Other than my theatre work with my senior project, fullerton festival, and drama elective, I have been very busy trying to get into the college of my dreams. I applied to 6 colleges with my major in theatre , 3 of which I have already been accepted to (Richmond the American University in London, Columbia College Chicago, and CSU Fullerton). However, the other 3 colleges I applied to required something special from me to get into their prestigious theatre program. An audition.
Just this Valentine's Day weekend I finished up my last audition. It was a relief to be done with them. College auditions have been one of the most nerve-wracking events in my life, especially since these schools are so prestigious in their theatre acting programs. I figured I'd share my audition experiences for this extra blog post.
UCLA
UCLA asked me to prepare one Shakespeare monologue (oh fun, I had never done any Shakespeare in my life, this should be interesting) and one Contemporary monologue. They also asked I bring comfortable clothes for a "Movement Audition". Being my first audition other than one outside of Mr. Hogan's classroom, I had no idea what to expect.
First we began with the check-in and hour long orientation which was really helpful to getting to know their program and what it consists of.
Then, I had to wait about 3 hours until my group finally got to do their movement audition. The movement audition was one of the strangest things I have ever done in my life. I can't even begin to explain it. It was a lot of "letting out your inner beast" and "using your core to move around". I have no take on what to feel about this part of the audition.
Lastly, I waited about one hour to finally perform my monologue. This part of the audition was really strange. I feel like I only did okay. The auditor simply asked me to perform my two monologues in whatever order I desired, that's what I did, he said thank you, and that was it. It was simple. I feel as if he was bored but I could't tell at all.
Finally, the last part of my audition was my interview. By luck of the draw I was very last for the interviewer. You could tell how tired he was of listening to actors talk about themselves all day, and I could feel that aura coming off of him. I don't think this part went as well as it could have.
Overall, this audition was my first, so I didn't expect it to be my best. Also, the waiting was absolutely horrible. I was there from 1PM-7PM. I wish I would've done more than just okay, but hey, you win some, you lose some.
NYU
My dream school. I could not have been more excited and nervous for this audition. NYU asked for two Contemporary monologues, one comedic and one dramatic. I was ready to ace this audition.
First of all, we had the quick check in and hour long orientation on the program, what it entails, and what was going to happen during the audition.
Next, they assigned us to our auditor and our order and we went straight to our room. There we did a quick warm-up and then were sent outside to wait for our turn. When I went in there, the auditor asked me to perform my two monologues in whatever order I wished and that's exactly what I did. I felt really good about how I performed. After I did both, he asked me to go back to my first monologue and to do it a different way. I took his suggestion, and I think I did what he was asking for. Right after, he asked me to sit down for a small interview which I felt went really well. Then I was allowed to go home.
I loved this audition. Everyone was relaxed, it was quick, and the group was small. I also feel that I did really well at my audition and I felt confident for the next one.
USC
My second choice school and my last college audition. I was definitely going to make it my best. USC asked for the same thing as NYU (so that made my life way easier). It also luckily had a smaller group which meant it wasn't an extremely long audition.
First, we started off with the check-in and hour long orientation. We were then all put into three groups. My group had 1 hour to explore the campus/eat/relax/rehearse, then 1 hour for the interview, then 1 hour for the audition.
My first hour was simple. I ate something small and then went around USC to explore. It was fun exploring by myself (and luckily I didn't get lost). I got to see a lot of the architecture that all my friends who took tours there were telling me about. And in all honesty, it was really amazing. I think it was important for me to feel what the atmosphere there is like.
The next hour consisted of my interview. It was about 10 minutes long and had a lot of standard admission questions. I think it went well and I really talked about who I was as a person. Hopefully the interviewer got that too.
My last hour was the audition. It was simple. I went into the room. They asked me which monologues I was doing and told me to perform them in whatever order I wished. Once I was done, they said thank you and I was allowed to leave. Plain and simple.
I loved how relaxed this audition was. What I love about relaxed auditions like this is that they don't make you feel nervous. Something I actually noticed at all the auditions I went to was that I was one of the 1-4 Latinas at all my auditions which I thought was interesting. I was also feeling really confident about this audition. I think the auditors really liked me and I hope my confidence pays off.
