My Audition Experience: NYU Tisch

operationgold7
Mon, 19 Jul 2010 03:33:41 +0000

Hi hmmitsmaryox!

I only really began acting when I was in 7th grade. I did a bunch of youth musicals at a local youth musical theatre. Around 10th grade, I began to outgrow these “kids” shows (and musicals in general) and focused on plays. I’ve done a handful of high quality community shows and a couple of shows at the local communtiy college. I never really had any strong connection with my high school’s theatre department besides from a few festivals and one mainstage show. Therefore, for the past few years, I’ve only been acting with adults.

Basically, that’s my acting experience before auditioning. You should try to do as many shows you can in as many different settings and environments as you can. And you shouldn’t be scared! High school plays are great experiences, and I’m sure that many applicants have only done school shows.

To find monologues, the first thing to do is read plays. Read lots and lots of plays. NYU requires to contrasting, contemporary monologues. But be sure to pick a monologue from a PLAY and NOT a monologue book! You should also ask your theatre teacher or someone else who’s familiar with your acting to help you find monologues.

You want to have your pieces picked out ASAP. Cut them down to the proper length (2 minutes) and memorize them so you have the lines down so well you can say them in your sleep.

Rehearsing the monologues can be tricky. People go about it in different ways. In fact, I know of some people who learned monologues the morning of their audition and got in! Don’t do that though. Bad idea. Anyway, I had a good friend of mine, who directed a few shows I was in, to help me with my monologues. We worked on them a few times a week for the 2 months or so before my audition. While some people choose to hire a coach to work on monologues, I think it’s best to work with someone who knows who you are as an actor. And if you get someone to help you, make sure that they don’t DIRECT your monologues. The auditors want to see YOU perform, NOT the way your coach told you to do it. Your coach should be there to GUIDE you.

That’s it basically. Start looking for monologues now and upcoming auditions. If you want to read what my Tisch audition was, it’s the #1 post on this thread. I got accepted and will be at the New Studio!

Feel free to ask any more questions if they arise!