We’re back for part two of our discussion about college musical theatre auditions. In episode 12, we talked about how and when to get started with the college audition process. Today we are diving deep into audition material: the songs, monologues, and dance requirements that you’ll need to prepare to successfully audition for college musical theatre programs. Plus we’re talking about how you can go through this process successfully on yourself or when and how to reach out to a coaching service for help.
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Unsure if a BFA is right for you? Listen to episode 3 of the BVC Podcast: "Is a College Musical Theatre BFA Worth It?"
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We’re back for part two of our discussion about college musical theatre auditions. In episode 12, we talked about how and when to get started with the college audition process. Today we are diving deep into audition material: the songs, monologues, and dance requirements that you’ll need to prepare to successfully audition for college musical theatre programs. Plus we’re talking about how you can go through this process successfully on yourself or when and how to reach out to a coaching service for help.
Get our free Getting Started Guide and watch the recent Q&A webinar,
Join our Facebook group community for parents and students and join us for bi-weekly office hours calls.
Unsure if a BFA is right for you? Listen to episode 3 of the BVC Podcast: "Is a College Musical Theatre BFA Worth It?"
Here's 4 ways you can work with us here at Broadway Vocal Coach:
Use the code PODCAST15 to save 15% on BVC Academy and BVC Masterclass at any time.
College MT Auditions? Watch our recent live Q&A masterclass! Get the replay and free college audition guide here.
Want to work with us? Take the Quiz & Book a Consult!
Connect with us on instagram, @bwayvocalcoach , and @bvcaspire for college prep content.
Find us at www.bwayvocalcoach.com
Join our free, Wednesday newsletter email lis...
We are back for part two of our discussion about college musical theater programs and auditions. Last time we talked about how and when to get started with the college audition process. Today we're diving deep into audition material, the songs, monologues and dance requirements that you'll need to prepare to successfully audition for college musical theater programs. Plus, we're talking about how you can go through this process successfully on your own or when and how to reach out to a coaching service for help. I'm Chelsea Wilson, a performer turned voice teacher to Broadway stars and vocal coach on Broadway productions, like the fan of the Opera School of Rock and more.
Cynthia:And I'm Cynthia Kortman Westphal, a Broadway music director, conductor, voice coach, and tenured faculty member at one of the top musical theater programs in the.
Chelsea:here on the Broadway Vocal Coach Podcast. You can expect real talk about the business, practical advice, and constant encouragement. We believe there's space for every artist in this industry. All you need is the right support. So consider us your two woman hype team. Welcome to the Broadway Vocal Coach Podcast, where we help musical theater performers get unstuck and take the next step in their career. Today we are joined again by our friend and college audition expert, Katie Johannigman. Hi Katie. Hi Katie. Hello. Hello. We're so pleased to have you with us. If you weren't here for our last episode, let me tell you a little bit about Katie. Katie is a multi-talented director, choreographer, coach, and performer. She's spent the last five years on faculty in the musical theater department at the Cincinnati College Conservatory of Music or ccm, where she previously graduated with a BFA in musical theater. Last year. She joined us here at. C as our primary coach for B V C Aspire, our college prep program for high school students. She's recently started a new job as the associate artistic director at the Marriott Theater in Chicago. Ugh. Can't wait to see what you're gonna do there. How exciting. Thanks, Chels. Mm. Well, today, like I said, we are gonna be diving into what I consider more of the fun stuff. The fun stuff of the college audition process. Your songs, your monologues, the performance, showing up and actually auditioning, you know, like the fun parts of the college audition process, what we're gonna call it fun, you know, it could be stressful, but we're gonna say it's fun for today, So we're gonna dive in. We've got a couple commonly asked questions here to go over. and I'm so thrilled to have the two of you with me to help me answer these questions. Since the two of you have, you know, seen tens of thousands of pre-screen videos, I mean possibly tens of thousands of live auditions as well, y'all know what makes an audition great. And that's what we're gonna be talking about today. So let's dive in. You guys ready? Let's do it. Let's do it. Number one, it's a big question. What material should I choose when it comes to audition? Materials, songs, monologues, et cetera? What should a student choose?
Katie:Yeah, this is a big question and I think one that people could lose a lot of sleepover, but fear not. It does not need to be stressful. It should be fun because these pieces are a beautiful live collage of who you are, and I think, and I think Cynthia will definitely agree that these pre-screens should really be. Beautiful introduction to who you are as a person. And that can be scary because perhaps you are 17. I am an adult. And who am I 2 4 6 0 1? You know, this can be a very scary thing to decide how do I sum up who I am in just a couple of songs and a monologue. So I think spending a little bit of time dec you know, doing some brainstorming about what it is that makes you really special, what is your special SP sauce? Are you funny? Do you have excellent you know, access to your emotions? Are you a beautiful dancer? Do you love to do oh, legit musical theater? Or are you like, Dear Evan Hansen Superstar. So I think spending a little bit of time really figuring out what makes you really special is time well spent, and that can really serve as your guide when picking your material and making sure the material that you pick really all goes back to telling us who you are and giving us a little bit of window about who we would spend the next four years with. You do you have a big heart? Are you are you passionate about something? and that's really gonna make your video ultimately stand out. I think the things that make a really good prescreen video are when people have a strong sense of self and get to show themselves to us. And again, that seems sort of vague, but making sure that all your material goes back to what are those, A couple of things that really make me, me can be really, really helpful and remembering. Picking material that you do really well right now is important. You are perhaps 17, 18. You're a young person with just at the beginning of your career picking material that feels really safe for you to do. And, you know, not Patti LuPone in her her sixties, but you know, right now is, is really important to showing us what you can do right now so that we can see where your potential might.
Chelsea:I think a lot of students fall into the trap of, well, I need to show everything I can possibly do in the course of this, these 16 bars, my highest note, my lowest note, and I'm gonna belt and I'm going to sing with a more classical sound. And there's this pressure to just do a lot and. Sometimes folks end up picking material that they might be able to do really well with another six months, 12 months, two years of training, but feels a little out of their reach right at this moment. There's just no reason,
Cynthia:or I would add it might be something that they do really well 70% of the time. Mm. And you can't guarantee that the day of your audition is gonna be one of those days that you're able to really nail it. Yeah,
Chelsea:a hundred percent. So, picking something that feels like Katie, like you said. safe, something that I know I can do this if I'm sick. If I've just traveled to Chicago Unified the day before and there's a cold going around in January because my friends, this will inevitably be the case. You wanna pick something that you feel confident doing under these somewhat stressful circumstances and something that shows you off really well in this moment. Anything else you'd add to that, Cynthia? About what material to.
Cynthia:Yeah, I would just to kind of piggyback off what you just said, Chelsea, I think it's important to remember that the people behind the table have been watching auditions, looking at auditions, listening to auditions for so very long. It really does become a skill. You get better and better at it the more auditions you see. So if someone comes in and sings something that's really comfortable in their range, it is very apparent that you have a much wider range than what you brought it. We can tell that immediately. We don't need to hear the tippity top of your range, and you're not auditioning for a specific show or a specific role. So it truly doesn't matter. All of those things that people sometimes get anxious about needing to show every little bit is really. Not necessary, and we always see far past what you bring us. We see potential in addition to what you're literally showing us. In the room. So just trust that we are seeing far more than just that little snippet that you're bringing in.
Katie:And if we need to see more, you know, someone might ask you, Cynthia will play at the piano. Can you sing this scale for me? Let's hear what you got. Or, hey, do you have another song that you like to sing? It's a, it's a conversation. It's not a performance. And so being able to feel comfortable to be like, yeah, sure, I'll sing some scales. Or actually, you know what, I do have another song prepared. That just that sense of preparation in the room will make you feel super confident knowing that whatever comes your way, you're, you're able to deal with that.
Chelsea:That's exactly what happened to me at my audition, Katie, they said, can we bring you over to the piano and sing some scales? And Cynthia played me some scales. I'm having flash face
Katie:me. I think that happened to me too. I remember standing in that
Cynthia:classroom at the School of
Chelsea:Music. Yes, yes. This literally was list. That was exactly what happened. Yeah. I think that's a great point. Both of you make. Katie, do you wanna add anything he in here about dance material and how to prepare dance material for your prescreen auditions?
Katie:Sure. Yes, absolutely. I think this is sometimes can be the biggest stumper for people especially if you don't come from a dance background or grew up dancing. So the way the dance prescreen will generally work, it can work in two different ways a school can prepare. I have a combination for you that they have on their website. that you need to learn. It'll be a video. They'll teach it and you'll learn it at home. And then film yourself doing that and then upload it with your, with your prescreen. And most schools, I would say probably 90% of schools will ask you to upload your own video of your own dance. Wow. Sounds scary. Don't stress. It's not, you can do this. So what the, what I would suggest here is to. Pick some music that you love to dance to. It doesn't have to be from a musical. It can be something that you groove out in your room. And if you're able to, and you do have a dance professional in your life, whether that's a choreographer at your high school or I don't know, your show choir choreographer, or someone at your dance studio, I would ask them to help you choreograph some dance. And in that, I would ask them to include something that maybe has a jump of some kind, maybe a turn of some kind, and some story. Most importantly, with these dance auditions. And Cynthia, I love when you say"P" for personality. These dance auditions are an excellent time to show your personality. And a dance call is never gonna hurt you. It's only gonna add to us knowing more about you. So picking a song that brings you a lot of joy or you connect to, or you can tell a really detailed story that's gonna be a great use of your time. If there's a style of dance that you love to dance to, hip hop, tap, jazz, ballet, traditional dance, whatever that is, just so that we can see how your body moves in space, what your potential is and that can. Like 30 seconds to 60 seconds long. It doesn't have to be long. If you can have someone help you, great. If you've been in a musical at school and there is like eight counts, eight, eight counts that you loved to dance in your high school musical, we'll throw that on tape and that will work just beautifully. Don't, don't stress about it. It doesn't have to be in a dance studio. We've seen it inbasements. In backyards. You name it, we've seen it, and we're not judging on quality of tape or movement. We just wanna see how you move in space, how you comfortable in your body, and what kind of storytelling you can do through dance.
Chelsea:A follow-up question to this about material is what overdone audition material should students avoid? Is there anything on the"do not sing" list? What do you think about that?
Cynthia:I have strong opinions on this one.
Katie:This one's you, Cynthia.
Cynthia:I guarantee though not everyone's gonna agree with me, so let me preface it by saying, in fact, maybe Katie won't even agree with me but I will give my opinion. But before I give my opinion, let me preface it by saying everyone in musical theater has an opinion. It's very rare that all of our opinions will match. So you need to just kind take it all in. Take what resonates with you and make your best choice based on that But here's my opinion, I honestly don't think there's material you should avoid, in general. There's some things I think worth avoiding if, for example I've seen some monologues that are so explicit and so adult that it is just really hard to watch a 17 year old perform that for you in an audition. So I personally sometimes really struggle with being able to stay present when the material is just so explicit and so difficult, and so adult, in terms of songs, same. You know, if it's a really explicit song or a song that's clearly meant for someone 60 and older, that might not just be a very good fit for you. But past that, I really don't think there that you should worry too much about overdone material. And especially with Golden Age material, I feel like often people get really caught up on you know, everybody's gonna sing"on the street where you live," or everyone's gonna sing"if I loved you." But guess what? The reason we use these songs all the time is because they're so good and they show so much about a voice, about your communication skills. So they serve a really good purpose. And I would also add that with Golden Age material, the Golden Age is done. That means there will be no material written anymore during that era. We've got what we've got. That's all we have. So by virtue of there only being a finite amount of Golden Age material means you're gonna have repeats. You're gonna have people who sing the same song. I personally have no issue with that whatsoever. I just don't think there's really songs you need to avoid. If it fits you really well and you are so comfortable doing it, and it shows what you do really well right at this moment in time, then I think that's a great fit and a great choice.
Katie:And I would also say that no one's going to going to do the song like you, right? All three of us would sing"if I loved you" completely differently, cuz we've had different life experiences. So we're all gonna put our own spin on it. So we're gonna see a version of that song that we've never seen before. In fact might be extremely thrilling to see a song that we've heard a hundred times, but done with your spin. And I would just add that making sure it is age appropriate is really important. And I would also make sure that you're not imitating a performance. We have heard a lot of"don't rain on my parades", sung exactly like Miss Lea Michelle, and it is fabulous and girl can sing it. So instead of doing her version and perhaps you've listened to her version 10,000 times, I would try and really stick to your version of that song and try not to imitate exactly what an actor has done on a, on an album. And I would also just be really conscious of making sure you know who sings a certain song in a musical. If it's done by a person who is not of your race or your age or anything, I would just make sure that you are, you are clearly connecting with that character and making sure that you, it's appropriate for you to do.
Cynthia:So, one of the other pitfalls of trying to avoid overdone material, Sometimes people will go looking for songs that are so obscure that nobody knows that no one else will be singing at all. And sometimes what can happen is if the song is too obscure or doesn't immediately sound familiar. Then sometimes behind the table we're sitting there thinking, what is the song? I've never heard of the song. It was so interesting. I wonder if it was just written. I wonder if it's, and by that time, by the time we've kind of run through that little train of thought, your audition is over. We've barely paid attention to you because we've been kind of thinking about your song choice instead. So, A couple things to avoid are material that is so obscure or obscure. Obscure isn't necessarily bad if it has a ring of familiarity about it. If it's a song that is just really tricky and hard for your ear to kind of catch on a very first, listen, that's maybe not a great song to choose because you're only gonna get one chance to sing it. That means one chance for the table. try to quickly process it and be seeing you as a human being behind that song.
Chelsea:Continuing this conversation about material to avoid. We had a great experience with one of our students this last summer in the BVC Aspire program. This student came in really emotionally attached to a certain song choice and she was really confident singing it. She sounded phenomenal, singing it, really fantastic vocal performance, but there wasn't much of a connection emotionally. And the song, though beautiful, didn't give her much of a story to tell. The material itself just didn't lend itself to a really full emotional and storytelling experience. It was interesting because we knew there was more that this student could convey with her storytelling and that there was more potential that she could be showing. And so we were able to, over the course of, of the, you know, couple weeks going through the audition material process like we do in Aspire give her some other options that were equally beautiful songs to sing. Showed off her fantastic vocal performance and gave her more of a depth of character, depth of story, a real like point A to point b storytelling, even in an audition cut. And she ended up choosing this new song that she really fell in love with, felt incredibly passionate about singing. and showed things about herself personally and her storytelling ability that that other piece that she was originally very attached to was never gonna be able to show off. So there's just, I think there's part of this too about picking material where it's really helpful to have an outside perspective, whether that's your voice teacher, whether that's a coach, whether you're working with a service like us, BVC Aspire, who's able to give you that objective outside opinion and let you know that, we think there's more for you to do. There's more that you can show. Again, not in a, you have to show everything way, but in a, we wanna make sure that the material is giving you your fullest opportunity to be yourself and show up as yourself instead of just one facet of yourself. So I love the material that she chose. It's one of my, it's one of my favorite contemporary songs. And she's having a great, yeah, it's such a good fit, such a good fit, and she's having a really successful audition season with that material. Now that we've talked about material, songs, monologues, even choosing some dance material, let's talk about getting into the room or, or creating that pre-screen video. What are schools actually looking for? Maybe a better way to phrase this question is, what sets apart a prescreen video or a live audition? What? What sets those students apart in the.
Katie:Yeah. I think what makes me super excited when I see a video or a student walks into the audition room is someone who has a ton of energy that is really passionate about theater. Clearly, very excited and, and really has, again, a strong sense of self. They come into the room with confidence and ease, and they know who, they know who they are. and that can come from wearing something funky that makes you feel good about you, that you might wear perhaps you know, to, not an interview, but like, I don't know, maybe like a first date if you were gonna go on a date. Something that makes you feel really good about you. You're coming in with material that you love to sing, that you feel passionate about. There's an energy and a confidence and like a give and take so that student is present in the room. They're, it's such a nerve wracking experience. I, my heart just goes out to all of you about to do this, but that they can, are able to engage in a conversation. And it's someone that I wanna spend four years teaching and have a really great time with, and I know that they're gonna be here in the classroom with me every day. And I think, I think for me is potential is the, is the big one. I'm not expecting a student to come in ready to win their Tony Award. I would love a student to come in who is excited about theater, excited about working in a wonderful community of artists. And who really wants to show up every day and do the really hard work that it takes to, to get a BFA in musical theater. So again, vague, but, but really that secret sauce of someone who I knows who they are and, and brings themself into the room and doesn't try and be the next Sutton foster or the next whoever, but they're just coming in and, and being themselves.
Chelsea:Cynthia, what are schools really looking for?
Cynthia:I have to go after Katie's answer. It was so good. I don't have much to add. I, I, again, I think I love, I love seeing really joyfilled audition, prescreens and live auditions. People who you can tell just really love to do this. I also am really captivated by folks who seem to be able to dare to show something about themselves through the material. And sometimes that could be something like people who are very politically active, maybe they've chosen certain themes in their music that show some of that or Anything they, that they sort of personally, emotionally connect to? Just being able to share something about yourself, have some of that vulnerability to me is always really captivating. Which is different than trying to show your set of skills. That's just a very different thing. Some people come in, they show all the shiny skills. Other people seem to be able to find a way to show more of them, like Katie was saying, more of who they are, what they're, what's important to them something about how they feel about the world. And I know that, again, like Katie was saying, it's a little bit vague, but, but these are things that you can work with students and coach students on to help bring that to the forefront so that it's not just a package of shiny skills, but that you can really work with someone to help them bring all of that to the forefront when they do their audition.
Chelsea:what I'm hearing from the two of you is, It's about the individual. You wanna show up as yourself and present yourself. Honestly, like a first date because you are meeting them, they're meeting you, and you wanna find the right fit for you. It's not about trying to impress or trying to, to do a certain number of skills or hit a certain number of high notes so that you can get in. It's about finding the match for you, the program, the faculty, the school, the vibe that you reallyfit with. And when you can show up as as much of yourself as possible and feel free to be that version of you in the audition room, you've got a much better chance of finding the right fit for you when it comes to the schools. if you're listening to this episode, you probably have already gleaned that there are plenty of services and coaches out there that can help you with your college audition process, and we are one of them. Broadway Vocal Coach. Our BVC Aspire program is one of them, but a question we get asked a lot from folks is, Can I do this on my own? Can I go through this process and apply to schools, figure it out on my own? Short answer, yes. Yes, you absolutely can. And let us give you a little rundown of the kinds of things you'll need to get organized and completed in order to do so. S chime in, Cynthia. It's a, it's a, it's quite a list, You're gonna need to research schools and programs, probably plenty that you've never heard of or are outside of your state or region. You're going to be choosing material that suits you. We'd suggest having a voice teacher or a coach as part of that process, only because of that objective opinion, that outside opinion. You're gonna be writing and editing essays. You're going to be writing and editing and filming a wild card video as part of your pre-screen. Katie already spoke to dance choreography. That might be something that you're comfortable doing on your own. It might be something that you might need a little outside help with. You're going to be spending weeks, if not months, coaching your material. Unless you or your parent is also an acting teacher, we would suggest getting some outside coaching on that. When it comes to putting together your prescreen videos, you'll be doing this likely in what we call a self tape process. So putting together a place in your house, in your garage, and your yard that you can tape your material, putting that together, if that's the first time you've done that, we have actually got some resources for you about how to do that in our show notes. And then probably one of bigger, more challenging aspects of this is all the logistics around your application. You know, checklists about what material needs to be in when, which schools have different requirements, and going through that entire application process with all of these materials, getting test scores in letters of recommendation. What else am I missing here?
Cynthia:I feel like that's enough
Chelsea:Right? I know. And we're probably missing things,
Cynthia:but Yeah. I mean, I guess the only thing I would add is that yes, you need all of those things and: many schools have slightly different requirements. So you might need 16 bars for one school. You might need 32 bars for a different school. You might need a pre 1965 song for some schools. You might need a pop rock song for other schools, you it, everything's a little bit different. You might need a Shakespeare monologue, you might not. So simply staying or having someone to help you stay organized. Can be really, really helpful because the logistics alone can be kind of stressful and overwhelming.
Chelsea:We founded Broadway Vocal Coach and our program B V C Aspire to help students and families through this process in the most streamlined and time and cost effective manner. We designed Aspire to be a four month program that takes place in the summer and early fall of your, going into your senior year so that you can stay focused on what you do well. Picking material that shows you off well, so that you and your family, this is really a, a whole team effort here, get the support that you need on every level. Emotional support, logistical support communication support, all of that. And we wrap it all up in the early fall of your senior year so that you can get back to school, back to your classes, back to your high school musical rehearsals and all of that we, that we know you have going on. If you want more information about BVC Aspire and if you wanna get a copy of our free resources, our Free Getting Started Guide for College Musical Theater. we invite you to do that. I've got a link in the show notes for all of you. You can check that out@bwayvocalcoach.com slash college. And if you wanna get personal support from Cynthia and myself, we invite you to join our Facebook group for parents and students. We host biweekly Facebook Live Office hours. We answer your questions, and we have really great discussions in that group for musical theater families with middle school and high school aged students. That link is in our show notes as well. We've got tons of resources for you because we know from personal experience that this process is a lot. And we wanna help you at every step of your journey. Katie, thank you so much for joining us in this episode, and if you missed it, our previous episode as well, it's been a pleasure to have you with us.
Katie:Thank you so much for having me and everyone out there break legs with that college audition and remember to find the joy in it so that it doesn't become a stressful situation, but an exciting one.
Chelsea:Thanks for listening everyone. If you enjoyed today's episode, please take a screenshot and tag us on Instagram at bway Vocal coach. Share this episode with a friend, text it to another student or parent that you know is going through this college audition process. And please consider leaving us a review. It helps us reach more listeners. If something resonated with you from today's episode or if you've got additional questions, want links to anything that we've mentioned. send us an email hello@bwayvocalcoach.com, and if you're ready to get expert mentorship and ongoing training, then you are invited to join us inside of our programs, the BVC membership, or BVC Aspire opening registration this summer 2023. You can book a free consult with us and we really can't wait to hear your story and help you take the next step in this journey. Thanks for listening. Thanks
Cynthia:everyone.