| Hi Momsinger...I'm glad you joined in here on the forum and I hope you will continue to participate. I am sorry for your D's disappointment this past weekend at PSU. This process is very difficult and nobody likes seeing their child disappointed. This one just wasn't the one for her but I am hoping another school comes through.
I am a bit curious about what is PSU's voice type. I didn't know they had a type. I am not sure I knew the "type" at hardly any schools my D auditioned at. What is their type? I am interested in learning more.
As far as current students sitting in at auditions....this was the only place that my D auditioned at where this was the case. Sometimes there were a couple current students in a dance audition some place (demonstrating or helping out) but I think PSU was the only one with a group of current students watching the singing/monologue auditions. It's true it is different. It did not bother my daughter at all but I can see how another kid may feel differently. I think she saw it as having an audience. There are plusses to that and I suppose there are minusses as well. Some may like it because it is more like a performance on stage with an audience and less the feeling of a panel of judges. Some might feel more intimidated that other youth are watching. There could be a good feeling that the students wanted everyone to do well. My D also just liked that she got to meet lots of PSU kids and she enjoyed the atmosphere that day. While not so much with college auditions, but in other auditions, she has been in situations where many were watching, not just the people judging. It can be the case in an audition situation. I guess each person feels differently in these various situations.
As an aside.....about ten days after my D got accepted to PSU, she was hospitalized with severe injuries sufered in a car crash. I was VERY touched that I received an email from a graduate student in the MFA program in Directing at PSU whom I have never met, who apparently had been one of those students watching the PSU auditions. He had heard about my D's accident and got a hold of my email (perhaps through PSUCat, I'm not sure) and there was a computer in my D's hospital room and one night I signed on (I was living in her room the whole time) and this guy wrote to say he heard about her and was sending his thoughts that she'd recover and commented about her audition and how he'd love to see her come but just wished her well wherever she chose to go to college. He didn't have to do that. We are just strangers. I think those students in the audience have a kinship to those auditioning. They have all been through it and are rooting for those who are auditioning. This guy really went above and beyond. PSUCAT, if that graduate student is still at PSU, I hope he knows what it meant (I replied to him at the time).
Anyway, it is definitely set up differently at PSU with regard to the audition process.....both the "audience" of current students and the callbacks situation. As with anything, there are pros and cons to it all. My D thought the audition day was a good one but I undersstand if others felt differently. |