<p>“M----” is what I was referring to as to not violating the TOS. </p>
<p>
Emmybet, it is probably just me being densely or coffee-deficient, but I can’t understand the sentence. Are are you saying that it’s universally acknowledged that wishing a person luck is wrong, no matter who is speaking, or no matter what historical source? Is this restricted to theater circles? I am sure I have wished many people good luck in many performance theater and competition situations over dozens of years-- I hope I have not been unintentionally spreading unease and anxiety, like Typhoid Mary.</p>
<p>Interesting observation about MT girls and make-up Prodesse- my D is a senior MT major and definitely does not conform to your son’s vision of MT’s. She wears very light make-up, if any (on days when she has a lot of dance classes and get sweaty, she avoids it mostly). Her MT roomie is pretty much the same. There are definitely some who wear a lot, but overall, most of the girls in her small department are pretty tame when it comes to make-up. Maybe it depends on the school???</p>
<p>He’s been around MT kids at other schools a lot too, so maybe it’s a DC Suburbs thing. He has also talked about “the MT bun” which differs from the dance bun because it’s messy. I don’t really get it.</p>
<p>GH: A lot of people I know in theatre/film write BAL short for Break a Leg. It is definately the convention amongst everyone I know in theatre productions that saying “Good Luck” is actually bad luck. It has felt to me that saying “Break a Leg” is expected, welcomed and comforting and gets chuckles and giggles from the nervous actors or singers about to perform. This was not ever used in the dance context which I have also been around a lot. Yes it does sound violent but, when you say it a few times it fits and becomes natural sort of like saying God bless you to a sneeze. If you really can’t bring yourself to say it, then Merde sounds really cool. But especially at these auditions, it is like fingers scraping on the chalk board for these kids to hear Good Luck.</p>
<p>I hope everyone is aware that if you DO accidentally quote from or mention the title of the Scottish Play there is a simple procedure you can follow to remove the curse.</p>
<p>You simply step out of the dressing room, spin round three times (some authorities insist this spinning must be done widdershins), spit, swear, then knock and ask permission to reenter the dressing room. This was clearly demonstrated in the movie “The Dresser”. (And I did once force a fellow student to go through all that one time when I was an undergrad . . .)</p>
<p>I don’t know if this works when another superstition is broken, however.</p>
<p>Returning to the original point of this thread, someone else said that some folks like to “blend in”. I think this is a bad idea. If you blend in too much, the auditors will forget you. They are meeting a lot of people for the first time, so if everybody is dressed the same they will have trouble telling folks apart. Think of A CHORUS LINE where they simply address the dancers "okay, you in the pink, you with the headband . . . "</p>
<p>(On the other hand, you shouldn’t go too far the other direction and dress so bizarrely they won’t take you seriously as an actor.)</p>
<p>I recommend semi-casual. You don’t want to show up in what you wear to school everyday, that makes you look like you either aren’t taking the audition seriously or have no clue what you’re doing. I usually wear a sundress or skirt (no shorter than mid-thigh!) of some sort (with tights if it’s cold) and something to cover my arms. I try to keep the pattern/color attractive, but not distracting or too formal. For example, one girl showed up to an audition I was at in a semi-formal dress with glitter and ruching and neon tennis shoes because she forgot her nice shoes…MAJOR NO-NO! </p>
<pre><code> I used to wear character shoes, but now stick with flat sole shoes so I can easily navigate around the school without tearing up my good theatre shoes or hurting myself if I’m in a hurry. If there’s a movement section of the audition, I wear black yoga/jazz pants, tennis shoes and a slightly form-fitting shirt in a color that’s attractive on my skin (that way you’re not too basic and forgettable or too flashy). It also doesn’t hurt to wear a piece you feel confident in. If you feel empowered in a striped shirt, wear a striped shirt. Really, just use your better judgement…and ALWAYS PACK EXTRA CLOTHES IN CASE OF MISHAPS! I once got so sweaty from a dance audition–it was hot in that studio!–that my white tank was a smidgen see-through in the rinky-dink bathroom lighting. However, I had an extra outfit, so I could change before my acting audition under stage lights (imagine how horrible that would’ve been with my white tank…yikes!)
</code></pre>
<p>The problem is that there are no hard and fast rules, just guidelines. So we really can’t give a definitive “yes” or “no” to anything.</p>
<p>The basic guideline is that you want to look like someone who is ready to begin serious work in rehearsal or class. So you shouldn’t look like a complete slob on the one hand, people will think you are not serious. But on the other hand you shouldn’t be dressed so fancy that you look like someone who won’t be willing to do any work.</p>
<p>Another guideline is not to wear anything that would potentially distract from your acting. You don’t want them to be spending the whole time staring at your nail polish. If they think of you as “that girl with the nail polish” you probably shouldn’t have worn the nail polish. I remember one time seeing a female friend wearing garish silver nail polish. It was really noticeable. And when I saw it, I honestly could not remember if I had ever seen her wear nail polish before, that is if she had ever worn nail polish, it was so subtle I didn’t remember it.</p>
<p>Basically, I think the guidelines for jewelry also more or less apply to nail polish. If it is one of those places that specifically asks you not to wear makeup, I would imagine that would also apply to nail polish.</p>
<p>After all the auditions, I can honestly say that for all of the schools I applied to my “cool pants with maybe a nice print+white feminine button-up shirt” look was the best one I could’ve picked. I saw very few girls in dresses these last few days. All of themed looked like fishes out of water. At least for those schools.</p>
<p>At the Central auditions, girls wearing skirts and dresses seemed really “stuck” when doing their monologues, more than the other girls in general. I don’t know if I should blame it on the dress, but when you see a girl in a skirt you just know that she’s not going to do a cartwheel or any brusque movements, which isn’t saying that people should do that, but you always want to keep the possibilities open, right?
(By the way, before people start complaining, I love dresses, I have loads of them, but they’re just not a good fit for movement. And most girls can’t pull off the “skirt+leggings” look).</p>
<p>I went to CalArts wearing a dog tooth necklace to give me strenght and forgot to take it off for the audition, but no one seemed to notice. It was all very casual, all of them were.</p>
<p>Today at the hotel, UArts was holding auditions, as well as CMU. I saw a few girls auditioning for CMU and they looked like barbie dolls. Most (if not all) of them with perfect curls, loads of make-up, fancy dresses and always with their “pageant moms” behind them. No kidding, they looked like a grown-up version of those pageant toddlers.</p>
<p>Anyway, the moms that were around the schools I auditioned for seemed very supportive and chill. I hope some of them are the same moms that come here. I don’t know if the children recognize what the parents are doing for them, but hopefully they appreciate it. My family couldn’t come, and I like it best that way, but it sure makes me happy when my mom calls me after the audition to know how it went and I know there are people that care back home.</p>
<p>Milkshakespeare, I think those CMU girls you saw were MT. When my son auditioned for CMU’s acting program, Musical Theatre kids were auditioning the same day. I think it’s the way the school runs the auditions.</p>
<p>Sounds like you are doing just great. I’ve enjoyed your articulate, informative posts. Keep on keeping on!</p>
<p>There was really good advice of the wall at the Unified. It said, “Dress comfortable but well. Dress like you would on a first date.” That means your definition of what might be the right clothes may be different from the person next to you.</p>
<p>I loved seeing all of the nice dresses at Unifieds. Old fashioned at heart, I guess, but would love to see girls dress this way for the regular school day. The young ladies I saw certainly looked very classy, conveying a sense of maturity and poise. And though it may seem that dresses confine movement, they really don’t. Think of all of the beautiful dresses worn by dancers in Broadway shows and ballets. Not frowning on other looks of course, but just sticking up for a true classic – the dress. : )</p>
<p>LA Unifieds: Lots of bad wardrobe choices. Girls tottering in very high heels, they could barely walk, so I don’t know how they did monologues in that get up. We saw one with a giant run in her hose. Bad prints. Schlumpy looking outfits on some. Some with skirts far too short for their body types.The girls who wore a tasteful dress looked the best. Lots of bright blue, it looks great on most people.
Boys in general looked great, most in nice pants and a shirt, hair in good shape.
On dance calls, have to agree with the advice to not wear shorts over a leotard, makes you look bigger than you are. Wear a skirt if you are in a leotard, it’s just not a great look to walk around in.
Agree completely to bring an extra change of clothes. Very easy to spill even water on an outfit and end up with a stain.
Now, the auditions for straight drama certainly the kids were less dressed up. But, I think you will be meeting with auditors who are likely middle aged. I suspect they want to see you looking your best. If you’ve spent the time and money to travel to an audition, why wouldn’t you try your best to look your best. Find something flattering to your body type, in a non obtrusive pattern, hair neat, fingernails in something other than bright blue. It is just like a job interview. Not that you can’t show your personal style, just make sure it is flattering or at least unobtrusive.</p>
<p>I do think that you have to take your own personality into consideration too. My D did her college auditions in black dress slacks, a frilly, very feminine blouse and medium heels. That’s just her style - classic, girly looks. But, of course, if you are more quirky, or casual, or whatever, I see nothing wrong with showing that side of yourself, as long as you are clean, smell nice and don’t show the wrong body parts. </p>
<p>Boys are easy - nice shirt and slacks or nice jeans. But, I do have to say that both of my kids make fun of all the boys in vests at auditions these days!! That seems to be a “thing” and in my opinion make guys look like lemmings.</p>
<p>I agree, megpmom…so many boys in vests this year!!! My son was not one. He wore very nice jeans or very nice khaki jeans with a pullover and a t-shirt. I think he was true to himself, and his shoes and his glasses were very much him as well (and his glasses got a lot of positive comments from the school reps…which I thought was very interesting).</p>
<p>I liked milk’s comment about doing a cartwheel. No, you probably wouldn’t be asked to do that, but it is a good rule of thumb, a good standard for determining whether your clothes are too restricting on your movement. If you can do a cartwheel in a dress, more power to you. The suggestion of a skirt over a leotard is also a good one, you could still do a cartwheel if you needed to.</p>
<p>Yes, I realize that you parents like to see your talented children all dressed up. But really, an audition isn’t the place for that. An audition is really more like work. The advice to dress as you would on your first date is probably not good advice. It may be good advice for most boys, because it might make boys remember to put on a clean shirt, but it may not be good advice for most girls, because girls often focus on looking “romantic” or “sexy”, which is not a good look for an audition. A “first date” look might include things that are no-no’s at audition, like flashy clothes and distracting jewelry. (And I do realize that not ALL boys and girls comply with my stereotypes!!).</p>
<p>We were at Unifieds in Chicago this month. 99% of the girls were wearing solid-colored dresses, mostly with heels. They all looked very nice. A couple of mothers (of both males and females) pointed out to me that the girls seemed to be wearing the same dress, but in a different color. That probably isn’t what any of them wanted to happen. After all of the questioning about what my D should wear, once we were there, it seemed so easy. Wear something you feel comfortable in so that you “seem” like a “comfortable” person. Color is the most important choice, I think. Wear colors that draw attention to your best features–your skin, your eyes, your hair–whatever that is. My D was not wearing a dress, but a comfortable, yet classy outfit, classy pants with stretch that complemented her cute figure, a vintage blouse, and simple flats. She moves around and squats during her monologues, so she needed to be comfortable and not distracted by her clothes. Overall, the clothing seemed of little importance, especially when you’re auditioning for 10 minutes or less. One girl was wearing jeans of all the girls–and it didn’t seem inappropriate at all. In fact, we noticed her because of it. The guys all looked good, but the ones who were less dressed up (no tie) looked more comfortable. Once again, it was color that drew my attention. One young man with dark hair had on a deep red dress shirt and he looked great. It drew my attention to his dark eyes and hair. White on a pale guy didn’t seem like a great choice to me.</p>