While auditioning for a post secondary institution is very similar to any other audition, there are a few things that make it different, scarier, or special, depending on how you look at things. :)
The first point I have to make is by far the most important, because I think that a lot of people have a hard time hearing it. When you audition for a college or university, "talent" is only one little item on a very long list of traits that they are looking for. Those of us who are auditioning for college or university are auditioning, presumably, because they have some experience in theatre, someone has probably told them they are pretty good and they would like to study it seriously. The problem is that they are also coming from (usually) a relatively sheltered environment - essentially, a big fish in a little pond. But where you are about to go, you will be a little fish in a big pond. And this is where I come back to my original statement. You are going to need a lot more than talent.
And why is this? Well, for starters, talent can be difficult to define let alone measure. Using talent alone, it would be difficult for audition panels to make admittance decisions. Talent comes in many shapes, forms, & colours. But is talent all you are going to need to make it as a professional? No, absolutely not. And that's why they are also going to judge you on all those other things too.
Trait #1: Are you prepared for the reality?
By far my biggest surprise when I did my own college auditions so long ago was how much they focused on how prepared you were to deal with the reality of becoming a professional performer. At one school I auditioned for we were asked to fill out a quite lengthy survey asking us such questions as "Why do you want to become a performer?" and "How much money does the average working actor make in one year?" They wanted to know if we REALLY knew what we were getting ourselves into. This is important, because no school wants to admit a kid who is going to drop out their second year when they find out they probably won't make millions of dollars as an actor. Find out what this acting for a living thing is all about.
Trait #2: Are you willing to work hard?
Work is the key word in that sentence. When you audition, they are going to build their opinion of you as a hard worker based on your preparation for this audition. If you forget your lines, you probably didn't spend enough time on memorization. If you chose audition pieces from the "do not perform" list, you didn't follow instructions. If you go over the time limit, you did not prepare carefully enough (shorter is usually better anyway). They will probably ask you questions about your monologue to see if you took the time to read the play is was from. To show them you are a serious actor, make sure that you are as prepared as you can possibly be.
Trait #3: Are you a performer?
They will base this on whether your audition is a performance. Don't do anything in the audition that you wouldn't do in front of an audience. This includes stopping & apologizing for mistakes, turning around or bowing your head to "compose" yourself (what is that?) or asking to start again. If you do make a mistake, handle it yourself in the most professional way possible. You don't need help from the audience to fix your mistakes.
Trait #4: Are you the kind of person they would want to work with for four years?
The audition panel at college auditions will usually be made up mostly of professors from the program. All these people are the same people you will be working with everyday if you are accepted. Think about that when you are in your audition, and realize that they will be thinking about it too. The more personable, friendly, and professional you can be, the better your chances.
Trait #5: Do you demonstrate basic skills as a result of training and/or experience?
You will be required to give the audition panel a list of your training and performing experiences. This is more, however, than just a brag list. This is also a statement about your current level of expertise. The audition panel will look at your audition for evidence of what you have learned from these experiences. Make sure that you demonstrate essential acting skills.
Other Random Audition Tips
I have heard from a lot of college adjudicators that they really hate it when highschool kids sing songs that are linked to a character that they could not play at this point in their lives. For example, singing a guys song if you are a girl is a serious no no. Similarly, if you are 17 years old you should not be singing a song that was written for a character over the age of 25. Therefore, it is very essential that you know all about the show that a song came from and know all about the character for whom the song was written. You should also never sing anything from a show that is currently on Broadway.
