Open Forum

Hello - 

On the College Auditions section it says "avoid classical material". I have a student who has a very strong Shakespearean performance background. Is there any reason she cannot do a classical monologue? Or is that just a suggestion. 

I've done the auditions for the University of Miami for 20 years. If the the audition requirements suggest you avoid doing classical material, it's because the auditors don't want to see classical material. Classical material requires as much technical skill to do well as talent. Skills can be taught. Auditors want to see the raw talent and work with that. They can teach the skills later. Even if your student is good at Shakespeare, the auditors are going to ask him/her if they have anything else. That can be tough on the nerves.So why put your student in that position?

If someone does something really well and feels good about the work they do, then they should do it.  They should also have contemporary monologues ready to go.  I have all my seniors learn 4 monologues for audition a serious and a comedic of both classical and contemporary.  I also have them do 16 and 32 bars of a song.  That way they have a bag full of tricks they can pull out when they need to audition.  I also like to stress the value of leave them laughing at an audition.  Adjudicators like to have an upbeat ending to an audition as well. 

If they said no classical material, it means no classical material. Would I want to have a person in my program that could not follow simple audition instructions?

I'd just like to synthesize the excellent responses to this college audition monologue question. I am an independent college counselor, specializing in working with performing arts students. I always strongly suggest that my theater and musical theater student have at least 4-5 monologues ( and a similar breakdown of songs for MT students) "in their book:" 1 classical, 1 pre-1960, 1 as contemporary as possible, 1 comedic, and hopefully at least 1 more that they really love. They should adhere to each school's specific repertoire requirements, yet be ready to pull any of them out of their hat. AND be ready, willing and able to change things about their performance if an auditioner asks. 

On the money!!!! Thanks.