BCIT Medford s Academy of Performing Arts Audition Information Packet Class of 2019 & 2020 The Burlington County Institute of Technology - Academy of Performing Arts mission is to create a highly specialized and safe learning community promoting honesty, integrity, and citizenship while challenging students through rigorous academics. The program cultivates a life long thirst for learning through problem solving, meaningful project based lessons, and interdisciplinary education. Simultaneously, students are immersed in a dynamic and intense Performing Arts program which fosters strong personal, intellectual, and social development while opening the door for students to pursue a career in the Performing Arts. Burlington County Institute of Technology Medford Campus 10 Hawkin Road Medford, NJ 08055 (609) 654-0200 Email: med-pa@bcit.cc
Auditions Class of 2019 & 2020 February 2015 Dear Applicant and Family, This Packet will guide potential Dance, Theatre, Vocal Music & Instrumental Music majors through the audition process for the Class of 2019 and 2020. Auditions are to be held on March 19 th, April 23 rd (Instrumental & Voice Only), April 30 th (Dance & Theatre only), & May 21 st, at the BCIT Medford Campus, Performing Arts Center. You must attend one of these sessions as part of admission to the program. Auditions are by invitation only. To qualify for an audition opportunity, the applicant must first qualify for admission to attend BCIT. While applicants MAY audition for all 4 programs, admission can only be accepted to one. Criteria for Admission: Promotion to grade being applied for Passing average in all courses Good school citizenship 8 or fewer excused absences per semester (one half school year) Competence on BCIT admissions test(s) A student may request a personal interview as part of the admissions process Procedure for Admission: Student submits application 1. Apply online by going to www.bcit.cc and click on High School Admission and completing the High School Admissions Form. 2. Apply through mail by calling the admissions office at 609-267-4226, ext. 246 and materials will be sent by mail. Student receives enrollment program invitation Student and parent/guardian attend an enrollment program and bring with them: 1. Behavior statement completed by sending school 2. Preliminary course selections 3. Most recent report card Student completes admission test(s) at enrollment program Students begin to receive admissions status letters by January 1. Students admitted sign-up for an audition date: Saturday, March 19 Saturday, April 23 (Music only) Saturday, April 30 (Dance & Theater) Saturday, May 21 Students are notified of acceptance into the Academy of Performing Arts. Good luck and we hope to see you in September! Michael Parker, Principal Academy of Performing Arts (609) 654-0200 x 431
THEATRE PROGRAM AUDITIONS Once students meet the academic qualifications, applicants will be scheduled into audition time slots. During the appointment time, applicants will deliver a short monologue, from memory, to our panel of adjudicators in a private session. Monologues must be chosen from the provided Monologue Bank. Please use the rubric included in this packet to prepare, and be sure to consult our tips below. Registration Parents/guardians are asked to drop off their children promptly 10 minutes before their designated time. When they arrive, students will be asked to sign in upon arrival. The audition sessions are closed to the public, but parents/guardians should wait in the waiting area as the audition should take no longer than 10 minutes to complete. Practice Room Applicants will be allowed to rehearse their monologue in a practice room prior to their audition time. Tips for monologues: Use only approved monologues from the provided list. The plays from which these monologues are taken are readily available on Amazon.com or at your local bookstore or library. Please read the whole play in order to best understand your character. Make sure that your monologue is memorized. A prompter will be made available, and you may call for line only if necessary. Please memorize verbatim and do not improvise or add any of your own lines. Please do not bring any additional furniture, props, costume, sound or lighting equipment. A chair will be made available upon request. BCIT has a strongly enforced dress code that students are required to follow in auditions and all theatre classes. Students should be dressed in neat, professional looking attire that permits freedom of movement. The following items are not permitted: Baggy sweat pants, shorts, big shirts, and hats, head scarves, dangling jewelry, large earrings, high heeled shoes, chewing gum or snacks. Water bottles in plastic containers are acceptable. Please do not bring resumes, headshots or letters of recommendation.
Theatre Auditions Monologue Bank Male options George from Our Town by Thornton Wilder Emily, if I go away to State Agriculture College next year, will you write me a letter once in a while? The day wouldn t come when I wouldn t want to know everything that s happening here. Y know. Emily, whenever I meet a farmer I ask him if he thinks it s important to go to Agriculture School to be a good farmer. Yeah, and some of them even say that it s a waste of time. You can get all those things, anyway, out of the pamphlets the government sends out. And Uncle Luke s getting old, he s about ready for me to start in taking over his farm tomorrow, if I could. And Like you said, being gone all that time in other places and meeting other people Gosh, if anything like that can happen I don t want to go away. I guess new people aren t any better than old ones. I bet they almost never are. Emily I feel you are as good a friend as I ve got. I don t need to go and meet the people in other towns. (After a pause, very seriously.) Emily, I m going to make up my mind right now. I won t go. I ll tell Pa about it tonight. Hansel from Hansel and Gretel adapted by Jean Marlow Don t cry Gretel. Father didn t mean to leave us all alone in the forest. I know he didn t please don t cry! See. I ve broken up the crust of bread he gave us and left a trail of crumbs leading all the way back home again. Think how happy he ll be when he finds us all tucked up and snug in our beds tomorrow morning. Look! The moon is coming up from behind the clouds and we can easily find our way back. See there are the breadcrumbs. They start from here and they go all along the path and Oh no! The trail has stopped Of course; the birds have eaten them up! There are only little bits left. And I simply can t remember the way back Never mind, father will come and find us very soon Don t worry, I ll look after you How beautiful everything looks in the moonlight. Charlie Brown from You re a Good Man, Charlie Brown by Clark Gesner I think lunch time is about the worst time of the day for me. Always having to sit here alone...well, I guess I d better see what I ve got. Peanut butter. Some psychiatrists say that people who eat peanut butter sandwiches are lonely. I guess they re right. Boy, the PTA sure did a good job of painting these benches. There s that cute little redheaded girl eating her lunch over there. I wonder what she d do if I went over and asked her if I could sit and have lunch with her. She d probably laugh right in my face. It s hard on a face when it gets laughed in. There s an empty place next to her on the bench. There s no reason why I couldn t just go over and sit there. I could do that right now. All I have to do is stand up. I m standing up I m sitting down. I m a coward. I m so much of a coward she wouldn t even think of looking at me. She hardly ever does look at me. In fact, I can t remember her ever looking at me. Why shouldn t she look at me? Is she so great and am I so small that she couldn t spare one little moment just to.she s looking at me. She s looking at me!
Female options Julie from 18 More Reasons Not to Be in a Play by Alan Haehnel Because you re a fast talker. You come from a family of fast talkers and if there s such a thing as a gene for fast talking you have definitely inherited it and if you were in a play you d memorize your lines and all that but you d say them too fast and you know the director would say Take it slower. And you d know you re supposed to take it slower and you would say to yourself over and over, Talk slower, talk slower, but when you worried about it you d get tense and when you got tense you d talk even faster so the director would start to get mad and he d say You have to talk slower! And you d practically be screaming at yourself inside yourself and beating yourself up because you d know you were still talking too fast but you d be getting so nervous about it you d be getting faster and faster so the director would lose his patience finally and yell Slower! And that would make you go so fast that you never even took a breath and you d go and go and go and go and go and go so fast that you ran completely out of air but still you d be telling yourself to slow down so the director wouldn t yell at you because you hated that but couldn t stop racing and racing until you finally just Emily from Our Town by Thornton Wilder I m not mad at you. (Pause) Well, since you ask me, I might as well say it right out, George. I don t like the whole change that s come over you in the last year. I m sorry if that hurts your feelings, but I ve got to tell the truth and shame the devil. Up to a year ago I used to like you a lot. And I used to watch you as you did everything because we d been friends so long and then you began spending all your time at baseball and you never stopped to speak to anybody anymore. Not even to your own family you didn t and, George, it s a fact, you ve gotten awful conceited and stuck up, and all the girls say so. They may not say so to your face, but that s what they say behind your back, and it hurts me to hear them say it, but I ve got to agree with them a little. I m sorry if it hurts your feelings but I can t be sorry I said it. #60 from Things I Want to Say But Never Will by Alan Haehnel My brother would kill me if he saw me talking to you. He doesn t even want me coming near you, his precious girlfriend. But let me tell you: I m on to you. I know you re a liar and a cheat and a complete poser. You claim you love my brother, so why did you tell that whole web of lies involving him that got you kicked out of your house, huh? And was it your tremendous love for him that forced you the other night to show up at the movie theater where my brother was working hanging all over some other guy? I mean, pull-eeze! They say love is blind, which is a good thing for you, but love is blinding, an even better thing, because you can tell all your lies and be with a million other guys and my brother is so in love he just doesn t see it! But he will someday. And I do right now. Obviously, you don t love my brother. If you even like him, though, do us all a favor: Get lost.
Male or Female Option: Puck from A Midsummer Night s Dream by William Shakespeare The King doth keep his revels here tonight. Take heed the Queen come not within his sight, For Oberon is passing fell and wrath Because that she as her attendant hath A lovely boy stolen from an Indian king. She had never had so sweet a changeling, And jealous Oberon would have the child Knight of his train, to trace the forests wild. But she perforce withholds the loved boy, Crowns him with flowers, and makes him all her joy. And now they never meet in grove or green, By fountain clear or spangled starlight sheen But they do square, that all their elves for fear Creep into acorn cups and hide them there. Rock from Tales From the Arabian Mice by Will Averill Hi. I don t know if you remember me or not, but I was the kid who played the Crocodile last year in Peter Pan? Do you remember? Probably not. It was a little part, and although I ve trained for years for a life in the theatre, three years running here at [name of venue], they neglected to use me to my fullest potential again. You know what I am this year? I m. A. Rock. Not the professional wrestler and famous actor in such cinematic classics as The Scorpion King, no, I m just a routine lousy geological formation which our protagonist (that s a big word for hero that I learned in my three years of professional theatre training, all of which did me NO good when it came to casting), finds himself collapsing against in his time of trouble. Can t wait for school to start again We went to Disneyworld this summer, oh, wow, we went to Europe. Hey, what d you do this summer (kid s name)? Who, me? Oh, I stayed at home AND PLAYED A LOUSY ROCK! Not that I m bitter. Cause it s --- it s great training. Oh. Excuse me. Gotta go LIE ON THE FLOOR AND DO NOTHING now for a while.
DANCE PROGRAM AUDITIONS Once students meet the academic qualifications applicants will be scheduled into audition time slots. At the audition, they will be asked to perform in a technique class consisting of Ballet, Modern, and Jazz. No special preparation will be needed for this class. Registration Parents/guardians are asked to drop off their children promptly at the time assigned; the designated time will allow for proper stretching. When they arrive, students will be asked to sign in. Since all audition sessions are closed to the public, parents/guardians should arrange to pick up their children at the conclusion of the session. Dress Code BCIT has a strongly enforced dress code that students are required to follow in auditions and all dance classes. Students should be dressed in neat, form fitting, professional looking attire. The following items are not permitted in class: Baggy sweat pants, shorts, big shirts, hats, head scarves, jewelry, legwarmers, chewing gum or snacks. Water bottles in plastic containers are acceptable. Girls: Long hair should be pulled back into a bun and pinned securely away from the face and neck. Leotard: Preferably black. Tights: Pink, convertible-style. Shoes: Ballet shoes, preferably pink, and Jazz shoes without heels. Skirts and Pointe shoes not required for the audition. Boys: Hair: Preferably kept short and neat. If long, pull it back securely into a pony tail. Top: White or Black fitted leotard or tank top (no graphics) tucked inside pants. Pants: Black fitted jazz pants or tights. Must stop at the ankle. Dance belt/supporter must be worn for audition, all dance classes and rehearsals. Shoes: Black ballet with white socks, and black jazz shoes preferred.
INSTRUMENTAL AND VOCAL MUSIC AUDITIONS General guidelines: Arrive approximately 15 minutes early for your scheduled audition time. You may unpack your instrument, warm-up, and tune in the designated practice area. Dress in modest, professional clothing. If you make a mistake, stay calm and continue as naturally and musically as possible. For morning vocal auditions, be sure to warm-up your voice when you wake up. It is recommended to stretch your neck and upper body. Some students may feel they have a strength in one area of the audition but a deficiency in another. Please do not let this keep you from auditioning! You may still be admitted into the program based on other strengths and overall potential. That said, it is recommended to prepare for the audition in all areas listed below. Aural Skills Requirements: All students will take an aural skills test to assess musicianship. All materials for the Aural Skills Test will be provided at the audition. Echo rhythms clapped by adjudicator. Sing pitches played on the piano by adjudicator. Perform rhythms from music notation with a metronome. Instrumental Music Audition Requirements: 1) Repertoire Be prepared to perform two selections of contrasting style. (e.g., slow, lyrical; technical, rhythmic). Selections should be unaccompanied. Pieces should be of intermediate or advanced difficulty. Please bring a copy of the sheet music for the adjudicators. Select music that displays your strengths. Playing an easier selection well reflects your abilities better than playing a difficult piece poorly. Percussionists should prepare one piece on snare drum and one piece on a mallet instrument. A snare drum and a xylophone will be available at the audition. Please bring drum sticks and mallets. Guitarists should prepare at least one guitar piece played with classical guitar technique (no pick) and be prepared to show a working knowledge of guitar chords. The second piece may be performed with a pick. 2) Scales Be prepared to play from memory any major scale of up to 4 sharps, 4 flats, and C Major. Guitarists should play 2 octave scales. Pianists should play 2 octave scales with two hands together with correct fingering.
Percussion: In addition to the above scales, prepare the following snare drum rudiments: Single stroke roll, Five stroke roll, Seven stroke roll, Paradiddle 3) Sight-reading Perform one passage of unfamiliar music, to be provided at the audition. Vocal Music Audition requirements: 1) Repertoire Be prepared to perform two songs. The first song will be the student s choice of America, the Beautiful OR Star-Spangled Banner performed a cappella (unaccompanied). [NOTE: Please DO NOT perform the Star-Spangled Banner in the stadium/ Superbowl style with excessive amounts of ornamentation.] The second song should be in a Classical, musical theater, or popular style. This song should be carefully chosen to display the strengths of the vocalist. Be sure the lyrics are appropriate for a school environment. This selection may be performed a cappella (unaccompanied) or with a karaoke style recording. Do not sing with a recording that contains the lead vocal. Students must bring the audio accompaniment on CD or MP3 device or provide their own accompanist to the play at the audition. Youtube videos may also be used if a CD or Mp3 recording is unavailable. 2) Scales Sing a major scale, ascending and descending, using solfege (i.e., Do, Re, Mi) numbers (i.e., 1, 2, 3) or neutral syllable (i.e., La) without piano support. Sing the same major scale while adjudicator plays harmonizing notes on the piano. Given the first scale degree (i.e., Do), be able to sing requested scale degrees (e.g., if this sound is Do, then sing Mi). 3) Sight Singing Read one passage of unfamiliar music provided at the audition. Use Solfege syllables (Do, Re, Mi etc) or a neutral syllable (ex. Ah or La ). The piano will be used to give the starting pitch only. If you have any questions, please email the music teachers. Pamela L. Turowski, Instrumental Music Teacher pturowski@bcit.cc Michael Nikolidakis, Vocal Music, Piano and Guitar Teacher mnikolidakis@bcit.cc