p>If you are absolutely certain that your Juliet and your Val are going to be the best Juliet and Val that the auditors have ever heard, then go for it. Otherwise, you should probably choose a monologue that they haven’t heard as many times.</p>

<p>I don’t think that the “don’t use a monologue from a musical” guideline is a hard and fast rule (in fact none of these are rules, they are all just guidelines). Some musicals do have monologues just as good as monologues from plays. Including a Chorus Line. But Val’s monologue is certainly one that the auditors will have heard many times. (The reason that these monologues get overused is because they are such good monologues! It also occurs to me that Val of course has a perfect body, thanks to surgery. So unless you have a perfect body (and since I have never met you, I have no idea whether you do or don’t) Val wouldn’t be right for your type)</p>

<p>In terms of your classical, I tell people that since Shakespeare is the best known, most performed classical writer, pretty much ALL of his monologues for actors under 35 have become overused. So I suggest that for a classical monologue–unless the audition instructions ask for Shakespeare specifically–find a different English playwright from before about 1800 for your classical.</p>

<p>KEVP</p>

23

<p>Emmybet and KEVP offer excellent advice. Another tip that you might not know about: avoid the monologues found in monologue books. These are all very overdone monologues, for the most part, and some are not even from published plays.</p>

<p>For college auditions (ideally, for any audition) you should have read the entire play the monologue is from, and the play should be a published play.</p>

<p>Sometimes, a monologue can be created from a dialogue by eliminating the lines spoken by the other character. There is nothing wrong with this; it is commonly done. Similarly, it is acceptable to eliminate some of the lines within a monologue in order to stay within a time limit (you never, ever, want to go over the time limit – shorter is better!), just so long as the monologue still makes sense.</p>

<p>I echo the statement above that you are smart, ifoundalaska (probably your screen name refers to the excellent John Green book?) to be asking these questions now. Carefully following the advice given by posters here can give you an advantage over others auditioning for any program you are interested in.</p>

<p>Two books about auditioning that I can’t recommend highly enough:</p>

<p>“Audition” by Shurtleff.</p>

<p>“How to Stop Acting” by Guskin.</p>

24

<p>I’d just like to clarify that this is a high school audition. They ask for no specifications about the monologue- just that it can’t be from a movie. I have a friend who almost got in (he told me that the admissions director emailed him and told him that he was too interested in production, and since the program is performance based, it wasn’t a good fit) and I’m going to ask him what kind of monologues he got in with- apparently people have gotten in singing “Happy Birthday” and he sang something from Cabaret.
Thank you for the advice- I’m still searching for a song. I’m going to look for other monologues, but if I can’t find anything that I can do better than Macbeth and Val, I’ll still do those. I know I’ve got those down (and I pretty much fit Val’s physical description, tall skinny blonde- not “flat as a pancake”). I still really love my monologues, and since this is not a college audition, I feel like they would still be acceptable. I’m sure that I would still get in if I rocked those monologues. But I’ll try to find others from more discrete plays (I have a thing for Wedekind’s Spring Awakening).</p>

25

<p>One of the reasons that monologues from musicals may be discouraged is because in a musical the songs are often the monologues. </p>

<p>In terms of monologues from Chorus Line, the challenge is that the monologues are not really dialogue, and that the role is “performer looking for a job.” Monologues in auditions about actors looking for work tend to feel redundant. Much more interesting to watch an actor playing a person who is not an actor. </p>

<p>Finding monologues from plays which are in the context of a scene with dialogue between people and one character happens to talk for a chunk of time uninterrupted, and where the one speaking is clearly seeking something from the other(s) in the scene makes the actor’s job “easier” in the long run, because objectives and tactics will be more readily identifiable within the context of the scene in the play. </p>

<p>The monologues in Chorus Line are story monologues… lots of character revelation… the characters do have intentions, but with these pieces it will be harder to clearly identify them… it is easy for these monologues to feel like they are all on “output” with “telling” being the primary action (although telling is not actually an action, more of an errand)… rather then being on input and output… giving and receiving from your imaginary scene partner. </p>

<p>All that being said… if the UNCSA website does not prohibit monologues from musicals you will not be breaking their rules. </p>

<p>Do they ask for the monologues to be age appropriate? In that case Lady M. may be outside of your age range. Again, if they do not specify one way or another you should be fine, but if you can find a more age appropriate piece it may serve you better in the long run.</p>

<p>:-) Kate</p>

26

<p>They make no specifications except that the monologues must be contrasting, and to not use the judges as a scene partner.</p>

27

<p>Kate - This is terrific. You are so helpful! What interesting perspectives, for those of us who aren’t actually in the profession.</p>

<p>ifa - We know you are being careful with the requirements of this audition. It never hurts to broaden your options, but certainly at this point it’s only necessary to worry about this specific situation. Whenever (or if ever) it’s time for you to audition for college programs, you certainly have gotten lots of great advice, which you can then build on in your summer program.</p>

28

<p>Nobody really knows how old Lady M is. There is a recent trend to cast her as a very young and sexy woman, someone that really is worth committing murder for. She mentions that she has had children, but since these do not show up in the play we don’t know how old they are. (have they died? We just don’t know) If ifoundalaska really does have naturally the Val’s body (Val is a tall skinny blonde, who now also has THIS and THAT thanks to her surgery), she could well be right for the role . . .</p>

<p>But I don’t think ifoundalaska actually said the monologue was Lady M*<em>B</em>th. (I hope that I have put enough asterisks in that name so that I don’t have to step outside, spin three times widdershins, spit, swear, knock and ask permission to reenter . . .). The problem is simply that if it is Lady M, the auditors will have already heard MANY MANY Lady M’s with a lot more experience and training than ifoundalaska has.</p>

<p>But it does seem that since this is just a high school thing, the auditors may be aware that some folks may have trouble choosing monologues, and they may not mark you down for making this mistake. When Kenneth Branagh was 17 he auditioned for the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts. He didn’t know any better, and chose Hamlet’s “to be or not to be” monologue! The auditor told him to come back with a different monologue (I don’t remember the details, maybe he gave him some specific suggestions), but Branagh did come back and got admitted.</p>

<p>KEVP</p>

29

<p>Hi! I’m actually in the program right now. I can tell you pretty much anything you need to know!</p>

<p>1) You do NOT have to be a strong singer. There are incredible singers in my class and then there are people that can barely carry a tune. It varies. We have voice lessons here on Tuesdays and Thursdays and the people who weren’t singers at all are really starting to make a lot of improvement. There’s also a good mix of people who want to be Musical Theatre majors and Acting majors. The program is designed to accommodate the needs of both routes.
2) I really like living here. It’s really cool just to live with all of your best friends. It’s not hard to keep up with your academics either. All of the high school drama majors are super close and we all help each other with homework and have study parties. Also, one of the major reasons that I wanted to be here is all of the help we will be getting with college applications. On Wednesdays, we have a class called “college seminar” where we compile out lists of colleges that are right for us with the help of the program director, and then we apply to them. Today, in college seminar, I applied to two colleges. Our director is super serious about college and this program is basically designed to get us into college. And the proof is in the pudding (lol) last year we had people get into Carnegie Mellon, Juilliard, Boston University, LAMDA, Birmingham, Cincinnati Conservatory and tons of other top schools. Applying to colleges is a big deal here.
3) Don’t worry about your academics. You only need a 2.7 GPA to get in here and I don’t think you’ll have that problem. Your resume is no big deal either.
Honestly, they could care less about your resume, academics, and selections of material.There are people in my class that have never been in a play in their lives. They want to see a real person in the audition room who demonstrates real potential and maturity. Just show the best you that you can. I would make sure that your material is from published works and that you’ve read the plays they’re from. </p>

<p>My class has 22 people. 11 guys and 11 girls. There were originally 20 of us but our director met two girls at the summer session here and accepted them just from seeing their work in classes over the summer. If you really want to get a feel for the program and meet all of the faculty and right people PLUS get some really stellar audition material and tips…come to summer session. I didn’t go. But a lot of people here did.</p>

<p>If you have any more questions, feel free to hit me up!</p>

30

<p>I’m applying as well!! Break a leg! That’s so cool to see someone else that’s applying. I went to their summer program last summer and it was the best experience of my life. It allowed me to work with not only the DEAN of admissions in their high school program but the dean of admissions in their college. The campus is pretty but not beautiful. The dorms aren’t terrific but we don’t spend a ton of time there anyway. It’s incredibly intense and I grew so much. As far as admissions, they let in twenty people. About five from out of state, and fifteen from in-state. I know tons of people in their high school program as well as at their college, and graduated if you want any help, just ask!</p>