Auditioning for a Talent Scholarship in Theatre
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Who should audition?
We encourage students to audition who have participated in one or more of the following activities in high school:
- acting in high school plays or musicals
- working on backstage crews, design or building crews, or management crews (house manager, assistant director, stage manger, etc)
- courses in acting or theatre in which you were able to get practical experience
- speech team, especially in areas solo, duo, or group acting
- community theatre or church drama
- dance or other forms of movement training
- show choir or other forms of hybrid performance groups
Students are not required to major or minor in theatre or dance in order to be considered for a talent award, but we expect that if you receive a reward you will participate in departmental activities and productions.
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What should I do to prepare for the audition?
If you are an actor:
- About a month before your audition you should select contrasting monologues or soliloquies from produced and published plays. Each piece should be between one and two minutes in length. The selections you prepare should contrast in some way. For example, one could be serious and one could be humorous. Or, one could be from a contemporary play and one from a play from the past.
- You should read the entire play from which a selection comes. At the audition you will likely be asked questions about the play as a whole and about your relationships to other characters in the play.
- You should memorize your pieces well in advance of the audition so that you feel comfortable performing them at the audition.
- You should practice your pieces on your own and in front of people who can give you feedback about your work.
- About two weeks prior to the audition, you should ask a teacher, choreographer, conductor, or director with whom you have worked to write a letter of recommendation for you. The letter should touch on the following topics:
- the length of time the writer has known you and in what capacity they have worked with you
- the types of performance activities in which they have supervised or observed you
- your current ability as a performer and your projected ability for growth and development
- the overall nature of your character, including such things as your ethics, your commitment to academics, your habits of work, and your potential for leadership
- One week before your audition, you should prepare a resume that identifies
any of the following:
- things you have done in theatre, speech, music, or dance, either in high school or at the community level
- awards you have received or special events or groups you have participated in
- special training, camps, or workshops in performing arts you've attended and what you studied
- unique experiences in the performing arts you've had, either as a audience member or performer
- high school courses you've taken in the arts
- your cumulative grade point average and ACT or similar scores if available
- examples of leadership (student government, drama club, church groups, volunteer organizations)
- examples of volunteer activities
- Two days before the audition you should
- collect the letter of recommendation from your recommender
- print your resume
- review your audition pieces
- choose what clothes you'll wear
- we recommend that you select clothing that is semi-formal to formal
- if you have any doubts about what to wear, listen to your mom or dad; they actually know more about this than you think they do!
- if you are going to dance, you'll be able to change from your street clothes to tights, etc. in a dressing room
- The night before the audition
- make sure everything you need is gathered together
- get a good night's sleep
- That morning
- eat breakfast
- review your pieces and make sure you've got everything you need
- come to the audition knowing you're well prepared and have fun!
- At the audition
- have your resume and letter of recommendation ready to give the auditors
- present you pieces and be ready to answer questions about your work and to experiment on your pieces after hearing feedback from the auditors
If you are a designer, technician, or stage manager
- About a month before your interview you should begin to create a portfolio of programs, photographs, video, or other evidence of your work. This can include
- photos of sets or costumes you've work on, makeup or lighting designs you created, prompt books you've assembled
- videos of plays or other projects you've worked on
- actual examples of props, sound effects, models, etc. you've created
- About two weeks prior to the interview, you should ask a teacher, designer, conductor, or director with whom you have worked to write a letter for recommendation for you. The letter should touch on the following topics:
- the length of time the writer has known you and in what capacity they have worked with you
- the types of performance activities in which they have supervised or observed you
- your current ability as in design, backstage work, or management and your projected ability for growth and development
- the overall nature of your character, including such things as your ethics, your commitment to academics, your habits of work, and your potential for leadership
- One week before your interview, you should prepare a resume that identifies any of the following:
- things you have done in theatre, speech, music, or dance, either in high school or at the community level
- awards you have received or special events or groups you have participated in
- special training, camps, or workshops in performing arts you've attended and what you studied
- unique experiences in the performing arts you've had, either as a audience member or performer
- high school courses you've taken in the arts
- your cumulative grade point average and ACT or similar scores if available
- examples of leadership (student government, drama club, church groups, volunteer organizations)
- examples of volunteer activities
- Two days before the audition you should
- collect the letter of recommendation from your recommender
- print your resume
- make sure your everything you need for your portfolio is assembled
- choose what clothes you'll wear
- we recommend that you select clothing that is semi-formal to formal
- if you have any doubts about what to wear, listen to your mom or dad; they actually know more about this than you think they do!
- The night before the audition
- make sure everything you need is secured
- get a good night's sleep
- That morning
- eat breakfast
- review your portfolio and make sure you've got everything you need
- come to the audition knowing you're well prepared and have fun!
- At the audition
- have your resume and letter of recommendation ready to give the auditors
- present your portfolio and be ready to answer questions about your work
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What kind of pieces should I audition with?
When you audition for an acting talent award, we ask you to prepare two monologues from produced and published plays. That means:
- The pieces you choose should come from established playwrights whose work is respected enough to have been performed before an audience and printed in quantity.
We recommend choosing pieces that represent high quality works of dramatic literature. For example,
- Classical Greek tragedy
- Classical Roman comedy
- Renaissance comedy or tragedy from England, France, Italy, or Spain
- Neoclassical comedy or tragedy
- 19th Century Realism
- Any of the various trends in modern drama of the 20th century
- Absurdism
- Expressionism
- Symbolism
- Naturalism
- Contemporary comedy, drama, or tragedy
- Epic
For examples of contemporary and classical audition monologues for men and women, click here.
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What kind of pieces should I avoid?
In general, we recommend that you avoid doing poems; cuttings from novels or short stories; material you've written yourself; or monologues from films or comedians.
We also ask that you do not perform selections you've presented for speech contests, as the manner in which these pieces are rehearsed and performed contradict the values, methods, and philosophy of contemporary theatre and acting.
Do not try to play more than one character in a given piece.
Do not select a piece that requires you to play old age.
Do not select a piece that requires a foreign dialect.
Do not select a speech that takes longer than two minutes to perform. If it is too long, you can cut it down so that it's shorter.
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