Musical Theatre Audition Information

• One musical theater song from any time period.
• One song of your choice from any time period and in any style that best suits you (musical theater, pop, hip-hop, folk, rock, rap, soul, country, punk, etc.). This song should contrast the style of the first selection.

Song Tips:

Some examples of contrasting songs are fast tempo vs slow tempo, sustained melodic singing vs speech-like singing, dramatic vs comedic, belt vs head/falsetto mix.

Many accompaniment tracks are available on YouTube and other websites. If you do not have a way to work with a live accompanist or don’t have access to a recorded track of your music, consider using an app that will play the piano part for you. Harmony Helper is one such app that allows you to take photos of your sheet music, upload them to the app and then generate a piano track that you can use.

One monologue from a published play or written by a professional writer. (A professional writer is someone whose plays have been produced, but may not have been professionally published.)

Monologue Tips:

It is recommended to choose monologues that are age-appropriate (generally within 5-10 years of your actual age) and that feel authentic to your culture, background, and lived experience.

Active monologues are often better for auditions; an active monologue takes place in real time and focuses on what you want and puts you in direct communication with an imaginary scene partner. This is often more successful in an audition situation than pieces that are a story or remembrance. Additionally, it can be helpful to avoid monologues that rely on extreme emotions as it can be hard to believably justify those responses in a short piece.

Show us your best version of dancing or moving.

Make sure you can execute all the choreography well. It is to your advantage to choose steps and movement that highlight your strengths instead of your areas of improvement.

You may use recent videos of you from a show or concert, but it must just be you in the frame.

Dance sample should be in whatever dance discipline you feel most confident. This may include, but is not limited to jazz, ballet, tap, modern, hip hop, lyrical, contemporary, or dance styles beyond American and Euro-western styles.

Dance media can be “self-choreographed”, but it must be a solo video of you. This can include a show, competition, or other performance so long as you are clearly featured on your own.

Please use steps, movement, and physical vocabulary that you are familiar with and can execute well. Fully move your body to the best of your ability.

To assist applicants with the dance prescreen, several institutions provided the following resource videos for applicants who do not have access to a choreographed combo for the prescreen process. You may submit this choreography (or a combination of it) to any of the schools you are applying to that ask for a dance prescreen. This list will be updated as more institutions share resources, so be sure to check back.

• Example from Abilene Christian University
• Example from Emerson College
• Example from Nazareth University
• Example from Texas State University

Ballet media is optional

Make sure you can execute all the choreography well. It is to your advantage to choose steps and movement that highlight your strengths instead of your areas of improvement.

You may use recent videos of you from a show or concert, but it must just be you in the frame.

Dance sample should be in whatever dance discipline you feel most confident. This may include, but is not limited to jazz, ballet, tap, modern, hip hop, lyrical, contemporary, or dance styles beyond American and Euro-western styles.

Dance media can be “self-choreographed”, but it must be a solo video of you. This can include a show, competition, or other performance so long as you are clearly featured on your own.

Please use steps, movement, and physical vocabulary that you are familiar with and can execute well. Fully move your body to the best of your ability.

To assist applicants with the dance prescreen, several institutions provided the following resource videos for applicants who do not have access to a choreographed combo for the prescreen process. You may submit this choreography (or a combination of it) to any of the schools you are applying to that ask for a dance prescreen. This list will be updated as more institutions share resources, so be sure to check back.

• Example from Abilene Christian University
• Example from Emerson College
• Example from Nazareth University
• Example from Texas State University

Think about the wild card section as an opportunity to show your personality or share something about you. This media can be ANYTHING you want - a special skill, an interesting story about yourself, a passion speech, an instrument you play, etc. “What do you want us to know about you?”  We recommend that you keep Wild Card videos to 2 minutes or less.

• Singing or playing an original composition/song/poem or choreographed dance.
• Performing your own Saturday Night Live-styled skit where you create a comedic character
• Sharing a hobby or activity that means something to you
• Performing in a language other than English in which you are fluent
• Playing an instrument
• Making a “how-to” video on something you are good at, baking, calligraphy, gymnastics.
• If you are a dancer and want to show us a different style you excel in: Tap, Hip Hop, Lyrical, Ballet, etc.