Co-Auditions Coordinator
Auditions 2011 were a huge success. We had our first group of Juniors audition last year and we are looking forward to them coming back as Seniors with the bonus experience in how to handle and audition!!! Many thanks to Secondary Educators working to prepare your kids for auditions!
TETA 2012 finds us back in Houston. Be on the lookout for the forms to be posted on the website after Labor Day. Please remember that students must select their pieces and submit them on the form. Be sure your students prepare well in advance of auditions to avoid the stress of last minute work! Remember, it’s never too early to start helping students prepare for auditions. Selecting and preparing monologues for auditions is an actor’s life work; encouraging actors to find monologues and technicians to develop portfolio materials early will benefit your students immensely!
Ten Tips to Consider for TETA 2012 Auditions:
- Be sure your kids have taken the SAT or ACT well in advance. Scores are required to be submitted on the form with a counselor signature. Please let your kids know that information is important! Many Universities cannot seriously consider your students without this information. Tip: Encourage your students to take advantage of the option on the SAT/ACT form that allows test scores to be sent directly to five different Universities. This can save your students some money. Encourage them to arrive at the test with five schools in mind to send the scores to.
- Make sure your students select audition pieces that are appropriate to their age and emotional range and form a published play script.
- Make sure your kids read the entire script so that they understand the context of the monologue.
- Time your kids. They must cut their pieces to under two minutes from the first moment to the closing moment of their monologues. They will be stopped by the timekeeper at two minutes. Have technicians prepare a five minute presentation of their work and prepare them to answer questions about their process.
- The introduction for actors should consist of their name and the titles of the plays their monologues are from. Both actors and technicians will be given a number when they check in at the audition that will correspond with their page number in the book; they should say this number when they introduce themselves. (Note: Students should know the authors of their plays but will not be required to state the author’s name in the introduction for TETA 2012). It is important to rehearse the introduction as it is part of the audition.
- Remember, submitting the paperwork on time and complete is actually part of the audition. Students submitting incomplete or late paperwork risk forfeiting their audition fee and not being able to have this experience. Make sure you check their form completely before they send it in; the form requires your signature so please don’t sign any incomplete forms.
- Avoid overly offensive, sexual or profane content. Avoid dialect pieces for this type of audition.
- Wear footwear that assists, not hinders the audition (heels that are too high are distracting and awkward).
- Business/Business casual attire is appreciated. Be sure the student is comfortable in the clothing as well. Remind your kids that an audition is like an interview and it benefits them to dress accordingly!
- Prepare your kids, both actors and technicians, for what questions to ask at callbacks. Remember, your kids are auditioning us too and they need to know what to ask so they can get the information they need to make informed choices!
For a list of questions they might want to ask please feel free to e-mail me at jdemontmollin@uh.edu.
A great resource to help prepare your actors for auditions is the book “Audition” by Michael Shurtleff. The guideposts are great coaching points to serve as a resource for you in helping prepare your kids. (Note: There is some content that is inappropriate for some high school students, so you need to preview the book if you plan to hand it to your students).
I’ll submit a second set of tips for things to consider closer to the audition time, but for now, please encourage your kids to find excellent monologues, and please check their monologues!
I hope this information helps and if you have any questions as the year progresses please don’t hesitate to contact me at jdemontmollin@uh.edu.