Audition at Penn State - Feb. 24
This was Penn State's last audition day, so this post will be for next year's auditioners!!!
I arrived "between 8:30 and 845" as the letter had told me. We were in the upstairs lobby of the Arts Building (lobby of the Playhouse Theatre), and I walked in and it was PACKED! I was so surprised, but there were 60+ people auditioning. I filled out a form (w/ vocal training, dance training, music theory training, etc) and turned in headshot/resume. They also told each pereson which of the 2 groups they were auditioning in. Then I changed into dance stuff quickly.
At 9:00 (they wanted to start right on time), we were split into our 2 groups to start the dance portion. First we did a short warmup, then one of the students taught us as ballet combination. It was not too long, and we went over it a bunch. We performed it in groups of 3 (w/ no student in front of us). Then another student taught us a jazz dance which was a lot of fun (and funny). It had a storyline to it which was also cool. Both combinations included a pirhouette (single,double,triple, whatever you could do - it was like this at all of my auditions). I have had no dance training (just from being in tons of shows), but neither of the combinations seemed too difficult. If you are a dancer, you should have nothing to worry about. It was so much fun, and we went over each combination many times.
After a quick vocal warmup, we started the vocal/acting part of the auditions. The 2 groups (of 32 or 34 each) waited in a holding room as people got called to audition. There was a posted order in the room (I was 16). For my group, I got called a few numbers ahead of time, and was able to listen to 2 people audition, and during one of their monologues we could quietly go over the music with the accompanist. When it was your turn, you announced your material and you could go in whatever order you want. For songs, they told us 1 in its entirety and one a 16/32 bar cut. And one 90 second monologue. After you were done, your student 'escort' told you whethter or not you needed to stay for an interview (i got a yes!
).
We still had a ways to go so my Dad and I walked to lunch 'downtown'. When we got back, they were just finishing up auditions. Then all of the people called back were in a room (there were 17 of us out of the 60+) and they brought us in 1 by 1. We were to bring our music just in case they wanted to hear something (I assume because the faculty was split up in the 2 groups for the audition portion??). I didn't have to sing anything, & the interview was really chill and simple. Normal questions, why MT, why PSU, etc. They were very nice.
After the interview, a student escorted you to a short Ear-Training /theory session. He would play a melody, you would repeat it, asked you to spell a chord, and also tested harmony and rhythm. Nothing too hard, don't sweat it!
I left feeling great about the audition day, I felt very accomplished because we had done so much, lol (And because this was my LAST auditioN!!!!!!!). It seemed to take a long time, but there were 60+ of us on this last audition day for PSU, too. Overall, everyone was very nice and most of the students seemed very energetic.
We left at 4:00.
HOpe this helps, good luck!