Saturday, February 19, 2011

Update: Chicago & College Auditions

Hey everyone!! Soooooo happy to start getting back into the swing of things after pretty much all of my college auditions!! First update: My CCM (Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music) audition went very well, but i unfortunately got rejected.

Now onto the bulk of my auditions, which took place at the Chicago Unifieds! Basically unified auditions are these big events where a whole bunch of colleges come to one city for about 3 days to hold auditions for their musical theatre, theatre, and theatre design programs (as well as some other theatre related programs). NOCCA takes their musical theatre, drama, and theatre design seniors to the Chicago unifieds every year, and this year was no different. We left New Orleans on Feb. 6 and came back on the 10th, so i unfortunately had to miss almost a week of school, but it was totally worth it since i got to audition for a lot of colleges at once.

So on my first day of auditionsm which was Monday, i auditioned for Penn State and the Hartt School's musical theatre programs. My Penn State audition was not a good experience for me. The faculty was very rude to me as well as other auditionees, so i definitely thought they were going to reject me right then and there. But they gave me a dance callback, which was cool, so i guess they liked me after all. They did compliment me on my voice, which was also nice. Only about 20 people out of everyone who auditioned that day got a callback, so i felt very lucky! My Hartt audition was awesome! the dance audition went well and the judges asked to come to campus and take a voice lesson after my singing and monologue audition, which i definitely take as a good sign! That night, the whole group from NOCCA saw a show at The Second City, which is a very famous comedic acting company that originated in Chicago. The show was absolutely hilarious and i would definitely want to do something like that once i graduate from college!

On Tuesday, i only had one school to audition for, which was Boston Conservatory. The dance audition was a lot of fun and went well. My singing and monologue audition went very well and i think the faculty liked me. There's not much to say about that audition. One of the faculty members complimented me on my soprano range, which was nice. That night, we went as a group to see Steppenwolf's production of "Who's Afraid of Virginia Wolff?" which was absolutely amazing!!

On Wednesday (the last day of audition, yay!) i auditioned for Oklahoma University and Ball State's programs. My OU audition was ok, but it's my Ball State audition that i really want to talk about. The faculty was super nice and funny in my singing and monologue audition, and my interview went really well with them! My dance audition with them was super fun and went very well. I really like their program and my audition made me like them even more!! The dance teacher complimented the NOCCA kids on our dance technique and i could tell the faculty liked my voice.

Overall, Chicago was an amazing experience for me! I got to bond with the NOCCA students and audition for some great schools!

On Friday, i left for Tallahassee to audition for FSU's musical theatre program. Saturday morning was the dance audition, which wasn't as hard as some people made it out to be, but was still rigorous. It went very well. Then came the singing/monologue audition. I thought they liked my voice and it was overall a positive experience. That night my mom and i saw their production of "25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee". It was soooo funny and well done! i was very impressed!

So, this is a very long post and i'm tired of typing. Will update you guys as soon as i start hearing from colleges on whether i get in or not.

XOXO
Rachel