"Talk about a whirlwind weekend. On Thursday, February 16, three Theatre majors set out from the IWU campus, journeying into the great unknown of professional theatre auditions. Emily Tritle (sr), Cody Konschak (sr), and Kendra Emmett (jr) had planned this trip since the previous semester. They had submitted headshots, resumes, applications, and application fees to Midwest Theatre Auditions (which take place in St. Louis, Missouri at Webster University each year) and to Strawhat Auditions (which take place in New York City at Pace University). It is never guaranteed that applicants will get an audition slot even when applying early. Applicants’ headshots and resumes are reviewed, and then they might be contacted and asked to audition. All three were asked to audition at both locations—in the same weekend.
Both auditions were similar in nature. Representatives from up to twenty-five or thirty theatre companies attended the audition days. Each audition was to be no more than ninety seconds. Applicants could either sing and perform a monologue, or perform two contrasting monologues. Understanding that their chances of being called back might increase if they sang (well), Tritle, Konschak, and Emmett signed up for singing auditions. All singing auditions were required to begin with the song and conclude with the monologue.
After the auditions came the waiting. They waited anywhere from a few hours (in St. Louis) to only part of an hour (in New York City) to find out whether or not they were called back. In St. Louis, each of them received one callback. After meeting with the theatre representatives in the callbacks (some involved further singing or acting and some were mostly informational meetings), the three hit the road and headed for New York City. At Strawhat auditions, the process was very much the same. This time, Emmett and Tritle each received one callback while Konschak discovered that he had four. Tritle and Konschaks’ callbacks required both of them to attend a dance call that they both said that they enjoyed even though it took both of them out of their comfort zones.
After a full and exhausting weekend of auditions, they headed back to Marion, Indiana into the midst of catching up on school work and work hours, as well as diving right into the thick of production week for The Glass Menagerie. After further application processes for some of the theatres they received callbacks for, they now have to wait to hear from the theatres to see what the next step will be and whether or not they will be hired or possibly taken into apprenticeship programs. All in all, they all three felt it was a successful venture. They were glad for the experience, and are seriously considering returning again next year to do it all over again."
It was a pretty crazy weekend and I had plenty of moments when I felt intimidated and untalented, but it was a great learning experience and I'm glad that I did it.
Probably the thought that was most recurring for me through the weekend was, "I wish I was a dancer." At Strawhat auditions, there was a dance call specifically for dancers. "Dancers who sing" - or those that audition specifically for dancing chorus parts. And then there are the triple threats. The ones that go out on stage, sing an opera piece, deliver a fascinating monologue, and then go back and change into dance clothes and shoes and start stretching to do both choreography and tap dance calls. Believe me, I felt untalented more than once.
I think it would be cool to move to, I don't know, Indianapolis or Chicago, get an apartment and a decently paying job, and take dance intensives in ballet, tap, and jazz for a year. That's probably not a realistic goal, but I bet it would be pretty awesome.
I don't know. We'll see what happens. The callbacks I received from my auditions were to Great River Shakespeare Festival in Winona, Minnesota (that was at Midwest auditions) and then also one to Missoula Children's Theater in Missoula, Montana (at Strawhats). Missoula pays pretty well and sounds like a fantastic time. A partner and I would be touring the country in a Ford F-150 for the summer, working with kids and putting on shows. I submitted an application for them and am waiting to hear back. But I've actually received more encouragement to shoot for the Great River Shakespeare Festival. In the callback I learned that it wasn't precisely a job offering - it was a callback inviting me to apply for their apprenticeship program. The drawback? They wouldn't pay me, I would have to pay them for a 12 week program. It was actually a surprisingly affordable price, though, and there are up-sides. During the 12 week period I would have the opportunity to understudy roles in each of their productions, take classes and workshops with their professional actors during the day, do a bit of theatre management work, and then at the end of the summer the apprentices would get to put on the last show of the season - guaranteed nine performances at a professional Shakespeare company. AND not to mention all the networking I'd be able to do.
Anyway, I sent in my applications to both Great River and Missoula, and also applied for internships at Goodman and Lookingglass Theatres in Chicago, and to the American Shakespeare Center in Staunton, Virginia. Throwing out lots of fishing lines and seeing if any of them gets a bite. My first choice will be Great River, if I get accepted there. (It would mean I would need to come with some money before this summer but I can work on that.) My second choice would probably be either Missoula (even if it doesn't help my professional career necessarily, it would pay), or the American Shakespeare Center. Lookingglass is my next choice, and Goodman would be my last choice.
So far, these are my tentative plans, God willing:
I have a year of school left. My senior project will be the biggest part of my final year. I'm going to try to present Rachel Corrie off campus (I might have a venue in Chicago to do so), and if I can't present it while I'm a student at IWU I will probably try to take it up right after I graduate. Then, that summer, I'm applying for a study abroad program to go to Oxford for a few weeks to take a graduate intensive course in Shakespeare. In February of my senior year I will attend URTAs (University and Regional Theatre Auditions) where I will audition for grad school acting programs. If I somehow am accepted to a grad school through that (the chances are usually pretty steep), I will give that serious consideration. I am also very interested, however, in applying to Mary Baldwin College in Staunton, Virginia. They have a partnership with the American Shakespeare Center and offer a Shakespeare and Performance Degree that I very much like the sound of. In the first year, students get a Master of Letters degree which emphasizes both Shakespearean scholarship as well as stagecraft. After receiving the MLitt, students are then permitted to apply for the terminal Master of Fine Arts degree in the second year, and specialize in acting, directing, or dramaturgy. All in all it sounds like something I would really love and (I think) do well in.
With that plan in view, it's easy to see how an apprenticeship at the Great River Shakespeare Festival would benefit me. I would love to be a member of a Shakespeare company. Really, all I want out of life is to get paid to act before I die. And if I'm to be a Shakespearean actor, then all the better. Hopefully these plans put me on the right track.
Someday, when I'm older and wiser, I would really love to teach theatre at the college level. But that's quite a few years off yet, I think, and I would like to get some professional experience and live some life before diving back into the world of higher ed from the other side.
Dreaming gets me excited, but I know that anything could change at any time. That's the funny thing about life. So! We'll see what happens, I suppose.
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