West Coast MT Schools

Prof.Himmelheber
Wed, 27 Jul 2005 03:23:25 +0000

I guess it might help to know what the audition into the CSUF BFA in Musical Theatre program entails…

The auditions (or “juries,” as we call them) always occur in May, right before final exams begin (though we may advance the date by a week in the future, so that students can REALLY focus on final exams). Students receive the results of their juries within three days.

Students must pass ALL THREE areas of their juries (singing, dancing and acting) to be considered for admission to the BFA. After that, it becomes a matter of numbers - we can have no more than 20 students, junior and senior classes combined, at any time per National Association of Schools of Theatre accreditation guidelines. So if more than the allotted slots available pass all three juries, we have to prioritize the top students to accept into the BFA.

All juries are adjudicated by ALL area faculty qualified to evaluate that particular area (for example, voice faculty won’t evaluate the dance call, dance won’t evaluate acting or voice, etc.).

The juries span three days. On the first day, the students all sing - they come in the studio in groups of 7 or 8. Each student prepares a list of two uptempo songs, and two ballads. They present one song of their choice, and the faculty may choose to hear a second (and sometimes even a third) song, or portion thereof. We are looking for both legit and belt ability from the women (as this is a marketable/standard level of talent required in the industry today); men needn’t have any special (e.g. falsetto) quality in evidence (as it is so rarely called on professionally). All students must show their vocal range. Acting values are assessed in this audition, as are body deportment (an expressive/responsive physical instrument). Students must pass this jury to be considered for the BFA.

The second day is the dance jury. One hour (or more) is devoted to each style: first tap, then jazz, and finally ballet - a three+ hour marathon of dance, if you will. The students all learn a combination as a group, then present the combination in groups of 4 or 5; then we move on to the next section/style/genre in the same manner. Students are evaluated on all portions of this audition (both the learning phase and the presentation). Students must pass all three areas of this jury to be considered for the BFA.

The third and final day is the acting jury. Each hour, we schedule about 8-10 scene groups. Each hourly group comes into the theatre at the same time, sit in the theatre seats, and one group at a time they present a 3-minute scene prepared with their partner (selected at random for them from their acting class colleagues - and class time is devoted to rehearsal and preliminary showings/evaluation). Transfer students may opt to bring in either a 3-minute scene (with a partner they secure and rehearse with), or two 1-minute monologues. These juries are open to observation by other theatre students (as an educational and self-evaluation tool), but MUST be treated as an AUDITION. No applause is permitted, nor is over-zealous response/laughter, because it is a timed audition, and at three minutes they are told to stop. If the audience is disruptive, the offending member(s) are thrown out of the room and not readmitted. These juries are adjudicated by every acting teacher (except the teacher of each student team, who cannot vote on their own students, but can provide feedback if requested by the panel), and every director in the department (this jury has the largest panel of adjudicators in the whole jury process). Students must pass this jury to be considered for admission to the BFA.

The jury voting system is simple: a “pass” or “fail” vote is awarded by each adjudicator, and a majority of “pass” votes must be earned to successfully pass that audition. Students do not receive each individual adjudicator’s vote, but they do receive a summary of the votes received. Students also receive a copy of all written evaluation forms that each adjudicator utilizes (the originals are kept in the student’s permanent file in the dept. office).

If a student passes the acting jury, but not the singing and/or dancing jury, they can continue as an acting BA major (soon to be a BFA program - hopefully in place next year!). However, if they don’t pass the acting jury (or the dance and voice and acting juries, in the case of the BFA), they must choose to refocus their concentration: either general theatre studies (a true “liberal arts” degree), directing, playwrighting, design, tech, or stage management is open to them. Some even opt for secondary education with a teaching credential in theatre. So options do exist within the department for those students who do not pass their juries (and they can still get out in two years, if they don’t slack off on the unit load required to do so; which is less than the average BFA unit load by the way).

And ANY theatre major (except for first semester freshmen) can audition for the main stage productions - so students not passed on in the BFA or acting program can still get onstage. And we have a HUGE season with LOTS of roles that must be filled; we RARELY use student in two shows within one semester - we do want them to graduate in a timely manner - so there are roles enough to serve many students (not only the upper-division majors).

:)

I hope that this covers any questions you might have. Please let me know if you would like further information/clarification.

Thank you,

eve