Undergraduate Admission
Performing Arts: Acting BFA
Requirements include:
Résumé
All performing arts applicants must submit a theatrical résumé that may include, but is not limited to, their experience in:
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Résumés are submitted through Stagedoor.
Audition
The audition plays an important role in the admission decision. It gives us the opportunity to evaluate your talent and potential, and determine if you would be compatible with our program.
Please prepare a single two- to three-minute monologue from a contemporary play. We are not assessing your performance for range or versatility, but rather, looking for honesty and a strong commitment to what you are doing. Choose something that is important to you and try to make us feel and understand what you are sharing with us. At the audition itself, you may be asked to work on this piece improvisationally, so be sure to have memorized your monologue through exploration rather than by rote.
View the 2012-2013 Artistic Review schedule.
The Audition Day
Applicants who are required to complete an acting audition (BFA Acting, BA Theatre Studies: Acting, BA Theatre Education: Acting) book themselves into a two-hour audition period. Please arrive 15 to 20 minutes prior to the audition start time. You will be directed to the check-in room where audition staff will confirm your arrival and take a photo of you. This photo will be the headshot associated with your record and audition and it will only be used internally at Emerson College for the audition process. We will not accept alternative headshot photographs in any form.
Anyone accompanying you to the audition will be directed to the Parent Waiting Room. On most audition days in Boston, the Performing Arts Admission Coordinator will conduct an information session for parents in the Parent Waiting Room.
The auditions will begin with a brief question and answer period with the audition’s faculty evaluators, after which applicants booked into the two-hour time period will be brought into the audition room(s) individually. As stated above, you may be asked to work on your piece in a manner that is different than how you prepared. Also, the evaluator might take an opportunity to ask you some questions about your understanding or interpretation of the piece, as well as a few questions about yourself. Our goal is to understand who you are and how you work.
Once your monologue audition is complete, you must check out with the audition staff in the check-in room. After that, you are free to leave. Although you might be finished early in the allotted time slot, please be prepared to stay for the full two hours.
Auditions Outside Boston
We endeavor to run all of our auditions, in or out of Boston, in the same way. But there are a few differences for auditions outside of Boston:
- Parents and applicants share the same waiting room.
- Although we are able to start each audition with a question and answer period for the applicants with the audition’s faculty evaluators, we are not able to offer an information session for parents.
Audition Advice
We recommend that you select a contemporary monologue (written in 1950–present): something you can easily relate to and is appropriate for your age. Should you be drawn to a pre-1950 European play, please consider a contemporary translation. We prefer that you avoid verse plays as the language often becomes more of a barrier than a window.
We do not recommend pieces from films or original material. If you choose your piece from a monologue book, please be aware that many other actors will also. As a result, your choice is likely to be overdone. Make sure you know the whole play from which you choose your monologue; we may wish to discuss the play with you.
Finally, remember we are most interested in seeing who you are in the audition. We want to see you reflected through the character you play and the piece you perform. Pick good material for yourself, prepare it, and do it well. We want to see skill and potential, so play to your strengths.
