Preparing for post-Secondary Theatre Programs
If you are a student in grades 9-12, you’ve probably been asked “Where do you want to go after high school?” more than once since the start of the year. But whether or not you are 100% confident in picking your dream school; if you’re hoping to pursue the arts, you have to start preparing earlier than your peers. Musical Theatre is an exceptionally difficult art form because it’s multidisciplinary, so not only do you have to be an exceptional singer, but also a strong dancer and actor as well! If you’re hoping to get into a prestigious school for performance, you need to start prepping and you need to start preparing NOW! Here are our tips:
1. Ensure you’ve been training
If you have not yet taken a dance class, attended an intensive, been working with a vocal teacher, or been participating in performance opportunities outside of the Innovative Musical and school performances, I would seriously take a step back to evaluate if this is the right path for you. As an aspiring performing arts student, you will be applying to get into schools where you are focusing on skill development and technique for 20-40 hours a week, which would be an unrealistic time and energy commitment for someone who has never trained at this level before. There is a certain level of skill that you will need to even be considered as an applicant to post-secondary schools, which takes many years of hard work to achieve. Unfortunately, it is nearly impossible to catch up on all this training in the few months before your audition. Even a year before your post-secondary audition is usually too late to start taking your triple threat training seriously.
2. Find a coach
If you’ve been training, you can probably turn to your current teachers and coaches for assistance with audition prep. However, not all teachers are available to help or have the expertise in audition preparation/coaching. Seeking out voice teachers who specialize in picking repertoire, acting teachers who can provide monologue coaching, and dance instructors who can provide private dance training might serve you well during a year where you are working on fine-tuning an audition versus developing new skills. Investing in audition coaching can get expensive, so it’s always a good idea to meet with your coaches well in advance to see what they think you might need to succeed and to come to every session on time and prepared to ensure you don’t waste your resources!
3. Prepare your audition material
Picking your audition material should be a process that takes place over the course of a few months and shouldn’t be rushed in the last few weeks. You want to find material that showcases you, that you are extremely confident in, and that you have workshopped with a coach or accompanist. Keep in mind when selecting your material that favourite iconic numbers like Defying Gravity, Waving Through the Window, or Burn, to name a few, are showstoppers because they’ve been performed by the best of the best. There are certain expectations that come along with these song selections and although they’re our go-to karaoke picks, they are usually not recommended for auditions, as the comparison to the original singers can work against an aspiring pre-professional.
4. References
Do not wait until the last minute to contact and prepare your references. When selecting the mentor or teacher you want to ask to write you a reference letter, make sure that person is someone you’ve worked with in the past year, and who can speak about your skill set in detail. When you contact a potential reference, provide them with all the information they need to write incredible things about you! Even if you are their favourite student, expecting them to remember every single role you’ve played in that last however many years, as well as writing about your volunteer experience and additional training, is unreasonable. Provide your reference with a list of your training, credits, and anything else you might want them to discuss in your letter as well as all the information about the programs and schools you are applying to. Giving your references ample notice allows them to put sufficient time and care into writing a great reference letter. Be sure to thank them for doing you this huge favor, likely at a time when they are being asked to write multiple reference letters for other students applying to post-secondary.
Preparing for post-secondary auditions can be very nerve-wracking, so get started early, work hard, be kind to your support system, and get ready to showcase the best version of yourself! Here at Innovative Arts, we love to support our students in their preparation for post-secondary auditions! The most difficult conversations happen when we feel like a student has waited too long to really dig their heels into training, or hasn’t prepared enough in advance.
Get started now and let’s get you into your dream school!
