Ideal Timeline begins Spring of Junior Year

APRIL & MAY

  • MAKE YOUR COLLEGE LIST

Creating a balanced school list that includes safety, middle, and reach schools is key to a successful college audition season.

But what exactly defines a mid school, or a reach school? And what’s the optimal balance of them on a college list?

Reach schools accept less that 5% of those that audition and typically have an incoming freshman acting or musical theatre class size of between 12 and 30 students.

  • Put 10 reach schools on your list.

Mid schools or ‘Middles’ or ‘targets’ as you will also hear them referred to accept a greater freshman class size of between 40-60 students.

  • Girls put 6-8 middles on your list

  • Boys put 5 or 6 middles on your list

Safety schools are schools where you can declare theatre, acting, or musical theatre as you major from day one without an audition. No audition required.

  • Put 1-2 safeties on your list

Most students are auditioning for 18-22 schools.

  • CHOOSE YOUR AUDITION MATERIAL

Musical Theatre applicants will need 3 monologues total:

  1. A contemporary dramatic monologue

  2. A contemporary comedic monologue

  3. A classical monologue that contrasts your favorite/best contemporary mono.

Musical Theatre applicants will need 5 songs total:

  1. A pre 1965 musical theatre cut

  2. A contemporary musical theatre cut

  3. A backup pre 1965 musical theatre cut

  4. A backup contemporary musical theatre cut

  5. A pop song in a style that you love

Musical Theatre applicants will need a 60-90 second dance combo for prescreens.

Acting Applicants will need 4 monologues total:

  1. A contemporary dramatic monologue

  2. A contemporary comedic monologue

  3. A classical dramatic monologue

  4. A classical comedic monologue

MacTheatre’s Audition Material Resources:

  • REQUEST YOUR REC LETTERS (from academic teachers and artistic advisers)

  • CREATE YOUR ACCEPTD ACCOUNT (where you will upload your prescreens)

June/July/August

  • YOUR MATERIAL IS CHOSEN AND YOU ARE GETTING IT UP ON ITS FEET

  • MAKE SURE YOUR DANCE COMBO IS REHEARSED AND READY TO BE FILMED IN THE FALL

  • START WRITING YOUR COLLEGE ESSAY

  • START PULLING PERFORMING ARTS SUPPLEMENT PROMPTS AND WRITING THOSE ESSAYS AS WELL

  • GET ORGANIZED! FILL IN YOUR SPREADSHEET OF AUDITION REQUIREMENTS FOR EACH SCHOOL

September

  • APPLICATIONS SHOULD BE SUBMITTED BY SEPT 15-OCT 1 OF SENIOR YEAR

    • (because some school’s audition dates are full/closed by the end of October!)

  • PUT TOGETHER POTENTIAL AUDITION SCHEDULE

  • See App process status and On campus audition possibilities pages of template

October

  • FILM YOUR PRESCREENS AND UPLOAD THEM BETWEEN OCT 1- OCT 15

    • (falling somewhere in the middle is the best bet for prescreens- upload them to early and the judges are harsher because there is no one to compare you to, submit them later towards the end of the deadline and the schools are much more selective at this point in the process)

  • ACTUALLY SCHEDULE YOUR AUDITIONS AT THIS POINT

    • (schedule 1-3 auditions for November and December, but the bulk -if not all of your auditions will happen in January and February)

 
 

November/December

  • DO ANY EARLY AUDITIONS

    • (these are usually for any schools with rolling admissions and you’ll be notified of acceptance soon after your audition. If you are accepted you may be able to remove some schools from your audition list at this point)

  • PERFECT YOUR AUDITION MATERIAL

 
 

January/February

  • YOUR AUDITIONS WILL BE HAPPENING AT THIS TIME

March/April

  • APRIL 1 IS DECISION DAY

  • YOU MAY BE PLACED ON A WAIT LIST WITH SOME PROGRAMS

May

  • MUST PUT A DEPOSIT DOWN ON A SCHOOL BY MAY 1

  • YOU MAY BE TAKEN OFF OF A WAIT LIST AT THIS POINT