EMERSON AUDITION!

[cathyhyatt]

Posted: 2/13/06 at 12:13pm

I had my Emerson audition this past Saturday and it went great! I was so worried about the dance portion at first. Shortly after we got there and we all were sitting in this conference-type room they talked to us about the dance portion and said that we shouldn't be worried about it. They said they were just doing it to place us incase we got accepted into the program. They also said that our performance in the dance portion would not affect our admission decision in any way.

After hearing this I felt so much better (But still a little nervous about it because I still didn't want to look like an idiot!).

So here's how the auditions were set up:

On the name tag that we were given it said either 'X', 'Y', or 'Z'. That would be the group that we would be with through out the day. Each group had a different order in which they would do their audition. My group (I was in the 'Y' group, hehe) did our monologues first, dance, and then singing.

Within my group there was between 10 and 15 people. There wasn't any set order in which we had to do our monologue or our song. They let us tell them when we were ready and then we could be the next one to go in. Because of this I didn't feel under as much pressure. All I had to do was tell them (there were students helping out) when I was ready and then I could go shortly after that.

The monologues took place in this small conference room and there was only one member of the faculty and myself. Since it was such a small space and there was only one person watching this usually would make me a lot more nervous. But the lady was so nice and right away made me feel very comfortable.

I did my piece and it went really well. I was a little jittery but it was the best I had done it, thus far, at all of my auditions. So I was really pleased.

After I was done. She said "Well done, Alyssa" (or something along those lines, who knows when your adrenaline is pumping..haha). And then she asked me to do the piece again while she called out different actions or feelings. So I did it again and at some parts she told me to jump up and down or do jumping jacks...and at other parts she told me to think that I was an angel and flap my wings or be a monster. It was really awesome. I just went for it. I was being the character while listening to the actions she was throwing at me.

Then she told me to come sit and wanted to ask me some questions about myself. She said, "Okay now I know you can act...but I want to get to know you now." (something along those lines.)

I have to say this was the most uncomfortable part for me. It's hard for me to talk about myself when I'm just thrown questions. But I tried my best to just answer them from the heart
(how cheesy does that sound? hah) and just be myself. Then that portion was over (it had to be about 10minutes long...a lot longer than any of my auditions)...we shook hands and I went and got changed for the dance portion(ahhh!).

The dance portion really wasn't that bad. The combination was to "Can't Stop The Beat" which really got me excited. It's such a fun song and I was happy it was one that I knew so well! There were two instructors in the room (which was another conference room with a rug and no mirrors...a little weird..but hey, it was fine)they introduced themselves first and then we got started. We ran the combination multiple times (slowly too!) and they asked us if we had any individual questions. I'm not much of a dancer and I got most of the combination. I say "most" because I just couldn't do the turns...although I faked them while smiling!

Then they had us do the combination twice in groups of three or four. It went okay. I messed up but I smiled :)

After everyone was done dancing they asked dancers who had experience in ballet to stay. The rest of us left the room and they were taught a ballet combination. (This would just to see if they could be placed into the intermediate level. Those that didn't stay would immediately be placed in beginner ballet).

They brought the rest of the group back into the dance room when they were done with the ballet combination. They lined us up and asked each of us three questions:
1. What is something interesting about yourself?
2. Why do you want to go to Emerson?
3. What is your favorite musical?
They told us all to be brief because they were running behind on time. That went okay...I really don't like speaking in front of people (it's totally different for me when I'm playing a character, ya know).

When that was over I changed out of my dance clothes (oh yeah I wore fitted sweatpants -the ones that like fold over on top lol and a black fitted shirt. alot of people wore sweats and ALOT of people weren't dancers either, soo I felt soo much better.)When I was ready I told the student who was helping out our group. He actually sat in on the audition. Which I didn't feel weird about because he had been with us the whole day and he seemed really nice. When I got into the room this guy, Gary(I think that was his name) he was on the voice faculty told me right away that the piano player wasn't there so he would have to step in and play, while listening to my audition. He seemed very nice and right away was joking and made me feel comfortable. Also by this point I was so anxious...I was more excited than nervous.

They had told early that we may get to only sing one song, which really worried me because I wanted to show off my soprano and my mix/belt. Well, anyway I sang "Vanilla Ice Cream" first because my soprano is the strongest part of my voice and I absolutely love the song.I sang the ending of it...and the high B went amazing. I was so scared because you never know how it's going to come out haha. But it was probably the best I have ever sang the song. Then he asked me if I had anything else with me. And I told him I had "Home" so I sang the ending of that and that went well too.

Then I was able to breathe again lol and he asked me to come sit and wanted to ask me questions about myself. By this point I was really comfortable so the whole 'talking about myself thing' went well and wasn't as scary. In the midst of our conversation he told me that a sounded great and had great presence. But that he didn't know what was going to happen because the auditions have just started. I told him I totally understood that because they have about 1,000 people to see and I laughed. We talked for a couple more minutes and then I said thank you and left. He asked the student who sat in on the audition to stay because he wanted to talk to him. The student was taking notes the whole time so maybe he wanted to discuss them with him...hmm

I dunno, I'm not going to read into it or anything. I'm just happy it went so well and everyone was SO welcoming. I did my best and that's all I could do. Whatever happens...happens, right?

Oh, yeah they also said we would hear by April 1st!

Hope all of this helped for anyone auditioning! If you have any other questions post or PM me!

Break a leg everyonee!

<3Alyssa

[ashley0139]

Posted: 2/13/06 at 3:11pm

Congrats on what sounds like a great audition!

The combination was to "Can't Stop The Beat"
I sooo hope my audition is to that. That would be amazing. I may have some questions for you later.

[cathyhyatt]

Posted: 2/15/06 at 9:36pm

Oh yeah, and there were two rooms that you could go into for the singing portion. In one of the rooms this lady was asking some people to sight sing. Thank God the guy I went to didn't ask. I mean I can read music and I know what every note and symbol is but I need to sing along with the piano. I need more than just the first note and then I could follow along. But wow, thank God that didn't happen to me! I'm sure it wouldn't determine whether or not I got in but it would have made me so nervous!