The Juilliard School

[ardenfanXD]

Posted: 1/4/08 at 10:28pm

Okay, so I'm a high school Senior and applied to The Juilliard School. I'm required to bring four contrasting monologues, two contemporary and two classical. I am only missing a classical monologue, and I am looking for a comical piece. Possible playwrights include: Greek plays in verse translation, Lope de Vega, William Shakespeare, Christopher Marlowe, John Webster,
John Ford, Racine in verse translation, William Congreve, and Richard Brinsley Sheridan. Does anybody have any suggestions??
Thanks in advance! =]

[thevolleyballer]

Posted: 1/4/08 at 11:34pm

For comical, try a cut of Garrison Keillor's short play "The Midlife Crisis of Dionysus" or Bel Kaufman's "Up The Down Staircase." They would require cutting, but as any speech and debate kid knows, cutting is the key to a monologue of the soul.

[ardenfanXD]

Posted: 1/4/08 at 11:40pm

Hahaha you're right. Unfortunately, I already have my two contemporary pieces. I need a classical one. bummer...

[blissfulbeauty]

Posted: 1/9/08 at 6:48pm

The good thing about classical is that there are only a few (relatively) sources to have to look at. I really only know Shakespeare, so let me try and help you with that.

Armado from Loves Labours Lost. It's in prose (make sure that's okay) but totally hilarious. "I do affect the very ground, which is base" IIii

Trinculo from Tempest. Also in prose (most comedic males are). "Here's neither bush nor shrub." IIii

Proteus from Two Gents. Not funny, per se, mostly just a "romantic" speech that's really jerk-y. "Even as one heat another" IIiv

Comedic male is hard. Look for romantic males from the comedies, and you can make them cutesy.

Oh, and I auditioned for Juilliard last year. They probably won't ask for all four, although for all auditions have lots backed up. Most places I auditioned for asked if I had anything else. Juilliard made me sing! Good luck. Have fun.
Updated On: 1/9/08 at 06:48 PM

[ardenfanXD]

Posted: 1/9/08 at 9:50pm

Thanks for the respond blissfulbeauty! Unfortunately, they only want one Shakespeare piece, which totally sucks! lol I'm doing a piece from Henry IV, and need another classical piece. Do you know anything from Christopher Marlowe by any chance? Also, could you tell me more about the audition process? Thanks! =]

[blissfulbeauty]

Posted: 1/10/08 at 5:40pm

I checked the Juilliard website and they said that "one classical monologue MUST be Shakespeare" which doesn't mean that the other one must be something else. I went into all my auditions last year with only Shakespeare as classical (I'm a big Shakespeare fan) and I was never asked to do anything else.

If you really want to do Marlowe, hmm. Comedic monologues for males are harder to find. Perhaps look at The Jew of Malta? I don't know much about Marlowe, so I can't be much help.

As for the process, it's really quite fun if you get past the whole idea of I'm desperate to go to THIS school over THAT school. Just enjoy performing, because really, an audition is one of those rare chances you get to perform. Deal with the fallout later, and wherever you go, go with a positive attitude.

The Juilliard auditions start with a group warm-up. The adjudacators, who are the heads of the dept., introduce themselves and give a little speech. The warm-up involves some voice stuff, and physical stuff, especially animal work. It's pretty fun to get to walk like a flamingo in a group of strangers.

After the warm-up, you have the individually scheduled private auditions. I went in, chatted a bit, did my pieces. They were very nice. They didn't ask for another monologue, but they asked me to sing. I sang, then they stopped me. They didn't ask everyone to sing, and I don't think they asked for any other monologues during the first auditions. They post callback lists at the end of every hour. If you didn't get called back, you're not being considered.

The callbacks also involved more physical and vocal work. They asked for you to wear comfy, moveable clothes. They also did private auditions as well, in which people were sometimes asked to sing or do other pieces. Then you're released, and wait some more to find out if you got a final callback!

Hope your audition goes well. Remember, it's acting! It's fun!

[ardenfanXD]

Posted: 1/10/08 at 10:59pm

Thank you soooo much for your help! Seriously, I've been in panic mode for the last couple of weeks because of that other classical piece. But I will take a look into those three selections you suggested, and I'll see what works best for me. One last question, how can you tell when something is in prose. According to Juilliard, they don't want anything to be in prose, only verse or blank verse. Thanks! =]

[blissfulbeauty]

Posted: 1/14/08 at 9:45pm

Prose looks like this. It's how it would look if you were reading a book. It's sentences with no iambic pentameter or anything.

Verse looks more like this, like a poem
In Shakespeare it's mostly iambic pentameter
Which is 10 syllables, 5 "feet" and the rhythm is
buh-BUM buh-BUM buh-BUM buh-BUM buh-BUM.

[ardenfanXD]

Posted: 1/14/08 at 10:17pm

Oh okay. Yeah, then my pieces are in verse. One final question! Would you recommend anything from As You Like It? Like the opening monologue Orlando gives?

[blissfulbeauty]

Posted: 1/14/08 at 11:12pm

Hmm. That first monologue is prose, and very expositional, so I don't think I'd recommend that one. In fact, there're not really any good Orlando monologues that ARE in verse. If you're desperate to do AYLI, try Jaques (pronounced Jay-kweez).

If you want a young, romantic monologue, maybe try Troilus from Troilus and Cressida-- "O Pandarus! I tell thee, Pandarus" Iii or "O! that I though it could be in a woman" IIIii.

[behindthescenes]

Posted: 1/15/08 at 9:31am

blissfulbeauty, the audition guidelines for Juilliard state that auditioners need to wear clothes that they can move in, which makes sense in light of the warm up you mentioned. But does this mean that students dress pretty casually for the entirety of their auditions, or do most people bring along other, more formal clothing (nice trousers and shirts or blouses) for the monologue portion?

Also, someone told me that Juilliard requires auditioners to get all hair out of their faces, which means girls with bangs have to slick their hair back. This sounded weird/wrong to me. Is it true?

[ardenfanXD]

Posted: 1/16/08 at 12:06am

Thanks once again, seriously!

=]