By Mary Anna Dennard
This time of year, thespian students all over the U.S. are making their final college decisions. They have completed applications and requirements for performing arts programs and are about to place their college deposit in compliance with the National Reply-By date of May 1st.
Whew! They made it through what is generally considered to be a very stressful process. As if the usual application, financial aid paperwork, letters of recommendation, test scores, transcripts and college visits weren’t enough, each performing arts applicant has an additional hurdle that is unique to their major. They are required to present a private audition for faculty members, which, for many college programs, counts for up to 80% of the admission decision. And the frustrating challenge for families is that programs have different recruiting styles and different audition requirements.
Because the judging process of that audition is completely subjective and decided in a brief, usually 5-minute audition, the stakes are high. Many high school students who look to major in theatre or musical theatre apply to 15 or 20 programs. Preparing for 20 auditions requires an overwhelming amount of research, organizational skill and audition savvy. Which school requires a Shakespeare monologue? Which school wanted a 16-bar cut of my song? Which school wanted to hear a Golden Age standard? It gets stressful. It’s no wonder that hiring a college audition coach has become a popular and valued resource in order to help navigate the complexities of the process and keep peace in the family.
The idea of streamlining the process, in theory, sounds like a great idea. It would take the pressure off students having to prepare so many different audition packages, it would help simplify the application process for families, and it would make the entire recruitment season less stressful for prospectives and college theatre admissions staff.
SHERI SANDERS
Sheri Sanders, a pop music repertoire coach and author of, Rock The Audition: How To Prepare For And Get Cast In Musicals, feels passionately about the need to standardize college audition requirements. Sheri has just launched an interactive online training program along the same theme of her Rock The Audition book. She recently conducted a symposium in conjunction with the Musical Theatre Educators Alliance (MTEA) annual conference to begin a dialogue on the topic of streamlining the college audition process. This topic is of great interest to me so I reached out to Sheri for further discussion, and here is a condensed version of my interview:
Are you suggesting the all college musical theatre programs establish a standardized set of audition requirements?
Sheri: Yes. My suggestion for colleges is to ask for the following, because we are looking for a whole dynamic person here.
· 16 bars of Legit Musical Theatre
· 16 bars of authentic pop/rock off the radio
· 1-minute monologue in a style and emotion and energy that is not represented in 2 styles of music.
That would certainly simplify things, but I can think of several schools that actually prefer that the monologues and songs be of the same style for consistency, making it easier to evaluate them in such a limited time frame.
Sheri: That’s not at all what the market asks for. That’s why the material needs to be two 16-bar cuts, and two short monologues or one long one - diverse material to me. You still get the message, style and the talent of the actor.
How can the programs adhere to a standardized set of audition requirements without jeopardizing their individual recruitment style?
Sheri: I’m not sure what seeing an entire person’s possibility in diverse material would do to hinder that. Today, a truly marketable person is someone who can live in multiple worlds/multiple styles. Why not ask for that? And get the palette this young person is already painting with when you do? Then - recruit away!
But many schools see these “multiple worlds/multiple styles” differently. Each college has a unique style in order to evaluate each candidate. I can think of many college reps who tell me they cannot truly see the applicant unless they have 20 minutes in the room, two 32-bar musical theatre songs, and two 1.5-minute monologues – one classical and one contemporary.
Sheri: The fact is that everyone has to get with the program. They have to look at the market and they have to ask for pop/ rock. And they have to train their students in it. That is the market. And so many programs already are. There are too many schools and too many musical theater performers to compete with.They need to have their finger on the pulse in order to be competitive!
My job as a coach to be an advocate for my students and families. This includes helping my students show their strengths and minimize their weaknesses in the audition. It seems your idea for “packaging" would require students to show everything. And that would include their weaknesses. I’m not sure that would be helpful to the students in terms of gaining acceptances. It would also leave them vulnerable and could possible damage their 17-year-old self-image.
Sheri: What if this idea doesn't expose weakness? What weaknesses get exposed? If they can't sing like Pink because they are a legit soprano? What if they sing Joni Mitchell? No weakness shown. Also, the goal is not to show everything. It's to show different things. It's to show that these young people are multifaceted.
How and who could ever get all the programs to agree to objective uniformity in what is inherently a subjective process?
Sheri: MTEA can. The organization is spearheading massive changes in the education process and it’s a privilege to be a part of it. I think what is subjective is interpretation. So it’s really about a college or university seeing that person’s performance and saying, based on talent, personality and the sense of themselves they have in the world as a young person, “does their vibe fit our vibe?” Then its not about talent.The talent is there. It’s about vibe and energy.
Still, the “vibe” thing is subjective. Will colleges be able to see that vibe if they are restricted in what they can ask/see of an applicant. Colleges’ needs are as unique as the applicants. And why should they change?
Sheri: Understood. But can they bend a little so that the students are less stressed out with the bulk of the process and still keep their aesthetic? I don't want the schools to lose their taste or personality. These things make every school special. I just feel there is a way to see what you need to see that takes care of the young person and their families.
You have a fascinating idea about teaching high school teachers and coaches to help their students through this process. How do you visualize the colleges training the college audition prep coaches? Wouldn’t each school train differently?
Sheri: It has to do with 3 things: 1. Understanding how to coach emotion out of young people who are in a social media black hole. 2. Understanding how to use contemporary/ popular music to get them connected to their sense of self. 3. Teaching them empathy so they can speak in text and sing in legit musical theatre by exploring character and take on a scenario.
I think your effort is a valiant one. And I agree that something has to be done to relieve the unimaginable burden that is placed on students and families during the college audition season.
Sheri: Here is my most important thought: If it is uniform, the students have the freedom to work with the creativity of the coaches so that the schools can all clearly see the talent they need to see. They can decide whether this “performance” and this person is trained and trainable in the way the school desires to train them. Everyone gets to keep his or her vision.
Stay tuned, folks. It could be that “a change gonna come”.
Be Joyous, Be Brave, Be Yourself
Follow Sheri Sanders at rock-the-audition.com and on all social media platforms.