<p>For those who are interested, Northwestern allows Freshmen to audition from Day 1. There are mainstage and student directed shows. My D auditioned and got many callbacks but didn’t get placed in a show last year. She involved herself by doing tech work in several shows, and was ASM in one MainStage (which was a lot of work!). But I think it’s really important to never forget that you are there primarily for the instruction from the professionals. Whatever the school policy about when you audition, the teaching you get in classes will be the best way for you to learn. You do act in classes too, doing scene work, workshopping, monologues, etc. </p>
<p>As far as building your resumes, I do have a question for the more experienced folks. How much does it really matter what roles you were in college as opposed to the training you list on your resume? Here are my thoughts, but I don’t know if I’m right: I’m not sure how much weight an agent will place on the fact that you were, say, Tracy in Hairspray in your Sophomore year in college. Colleges have a very limited range of students to choose from compared to the ‘real world,’ – the girl playing Tracy may have been the only girl available who fit the body type. Furthermore, some colleges cast for educational purposes so how you’re cast may reflect the growth you need rather than predict how you’d be cast in a professional show. I had thought agents care most about the showcase–how you perform there. How much do they care if your college resume has a long list of college shows versus a short list of college shows you were in?</p>
<p>These words like “workshop” and the term “avant-garde” that also has come up do have legitimate uses, but they are way too often overused and abused by people who would rather talk about theatre than actually go through the work of having to actually DO theatre. This may be partly related to the fact that quite a few people go into theatre because they have a fear of success. Sitting around talking about your “avant garde workshop”, gives the illusion that you are doing something without actually doing serious work that might actually lead to success.</p>
<p>I doubt that any of the “regulars” here are the sort of folks where they (or their kid) have a fear of success.</p>
<p>My D participated in 2 workshops at school. Both were Maymester projects. The first was “Bigfoot and Other Lost Souls” with Mark Hollmann and Adrien Royce. The other was “Helen of Troy” with Douglas Cohen, Zoe Samuel, and Marlo Hunter. Not only did she benefit from going through the workshop process - and wow what work that was! - but she was able to work with some pretty damn terrific people. I know she feels fortunate to have had those opportunities.</p>
<p>And to the other questions, there is a form of guaranteed casting at CCU. You won’t graduate without a mainstage role. Freshmen participate in general auditions and they absolutely are cast in mainstage shows beginning freshman year.</p>
<p>Great posts from fishbowlfreshman and austinmtmom above; thanks for basing your remarks on common sense and direct personal experience. FBF, if the school you’re discussing in the linked post (from several years ago) is the one I believe you mean, don’t they also open their auditions to the entire student body? Just checking.</p>
<p>I agree with Connections above. My daughter is “acting” every single day in studio classes. They are assigned scenes they have to work on and perform, monologues, and improvisation, etc.<br>
She will certainly learn other things by being in a full production, but right now she is learning to act in class. And she is also learning how to audition. Which I can imagine, is a very important skill to have.</p>
<p>I think this whole discussion is really interesting and still think it leads to a great conclusion, that these kids are in college to learn to act, and that includes way too many things for anyone to have it all.</p>
<p>Here’s an example: My D currently is studying abroad at LAMDA. They have one semester. There are no productions. There are no public performances. They will be spending a large part of their time in scene study. Clearly people designing this program felt that scene study is a - arguably, the most - valuable learning experience for actors. This is only one semester, but it could be compared with, say, a freshman year in college, where doing studio work is essential and perhaps needed before one is in full productions.</p>
<p>I don’t know how my D will put this on her resume. Surely she won’t put her roles in the scene studies per se, but she will put that she was there and will presume that people will feel that she got good training for the next several months. I am confident she will bring more to her post-college auditions and interviews for having this experience. She will probably have 3-4 student productions, plus her own Senior Capstone performance and a significant amount of tech experience, along with 3-4 mainstage roles (only one or two leads, at most) listed from college. That will be very nice, although I think she considers these some, but not the most important, selling points from her BFA. She will be a different person after her 4 years, and that is what she will bring to the table.</p>
<p>Just to add a bit to the discussion about guaranteed casting and CMU, even though my son is now two years out of school. CMU does have guaranteed casting junior and senior year, and all students get meaty roles, if not leads. Although they are not cast freshman or sophomore
year, there are plenty of scene studies they do in front of classmates, cabarets and other opportunities to perform. I feel it made the students feet safe in experimenting, seeing what works for them and developing a high degree of collaboration without competing with each other for roles. And then there is Playground, an amazingly creative week where students devise their own work along with designers etc. Playground has led directly to what is becoming a successful career for my son and six of his classmates who are still devising their own work, performing in New York, Chicago and Boston, and touring as a band.</p>
<p>^I’ve found it interesting when programs emphasize how selective they are for the BFA but then let the entire college/university audition for their productions. Yet another variable, I guess! My son did apply to a couple of schools that did that, including the one I was thinking about above. I definitely have mixed feelings about the practice.</p>
<p>^ That depends on the agent and it’s hard for me to say since to my agents a client wanting to do theatre in the first place is more something that they have to humor than anything else.</p>
<p>Remember, we’re talking about salesmen here. It’s whatever makes them smell money and I doubt that’s usually going to have a lot to do with specific college credits if they even bother to look at them closely. Generally, it’ll be more of a package deal of your look, how you present yourself, and the brand name of your school along with what they saw you do at the showcase they called you in from, their relationship with whoever referred you to them, or whatever combination of things caused them to actually call you in for a meeting off a blind submission. Really, to them, college credits alone are more likely to equal “green actor” than anything else although I suppose they might use the fact that you did a specific play in college to pitch you to someone who happens to be casting it.</p>
<p>EmmyBet, your daughter can just put “semester abroad at LAMDA” (or maybe spell out London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art) on her resume. If she is taking specific courses, she can list those courses. Everybody knows that when you take an acting class, or go to acting school, you act.</p>
<p>On my resume I list all the productions I worked on in any capacity (both in and outside of college), but I don’t list scenes I worked on in acting or directing classes.</p>
<p>Not everyone (probably most, right?) gets an agent right out of college. It seems to me that not ever being cast would leave a big hole. Most recent graduates resumes list a bunch of college productions along with some summer work.</p>
<p>Yes, my D will just put “semester at LAMDA.” They do receive some kind of certificate upon completion of this program. I have seen people put in performer bios perhaps a slightly inflated version of their study abroad, and I think that’s kind of silly. I hope they are not using that in their resumes (“studied with so-and-so at XYZ overseas acting academy”). </p>
<p>My D has been in some full-length student productions that she might list, because they indicate the kinds of roles she is good at. But as with HS, those roles will drop off as she gets more post-college work. Her school has a showcase, and we are hopeful but do not expect that she will have an agent right away. She will do her best.</p>
<p>I love that FBF, seems simple enough! This is a great thread because it is really talking about the nuts and bolts of different programs, which is a really important thing to know. For all my obsessive research, there was so much I didn’t know until D was actually in school. Casting policies are rarely spelled out on a website, important as they are. </p>
<p>Connections, the BFA grads I know certainly put all their training (at LAMDA etc.) on their resumes, as well as their roles in college productions. But D reported hearing that at last year’s showcase, agents were looking for people who could fill certain roles-- a ‘Megan Hilty type’ or someone who could play Christine in Phantom. If there was someone who looked the part, they would listen; if not, they had better things to do. The resume seemed to make very little difference. (This is hearsay, but fwiw.)</p>
<p>Just a note: I DO list my significant instructors on my resume. I just have a separate line that says “Significant instructors” (Or maybe I said “Principal” instructors, I don’t remember now), and I list three. Unless I am very old-fashioned, this is something that needs to go on a resume.</p>
FBF, if the school you’re discussing in the linked post (from several years ago) is the one I believe you mean, don’t they also open their auditions to the entire student body? Just checking.</p>