As we all know, the college application process is a doozy no matter what schools/majors you’re considering. There are college visits to make, standardized tests to take, essays upon essays to write, and applications themselves to fill out and submit – all while balancing a full high school course load. It goes without saying that starting this process in your junior year is highly advisable, but that holds even more true if you’re applying to theater programs. The vast majority of the theater departments you’ll want to apply to will require you to not only audition in person with multiple monologues and/or songs, but they will also require you to audition via video before you are granted an in-person audition. This first step is called a “pre-screen,” and many of the preeminent theater programs require it of prospective students as a way to weed out those who the faculty do not feel are ready to compete in a talent pool of their peers. Prospective applicants must find out what specific pre-screen material is required for each school by visiting each school’s respective website. Then, after much preparation, they must perform this material on tape and submit the video to the school per the pre-screen instructions.
Pre-screens for Acting majors usually consist of two contrasting monologues from plays (monologues from TV/film are not allowed); for Musical Theater majors, a monologue from a play, at least one song, and a short choreographed dance are usually required. (Several schools have also recently begun encouraging students to include clips of themselves performing special/unique skills – i.e. circus tricks, playing musical instruments, doing puppetry, etc. – whatever makes them “unique.”) Specific genre and length requirements for each monologue and/or song vary from school to school, as do the deadlines by which pre-screen videos must be submitted. The cutoff for submissions for most schools is between October 15 and December 1, so creating an organized spreadsheet of pre-screen and in-person audition requirements/deadlines early on in your process is definitely in your best interest.
The audition is an enormous deciding factor in whether a student is admitted to any of the major drama schools in the country. Schools that are highly academically competitive (i.e. NYU, Carnegie Mellon, and Michigan) will also put considerable weight on a student’s grades, test scores, and college essays, but at the end of the day, if a student’s audition is not up to snuff, they will not receive admission to the country’s premier programs. For this reason, choosing pre-screen/audition material and beginning to work on it during the summer going into a student’s senior year is the way to go so that the piece has time to live and breathe in you and as you, well before any audition sign-up even pops onto your application portal.
Think of your auditions as an opportunity—a chance for the faculty to grasp not only your talent but also your range, your personality, your professionalism and preparedness, and your ability to be emotionally vulnerable and open to the characters you are playing. Your material itself is a very personal choice, but working with an audition coach or theater teacher to go over your auditions is strongly advised.
There are no definitive rules on this, but generally speaking: unless it speaks to you in some unique and personal way, stay away from the most iconic, well-known speeches and monologues, i.e. Macbeth. You can always ask your high school/local drama teachers for monologues that are typically overdone at college auditions so that you know which pieces to avoid.
When choosing material to work on, you should look for characters/monologues that are within your age range (usually anywhere between 14 and early 20s, depending on your type). It’s also helpful to read the pieces out loud while picking; this may help you narrow down those you have the most visceral response to right off the bat. Once you have a single piece secured, it's easier to strategize your second piece; pick something that shows an alternative side of you or your skill set. Overall, think of these monologues like the personal statement of the performance application—they should speak to or reveal something about you.
All Drama departments that require auditions will ask for at least one, usually two Contemporary monologues, which, depending on the school, means the monologue must have been written post-1900, or post-WWI. Some schools will also require students to perform a Classical monologue – most often Shakespeare, but sometimes they will expand this definition to include Greek Tragedies, classical farce (i.e. Moliere), etc. Length requirements for monologues also vary from school to school, with some programs asking for two-minute, 90-second, or one-minute monologues. For this reason, you should plan on learning at least 5 monologues for college auditions: 2 Contemporary Dramatic monologues (one longer, one shorter), 2 Contemporary Comic monologues (one longer, one shorter), and 1 classical/Shakespearean monologue. Preparing at least 5 monologues is an enormous undertaking and requires a lot of hours spent in the workshop, so to speak, so it is for this reason (among others) that you should pick material you love. Rule of thumb: If you don’t enjoy performing your monologue, chances are your auditioner isn’t going to enjoy watching it.
Similar to the requirements for Acting majors, Musical Theater students will be asked to pick audition songs of differing styles and time periods. Most often, schools will require one up-tempo song and one ballad, but requirements around whether these pieces must be from the Contemporary or Classical (Standard/Legit) musical theater canons vary depending on the school. As with monologues, length requirements for audition songs are also program-specific, so you must prepare multiple songs, and plan to have different cuts ready (i.e. a 16-bar cut, a 32-bar cut, a one-minute cut, and/or a two-minute cut) in order to tailor their songs to each program’s guidelines. At the end of the day, you should expect to have to learn at least 6 songs for college auditions, since audition requirements vary so much from program to program. You should also be aware that you are not permitted to sing a cappella, and in most cases will be required to sing with live piano accompaniment at your auditions, so rehearse accordingly.
Some students may want to apply to both Musical Theater and Acting programs for different schools, and it certainly is possible. There is no rule book— no one way to go about this process. And the truth is, different schools vary in their emphasis on each component. One thing to consider is that many Musical Theater programs do not prioritize acting training. If your goal is acting for film/TV or in Broadway plays, you may want to tread carefully in auditioning for Musical Theater programs, as the breadth and depth of your acting training will inevitably be cut short by the split curriculum. Many programs have separate faculty all together for their respective acting and musical theater tracks. While NYU has 10 acting studios, each dedicated to a different acting technique—Atlantic, Stella Adler, The Experimental Theater Wing, The Meisner Studio, Lee Strasberg, The New Studio (musical theater), The Classical Studio, and Stonestreet for film and TV—a school like Carnegie Mellon integrates musical theater and acting students much more fluidly and seamlessly, with classes and productions overlapping. So it’s important to do your research on each program before applying.
As you are undoubtedly aware by this point, preparing for college auditions is an involved process, and starting early is of paramount importance. Finding and narrowing down material that you love is usually very time-consuming in and of itself, so be sure to give yourself plenty of lead time to pick your audition pieces before you need to begin rehearsing. And above all, though this process will inevitably feel daunting, remember to HAVE FUN! Presumably, you want to go into this field because you love to perform, so remember that auditions are just a chance to play. College auditioners are not expecting perfection, but rather looking for potential. They know you’ve got a lot to learn (otherwise why would you be applying to Drama school in the first place?), so prepare the best you can, and then go in there and just have fun! If you’re enjoying what you’re doing, chances are they will enjoy it, too.
