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[0:00] Charlie Murphy: Hello, hello, and welcome to Mapping The College Audition. I'm your host, Charlie Murphy, Director of MTCA. That's Musical Theatre, College Auditions. Check us out at mtca.com. And today, we've got part two of our two-part live pod series, affectionately called our faculty speed dating panel, live at Pittsburgh Unifieds. What a fun one. This one was always a fun time getting to meet everyone at Pittsburgh Unifieds. We always like to emphasize to the people there, and for anyone with FOMO, who's, you know, didn't catch one of these kind of early audition experiences, just to all of you out there as listeners, just how early in the year it still is. It is always tricky when you see some of your peers who are a bit ahead of the game and start comparing and despairing.

But please don't let yourself compare and despair. If you're listening to this in October, as a senior, you still have lots of time to make real adjustments to your audition process and make improvements, right? And the most impactful audition experiences for those who are looking for the most competitive audition programs are still ahead of you, right? Whether that's callbacks for schools that you may have just met here at Pittsburgh Unifieds, for those who participated in that, or callbacks from prescreens for other schools for those same people or people who didn't participate, the majority of those big admissions are happening in January and February. So fret not. That's all I have to say on October 19th.

Fret not. I know that was a big impetus for why PUA started way back in the day, right? To try to bring some heart to that early audition experience and really set students up for a successful senior year of lots of auditions, including ones that are there and not there, right? So if you're able to learn and grow from the experience you just had and call yourself a stronger artist and a better auditioner, that's a huge win, regardless of any specific results, right? And if you're out there listening and you haven't done any auditions yet, which let's be honest, is most young people out there, if you're out there learning and growing as an artist in October and growing as an auditioner wherever you are, that's a win too, right?

Please do try to embrace the process of all this and don't get too bogged down in what other people are doing, perceived advantages, all that kind of stuff, right? These schools, both the ones that are represented on this pod, the previous pod, and all the schools out there, you know, these schools want to meet you. They want to meet you as the best version of the young artist that you are right now, and you want to meet them, right? This can and will happen throughout this process and can happen in so many different ways. So don't stress too much about the how or the when. You're going to meet these schools and it's going to go great. We always talk about trust the process, but really keep investing in yourself and your process and good things will happen to you, I promise you.

All right, sappy speech is over. Let's dive into this faculty panel part two. Of course, the speed dating, quick hit nature of all this is saving you time. That's what it's all about. It's to save you some time. So if you have a few extra minutes because you've got some really rapid fire college researching done, maybe head over to Apple Podcasts. You give us a rating and review, you make a comment on Spotify, you share a social media post of the pod, or maybe best of all, you share this podcast directly with a fellow student or parent you think would find it helpful. Pass on the love. We love what you do. And just a reminder, what you're about to hear is from Sunday night of Pittsburgh Unified's the live version of things.

We did do a short online panel as well for virtual PUA, which just wrapped this weekend. But that panel was, it was with schools who have all done longer podcast episodes. And it really was a bit more of like an intimate meeting format, as opposed to this kind of, you know, public facing live pod feeling that you got from this Saturday and Sunday at the live experience. And for those who are obsessed with my takeaways, I know that's many of you out there and you just felt robbed by the 30 second takeaway we got last episode, as we did in part one. Fear not, I will do a longer takeaway at the end here. I hope you all enjoy it.

[4:01] Charlie Murphy: Pittsburgh Unified's faculty panel, night two. Here we go. Sunday. I'm really excited for this panel. Many of you would have seen last night, so you already got to have the experience of the panel. And for those who are listening at home or watching on YouTube or whatever, you will have just seen this panel that came beforehand. This one hopefully is going to even top the great success of last night. One of the big goals, I'll tell you, I did watch the video last night. It looks great. It sounds great. Thank God we have good audio quality. We have good video quality for all of you to be able to watch back and review. What I will say is this night hopefully is even a little more relaxed. It's going to be a little bit more time with each of the faculty.

We're still going to try to wrap as close to an hour as we can. We'll have a little bit more time with each individual faculty member. I am not going to introduce myself because if you have made it through this entire weekend and you don't know who I am, I don't know how you've done it. Congratulations. I'm really impressed. That's impressive. I can't believe how many times I've introduced myself. But welcome to our faculty panel number two. We're so excited. Shall we kick this thing off with the first group? Let's do it. Okay. Will you start us off and slate who you are and give me 30 seconds of an elevator pitch on your school? Sam, start us off.

[5:07] Sam Stein: Hi, everyone. My name is Sam Stein. I'm the head of film and TV and student affairs at the Institute for American Musical Theater in New York City. Elevator pitch. Here we go. We are a two-year professional training program in New York City. It is 9 to 4:30, five days a week, 15-week semester for four semesters of singing, acting, dancing, and film and TV. You do all of it. Like I said, we're located in New York City. We are a trade school for the performing arts. We are the other. Every college has amazing opportunities. We are an option. If this is what you know you want to do and you want to do it in two years in the place where it's happening, that's what IAMT is for. Boom. 30 seconds. I love it. Okay. Great. Go for it.

[5:43] Joey: Hi. I am number 298. And I'm going to be singing. Just kidding. Okay. So, I'm Joey. I'm director of domestic recruitment with the New York Film Academy, College of Film, Media, and Performing Arts. We are a BFA program in both New York City and Los Angeles. Out in LA, we have access to Universal Studios. So, our students do their training on actual Hollywood sets, in Hollywood sound stages, as well as all over Hollywood. In New York, we overlook the Statue of Liberty right there in the base of Manhattan. But we do one-year conservatories, associates, bachelors, masters. We also do high school summer camps. So, we kind of cover it all. But the BFA in musical theater, I feel like most of us out there are out there.

So, it is a BFA in musical theater, Broadway training program in New York, acting for film in New York City or Los Angeles. Boom. Is this the panel that speaks as fast as I do? This is amazing. This is the most quick speaking. This is amazing. At Sunday night, I have a PUA, too. Okay. Go for it, please.

[6:40] Jamie Grisham: Good evening. There it is. Comedy. Okay. Hi, everybody. My name is Jamie Grisham, professor of musical theater at the Conservatory for the Performing Arts at Stevens College. We are currently accepting our fifth graduating class. We are a three-year accelerated program involving two summers, one on campus and one at our summer theater in Okoboji, Iowa. College Raptors, the reviews came out. We are ranked in the top 10 next year for incoming freshmen for the year of 2027. And if you want to check out a recent cast recording that was done with our students that is being pursued by Grammys this year, which is quite exciting for us, you can listen to the original cast recording of Snow White and Me on Spotify and other streaming services. But check us out. I'll be checking it out. My daughter is reading Snow White right now in kindergarten. They're all reading Snow White, so I'll be checking that out for sure. Okay. Go for it, please.

[7:30] Alex Lefebvre: Hey, y'all. And I'm saying y'all because I come from a southern school. My name is Alex Lefebvre. I'm an associate professor of theater and music director for Coastal Carolina University. We are a four-year BFA program located just outside of Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, right by the beach. A gorgeous place to work and to study. We offer BFAs in acting, musical theater, design and production, and one of, I believe, two physical theater BFAs. So I'm really excited to be here with y'all. What a cool panel. Talk about what PUA can offer you of diverse, different kinds of programs. What a cool panel of all the different things we're seeing on this. Really fun. You, of course, get that, of course, at the 40 schools, but really just in this panel, we have some great diversity.

Okay. Here we go. The challenge now, if you've all read your emails, you're ready with some homework. We'll see. Let's try to go backward. Yeah, they're all, yep. Read your emails. The kids don't read their emails. The faculty don't read their emails. We're all human. Okay. Alex, you're going to start us off. Can you give me your, place us in the academics of your school? So talk to me about, you know, if you're an 80-20 academics versus artistic kind of thing or artistic versus academics, can minors happen? Can double majors happen? What do we need to know about the academics as it relates to the arts of your school?

[8:41] Alex Lefebvre: It's a great question. So I'm making up these numbers. Don't hold me to this. But if I was going to say, I would say it's about 70% artistic and 30% academic. We are housed within a larger university. Coastal has about 12,000 students. The department of theater is much smaller. Just to give you an idea, we accept between 12 to 16 musical theater every year. Same for the other BFA concentrations. So you do have to study core curriculum things. You have to study. You have to take a math class. You have to take a foreign language. You have to take, you know, there are requirements that we have. However, if you come in with AP credits, you can sometimes test out of these requirements and that frees you up a little bit more.

We have a recent graduate. I like to use an example, Connor Richardson. He's currently on the notebook national tour and he was BFA musical theater, but also was pre-law as a minor. So it's very, you can easily minor. We have minors that are very connected to our BFA programs. For instance, if you want to minor in dance, there's a lot of overlap between dance and musical theater. Double major would add an extra time. If you're looking to do musical theater, some of the other concentrations you might be able to do a little bit more, but minors are very easy to do. And we certainly encourage it because we want you to experience our entire university, not just our tiny little department.

[10:00] Charlie Murphy: Okay. That was a fantastic comprehensive answer, but I'm gonna ask you the rest of you to do more like one sentence. I should have said at the beginning, more like one sentence on it, but that was great. He snuck it in. I didn't give him a requirement. He did a good job. It's fantastic. Jamie, maybe one sentence on your academics.

[10:18] Jamie Grisham: It can have comments. That's so hard to get into a sentence. Let me just say that I would say that we are probably a 60-40, academics being the 40%, but we offer ample scholarships for a GPA base, anywhere from $12,000 to $27,000 a year per student. You automatically qualify for that baseline with a 2.5 GPA or higher. One long sentence. That was beautiful. Go for it.

[10:43] Joey: So we're about 75-80% performance-based, 20%-ish of the other. We do require the others. We are a full liberal arts college degree. The big difference for us is we don't require the math, but we do require all the others, but we make them really fun and practical. So we do science and movies, psychology of performing, public speaking, our English comp classes right now being taught by a screenwriter. So those kinds of things, but you are still required to do that, but about 80-20. Sorry, that was perfect. That was great. I love this question.

[11:09] Joey: We are 0% academic and 100% art. If academia is for you, not me, if it's for you, go do academia, but we are 100% arts-focused, singing, acting, dancing, film, and TV.

[11:25] Charlie Murphy: Now that's an easy one. That was really good. And it's worth noting, anytime we're talking about percentages like this, I love what Joey was talking about, and you heard a little bit of it last night too. It's like, it can be 80-20, but sometimes of the 20, some of it's kind of artistic. It's theater history. It's whatever. So sometimes even of the 80-20, 70-30, different schools do it differently. Okay, good. Now you get one word. We'll see how they do tonight. One word to describe the artistic focus of your school. You can tell me our focus is acting. You can tell me musical theater. Tell me it's film. You can tell me it's dance. You can make up some fun different word, but it's a single word, as many syllables as you need. Go ahead, Sam.

[11:43] Sam Stein: It's joy.

[11:55] Charlie Murphy: Joy. Focus is joy. Okay. Artistic focus.

[12:04] Joey: Film, media, performing arts.

[12:04] Charlie Murphy: That was more than one.

[12:07] Joey: Way more than one. Okay, great. Jamie?

[12:10] Jamie Grisham: For Stevens, I would say authenticity.

[12:13] Charlie Murphy: Authenticity. Your artistic focus. Okay, yeah. Alex?

[12:15] Alex Lefebvre: Storytelling.

[12:16] Charlie Murphy: Boom. I love it. That's a hyphenated word. Okay, now you get a chance to do a fun fact. You've already done some fun facts. You could tell me about campus life. You could tell me about geography, location. If you haven't mentioned anything about cost, you could talk about cost and scholarship opportunities, anything like that. Industry opportunity showcase. Any fun facts, something interesting about your school that you wouldn't necessarily know, look at your website. Alex?

[12:35] Alex Lefebvre: How long do I have?

[12:36] Charlie Murphy: You have as much as 25 seconds.

[12:38] Alex Lefebvre: Hit it. We do a New Works every May. We bring in people from New York. Derek McGregor was last. We had Rob Rokiki, the lightning thief. We had Mark Holman, who did You're in Town. We had these guys coming onto our campus and working on their New Works. It's great for the composer-lyricist teams, but it's incredible for our students because they get to experience what it is to have something written for them that day performed. It's getting into the industry right on our campus, and we do that every single May. My show was done four years ago, The Puzzle Musical. Look it up.

[13:11] Charlie Murphy: Hell yeah, I love it. Good luck, yeah.

[13:13] Jamie Grisham: I would say that new shows are also very important to us. I told you a little bit about the musical Snow White and Me. Head on to Spotify and the other streaming services and take a listen to that. The book to that musical was written by one of our grads, Phil Lizebnik, who wrote the screenplay to Disney's Mulan and Pocahontas, and also the West End musical Prince of Egypt. But that original cast recording was done with full orchestra with our students.

[13:41] Joey: In fact, I love it.

[13:42] Charlie Murphy: I think our fun fact, especially for musical theater, is the fact that we have a BFA in musical theater within a film school. So in addition to all your advanced musical theater craft, of course you're never not singing, dancing, and acting, but we're also going to incorporate acting for the camera, voiceover training. We do a movie musical project where you go into a professional recording studio, lay down your vocal tracks, learn how to lip sync to your own tracks, shoot on location, get to see yourself up on the big movie screen. So we really do. And then we do about 2,000 to a couple thousand student films every single year.

[14:12] Alex Lefebvre: Boom. 2,000 student films. Love it.

[14:15] Sam Stein: My fun fact, from the first month of your first semester as an IMT student, you get to work one-on-one with a Broadway casting director, and they keep coming back through your time in your fourth semester so they can watch you grow and tell you what they want to see and tell you how you can better yourself for the industry.

[14:28] Charlie Murphy: Boom. I love it. Okay, let's open it up to specific questions. Anyway, specific questions for one of these four wonderful panelists. A standing ovation. Yes.

[14:34] Unknown speaker: The question is about non-acting or performing specific artistic focuses at IAMT.

[14:42] Sam Stein: Yeah. So if you guys, if we talked at all this weekend, you've heard me say IAMT is a no-but school. No, we don't have classes in directing and costuming and stage managing, but if that's something you're interested in,

[14:54] Unknown speaker: You can maybe direct one of our student productions, or we bring in new works. You can ask to be an assistant director with David Ruttera came in and did a new work last semester, the associate director of Grey Gatsby, and you can maybe work with him. So, or if you want a costume, costume one of the concerts or one of the student production, one of the, we will net, well, maybe we don't have a class, but the answer is always no, but let's figure out how to make it work for you. I love it. Good answer. Okay. Yeah. Question over there, please.

[15:15] Unknown speaker: Uh, because we are a conservatory, double majors are not possible. Uh, we are, we want the students who want to move into the profession and do this. Uh, however you can still take, uh, sort of courses that would facilitate a minor within the conservatory. Excellent. That's another question. Go for it. And I'm gonna start repeating questions. I forgot to do that last time, but Coastal Carolina, the question is, do you have students who move forward with the news, new works beyond school?

[15:40] Unknown speaker: Absolutely. So I'm going to give my personal example. Cause I was a composer lyricist for the puzzle. There was a student of mine. Her name is Alexa Niles. Shout out, Alexa. Um, who, uh, was in the puzzle. She was somebody that I was writing songs for because she was my student and she was in this new works. And, um, the, the show has since gone to the Spoleto festival in Italy and performed there. And then most recently at Charleston stage, which is regional theater, um, the South Carolina is professional theater in South Carolina, uh, in Charleston, South Carolina. And she was in that cast. She's a resident actor there. Um, and she played a different role, but, um, just continues to inspire me. So yes, the answer is yes.

[16:15] Unknown speaker: One more question for this panel.

[16:16] Unknown speaker: Yeah. Go for it. Hey, so this is for Coastal Carolina. So Alex, everyone else on the panel is wearing a hat.

[16:25] Unknown speaker: This question is immediately being cut from the pod. We don't even know. Like a let's all wear hats and not tell who to go type deal. It was our little secret.

[16:32] Unknown speaker: Wow. The real answer to that is have you seen my hair?

[16:40] Unknown speaker: All right. I want to give all of these guys a chance. So this is your choose your own adventure part of the question. So you're going to get to wrap with a little choose your own adventure. You can answer one of the fun facts or grab back from the, I've missed it from before, or if it's not a fun fact from before your adventures are, you could tell me what you look for in a student. I'm happy to hear that. You can tell me general audition advice or any other question that you want to answer. I'll give you about 30 more seconds. Alex, start us off.

[17:02] Unknown speaker: Okay. So what we look for in a student, we are not a cookie cutter program. We are looking to train and work with the individual. We see who you are. If, if, if I've spoken to you this weekend, I hope you saw that in the questions that I was able to ask you. I hope that you find that in your conversations with me. And even in this panel tonight, we are looking for authentic individuals who bring themselves, who tell the story. That's what's being represented in the industry right now. There are spaces for everybody. There are all sorts of different stories that when I was studying as a BFAMT, those stories weren't being told. They are being told today. And we're looking for people who to tell those stories. Boom. I love it.

[17:39] Unknown speaker: I would say for Stevens college, it's, it's very similar. We look for the authenticity of the individual. Who, what kind of a human are you and what kind of artists do you want to be in the world? Uh, our students graduate with not only the educational theater on their resume, but the professional theater on their resume because of the Okoboji summer theater, and because of our new MFA film program, that's only in its second year in partnership with the true false film festival, which is the largest, um, documentary film festival in the U.S. also happens in Columbia. Those student films would also be on your resume. So, uh, it, it encompasses the educational and the professional. Awesome.

[18:16] Unknown speaker: Joey, looking for inauthentic individuals. Great. No, I'm only you.

[18:20] Unknown speaker: Um, no, just kidding.

[18:20] Unknown speaker: Uh, uh, I'm kidding. We know that's not here. That is so bad. Why did you guys hear it as so bad? My God.

[18:28] Unknown speaker: Oh my God. That was a joke.

[18:29] Unknown speaker: No, I'm not going to look at that.

[18:31] Unknown speaker: I'm actually going to do a fun fact.

[18:32] Unknown speaker: Um, we're extremely industry driven. We're in New York city, in Los Angeles, two of the toughest cities on the planet to acclimate you. So you're doing it in a safe environment with people that have already made it.

[18:42] Unknown speaker: So what I love is that we do, yes, we do the new works. We do main stage productions. We do all of these, but, um, so Christie Cates, who is Zedina Menzel's original understudy in Wicked, third Elphaba ever on Broadway, was in Finding Neverland, Charlie and Chocolate Factory, she's the chair of our program, um, the head of our dance, one of the longest running dance captains for Chicago on Broadway. People that have directed our new works and main stages from associate and or director from Broadway's 42nd street, Bye Bye Birdie, Sideshow, Moulin Rouge, Six, Beetlejuice, Aladdin, being the beast of the movie. You get it. So we're very, very industry eccentric. It's really important for us that you guys know how to navigate this New York and LA in a safe environment.

[19:17] Unknown speaker: I love it. Take us home, Sam.

[19:19] Unknown speaker: Um, I would love to talk about our faculty and everything, but the main thing, especially for the students and parents out there, IMT is a place. I know I said joy and it's like, Oh, secret joy. Look at how silly this industry is really hard and IMT cultivates an environment of growth and learning and for a place for our students to feel safe. You're going to work your tushy off in the studios. Don't get me wrong, but I'll leave it with this. Every one of our students goes to class because they get to. They never have to. None of our students have to go to ballet. They get to go dance. Don't have to go to an audition. They get to go share their art. That's the mentality we want because when you're waiting outside Pearl studios at five in the morning in the freezing cold for your outsiders open call, it's really hard.

But if you stand there and know I get to go share my art, that's the mentality that we bring from the Institute of American musical theater. Beautifully said. Big round of applause for panel number one.

[20:07] Unknown speaker: Okay, here we are. Panel number two.

[20:10] Unknown speaker: They've been prepped. Will you all introduce yourselves and give me a 32nd elevator pitch on your school? We'll start with Terry.

[20:18] Unknown speaker: Okay. Hi, I'm Terry. I am from Niagara university. We are located in Western New York. We are the oldest professional training program in the area. We are right near Niagara falls. We offer a BFA in performance, not acting, not musical theater, but performance. We're going to train you to be a performer. Um, we're right. Uh, did I say I'm the choreographer? So I'm more nonverbal than verbal. That was great. That's about 30 seconds and the rest, you can dance it out. Fantastic. We'll pass it on.

[20:49] Unknown speaker: Yeah. Hi everyone. My name is Susan and I am with Long Island university, the Brooklyn campus, which is a BFA in acting for theater, television, and film. Yes. Theater, television, and film. And we, uh, have a close partnership with, uh, the new group theater, which is where our students will take their voice, uh, movement and performance classes, and then take their business film and industry related courses on our Brooklyn college campus, which is a real campus with grass in the heart of downtown Brooklyn, believe it or not. Super cool.

[21:25] Unknown speaker: Yeah. Hey everybody. I'm Tim Nikolai. I'm assistant professor of acting and musical theater at Dobbins conservatory at SEMO in Cape Girardeau, Missouri. Uh, we are on Missouri's only dedicated campus to the arts overlooking the Mississippi river. I think probably one of the most competitive price points here. Most of our students are ending up after scholarships with between 14,000 to 17,000 to pay each year. We're the home of the Lanford Wilson, new American play festival. We're the home of the fault line film festival, and we have BFAs in MT acting design and tech MBAs in theater and dance. Boom. Those are some good 30 seconds. Slates.

[21:57] Unknown speaker: Okay, great. Now I'm going to give you one sentence, one sentence. We'll see how they do. I'm talking about the academics of your school. So where do you place yourself in terms of, are you an 80 20 artistic versus academic? How possible are minors and double majors? Where do they are? The academics fit into the artistic of it all. We'll start with you, Tim.

[22:13] Unknown speaker: 80 20 is where we sit on the spectrum of conservatory classes versus gen eds. Uh, what was the other part of the question?

[22:21] Unknown speaker: Minors and double majors are possible. We always just warn students. You might have to tack on an extra semester at the end. Most common double major is students who are double majors and BFA MT and BA dance to keep stacking more dance courses.

[22:32] Unknown speaker: I love it, Susan.

[22:34] Unknown speaker: I almost just want to say the same. Um, 80 20 also minors are possible. Um, in our training, the acting training is set and that's available on our website, but you're welcome to, with the extra space you have to create, um, a minor. If you would like, I love it, Terry.

[22:51] Unknown speaker: I'd say we're 60 40. We are a conservatory program within a liberal arts setting. So we have the BFA and performance design tech and also, um, specialization. If you're interested in like directing or dramaturge or playwriting, and we just started a BA in theater, lots of options for minors, lots of options for double majors. However, there are some double majors that just don't work.

[23:16] Unknown speaker: Okay. Now you get one word.

[23:17] Unknown speaker: We're just narrowing down to one word to describe your artistic focus. So you could tell me acting as a focus, dance, singing, or some other amazing word that is not one of those words to describe the focus artistically of your program. Terry.

[23:30] Unknown speaker: All encompassing, all encompassing.

[23:32] Unknown speaker: Okay, great.

[23:33] Unknown speaker: Yes.

[23:34] Unknown speaker: Acting.

[23:36] Unknown speaker: Of course.

[23:36] Unknown speaker: I guess that's what it'll be.

[23:37] Unknown speaker: Yeah.

[23:38] Unknown speaker: Versatility.

[23:38] Unknown speaker: Very good words.

[23:40] Unknown speaker: Okay. Now a fun fact.

[23:42] Unknown speaker: So this could be something about your campus. You've already given us some of those. If you haven't mentioned some of the costs for scholarship opportunities, certainly can talk about that though. I know you already did. Good. If you talk about showcase, anything you want to know, that's not obvious on your website that people should know about your school.

[23:55] Unknown speaker: I want to quickly highlight the Lamford Wilson, new American play festival. We get over 400 full length plays and 200 short plays submitted by professional playwrights. Every May we do a week long, a new work festival that our students are the cast members of. They direct the short plays. They get to meet these guests, playwrights, directors, uh, keynote speakers who come in from across the nation and get to become their friends over the course of the week, develop professional relationships with them. And, uh, hopefully shorten the divide between them and the professional world. Beautiful.

[24:22] Unknown speaker: Susan, I'm going to cheat and share three things, but I know I just learned today that LIU Brooklyn is voted the safest campus in New York city and consistently the third safest campus in the United States, which I think is pretty cool. The other fun fact is that in your senior year, students participate in the senior capstone where they pitch a show that they would like us to do and they get to produce. Sometimes they write the show themselves. Sometimes they direct it themselves. If not, we bring an industry professionals to direct the show for them. And the last thing that I want to mention, that's a fun fact is we place equal emphasis in our training on your craft, improving your craft and what it means to be a working actor in New York city. What that looks like. Three fun facts. Now everybody else gets two more fun facts. No, I'm kidding. Go ahead, Terry.

[25:12] Unknown speaker: I'm taking three.

[25:14] Unknown speaker: Oh, I knew it. Of course you're going to.

[25:15] Unknown speaker: So we, our training is very diverse cause you're getting acting, dance, singing, but you're also getting combat. You're also getting physical theater, aerial arts, all as part of our base curriculum. So that's one thing. Second thing you can study abroad in London, five and a half weeks theater in London. Last thing we have a four plus one where you can get a BFA in theater, stay one more year and get a master's in education in your teaching certification.

[25:44] Unknown speaker: I really feel like we should open up and give Tim two more, but now we're not going to let's open up for questions.

[25:49] Unknown speaker: Questions. People have specific questions of these three people. Yes, go ahead.

[25:51] Unknown speaker: The question is Niagara's focused in directing. What would it look like?

[25:54] Unknown speaker: Yeah, we have a specialization BFA that focuses on directing. So in addition to your directing classes, you also get the opportunity to direct a short play. And then we have a fully produced student production where the students are directing. And then as part of your capstone, you would get another opportunity to direct.

[26:15] Unknown speaker: I love it. Yes, go ahead.

[26:16] Unknown speaker: The question for Niagara is can freshmen do the shows?

[26:18] Unknown speaker: I have freshmen in the shows right now.

[26:20] Unknown speaker: Yeah, sounds like a yes.

[26:22] Unknown speaker: Yeah, go for it.

[26:22] Unknown speaker: The question for LIU is what are the dormitories and meal plans like?

[26:25] Unknown speaker: We, most of our students stay on campus housing in the LIU campus downtown. A lot of them, safest campus in New York City, third in the United States. And they, a lot of them choose to stay all four years because apparently the rooms are really big. And the dorm and housing is all one plan, all one cost. And you can choose to dorm with a roommate, dorm by yourself. It's really up to the student.

[26:52] Unknown speaker: I feel like all the rooms are big in New York, right?

[26:53] Unknown speaker: In general, yes.

[26:54] Unknown speaker: I feel like it's like normal. Like everybody has a lot of space in New York.

[26:57] Unknown speaker: For sure. You're all going to have that experience.

[26:59] Unknown speaker: Okay. Yes.

[27:00] Unknown speaker: In the back, go for it.

[27:00] Unknown speaker: Great question. The question for LIU, what is related to being LIU Post and LIU Brooklyn?

[27:04] Unknown speaker: LIU Post is on Long Island and they have an MT program as well as acting. While as the Brooklyn campus is in Brooklyn. And we also have our students go to Manhattan for that partnership with the new group and the focus there is strictly acting in theater, television, and film.

[27:20] Unknown speaker: And LIU Post is the least safe campus on Long Island.

[27:22] Unknown speaker: No, don't say that!

[27:24] Unknown speaker: No! I've heard that.

[27:25] Unknown speaker: It's a rumor.

[27:26] Unknown speaker: I've heard it.

[27:27] Unknown speaker: Okay. Other questions.

[27:27] Unknown speaker: Yeah, go for it.

[27:28] Unknown speaker: How do you get people in the industry from the Missouri, for CMOs?

[27:31] Unknown speaker: No, it's a great question. Really, it's about our own professional connections, right? Having working faculty who have connections all over the nation, but obviously the majority of my community, the majority of many of our faculty's community is still in New York. So it's really about maintaining those connections. And I think making sure that when you can't go to New York, we bring those artists to you on a regular basis. So I'll give you a, for instance, for our spring dance concert, Seth Stewart, who's one of the original cast members of Hamilton is going to come and direct choreograph a guest piece for that dance concert. So we try to bring those people to you to make sure if you can't get there, we're giving you as much exposure to what it's like to work with those professionals as possible.

[28:07] Unknown speaker: All right. Two more questions.

[29:35] Unknown speaker: Yeah, go for it.

[29:35] Unknown speaker: For which school?

[29:35] Unknown speaker: The question about senior capstone for which school?

[29:35] Unknown speaker: For all three.

[29:35] Unknown speaker: Oh my gosh. We don't like all three questions, but okay.

[29:35] Unknown speaker: We go quick.

[29:35] Unknown speaker: At LIU, we really let the students guide it. So sometimes students want to direct the play in which case we let them, but there is always an advisor. Otherwise we bring in an industry professional like we do for all of our shows. So it's really, we let the student kind of decide what the thing is they want to work on.

[29:35] Unknown speaker: And our, um, the, uh, on staff production manager helps you guide the production component of that. So that you're not just like left out to see, but that you're really learning how to produce a play.

[29:35] Unknown speaker: Tim and Terry, you want to check out capstones?

[29:35] Unknown speaker: So, um, we also have, uh, two senior showcases. We do one in Buffalo. Buffalo has a very thriving professional theater community. And then we also do one in New York city so that our students are getting exposure in both areas.

[29:35] Unknown speaker: I love it.

[29:35] Unknown speaker: Tim.

[29:35] Unknown speaker: We do two different kinds of senior showcases. One for the BFA actors is a cinematic showcase. Uh, we, we film basically professional footage using film and TV scenes, which we showcase to agents in New York city. Um, they'll go on the trip with us to New York city. We spend a full week there talking with agents and managers and casting directors, et cetera, getting feedback on their pieces. The BFA MT program does a live showcase. They do it once in Cape Girardeau where we're located. And then they also do it in the city in front of industry professionals as well.

[29:35] Unknown speaker: All right. One more question.

[29:35] Unknown speaker: Yeah.

[29:35] Unknown speaker: Go clarify.

[29:35] Unknown speaker: I just want to clarify LIU has this senior capstone and we also do a showcase.

[29:33] Unknown speaker: Yes.

[29:33] Unknown speaker: Not to confuse capstones and showcases.

[29:35] Unknown speaker: Uh, yeah.

[29:35] Unknown speaker: Go for it.

[29:36] Unknown speaker: Who's this question for?

[29:38] Unknown speaker: Oh my God. These general questions. I'm going to have to start.

[29:48] Unknown speaker: Do you have things other than acting and musical theater in your program?

[29:50] Unknown speaker: Vocal performance.

[29:51] Unknown speaker: No vocal performance in our program.

[29:52] Unknown speaker: No vocal performance at CMO.

[29:53] Unknown speaker: Vocal training. Dance. Dance performance.

[29:57] Unknown speaker: Aerial arts. Combat. Physical theater.

[30:01] Unknown speaker: But no, no, the majors. We're not doing vocal performance.

[30:03] Charlie Murphy: Okay, great. I'm going to give them a chance to do one CYA.

[30:06] Charlie Murphy: Choose your own adventure.

[30:08] Charlie Murphy: You can talk about any of the fun facts that you missed or grab bag stuff from before.

[30:11] Charlie Murphy: If you didn't get a chance to talk about scholarships, you didn't get a chance to talk about something, go for it.

[30:14] Charlie Murphy: And if not, you can tell me what you're looking for in a student.

[30:16] Charlie Murphy: You can give any general advice or basically anything you want.

[30:19] Charlie Murphy: 30 more seconds. I'll start with you, Terri.

[30:21] Terri: Don't be sticker-shocked. No one pays full tuition at Niagara University.

[30:25] Terri: Okay?

[30:26] Terri: Well, I got an applause line.

[30:28] Terri: Not only are there great academic scholarships, but our theater scholarships stack on top of that.

[30:34] Terri: So for most of our students, the package for them to come is very generous.

[30:39] Terri: Even for our study abroad, every single student gets a scholarship to go abroad.

[30:43] Terri: So the scholarship opportunities are really wonderful.

[30:47] Charlie Murphy: I love it. Susan?

[30:49] Susan: Similarly, we offer at LIU merit-based scholarships.

[30:53] Susan: So if you're walking around with a 4.0, congratulations.

[30:57] Susan: And then there's additional scholarships specific to the program of theater that also stack on top of the merit-based scholarships that the school offers to students.

[31:06] Susan: And then the other thing that I'll say in terms of choose your own adventure, I really like the idea of like—

[31:10] Susan: You're choosing two adventures. You have three fun facts and two adventures.

[31:12] Charlie Murphy: Well, you know what?

[31:13] Charlie Murphy: This is good. Cheat, cheat, cheat. I love it.

[31:15] Susan: You break the rules.

[31:16] Charlie Murphy: Yeah, absolutely. She's right.

[31:17] Charlie Murphy: But in terms of like what we're looking for, y'all, is just be yourself.

[31:25] Susan: We're looking for the opposite of perfection.

[31:27] Charlie Murphy: Well said. Okay. Yeah. Please.

[31:29] Unknown speaker: I want to start with a shout-out to Charlie's Shoes, which are the coolest shoes I've seen in the entire week.

[31:33] Unknown speaker: Let's get them on YouTube. Yes.

[31:36] Charlie Murphy: All right. Let's give Tim another minute. All right, Tim, take a little more time.

[31:40] Tim: So I've already mentioned to you guys that most of our students—we have really robust scholarships, so most of our students are coming in between $14,000 to $17,000, all costs included per year.

[31:49] Tim: The thing I want to say is we're really looking for curious students, kind students, positive students, students who, even if they're coming from a difficult, competitive environment, are collaborative, are joyful, find it really easy and the natural thing to do to support their peers.

[32:04] Tim: We're really trying to build a culture of leadership in that way, and I think that we have a pretty terrific culture on that front.

[32:09] Tim: So if that sounds good to you, come hang out with us.

[32:11] Charlie Murphy: Big round of applause for panel number two. Thank you. You guys are wonderful.

[32:15] Valerie Clayman-Pye: Hi, everyone. I'm Valerie Clayman-Pye.

[32:18] Valerie Clayman-Pye: I am chair of the Department of Theater, Dance, and Arts Management at Long Island University Post, at LIU Post, where we have BFAs in acting and musical theater.

[32:30] Valerie Clayman-Pye: We're located 30 miles outside of New York City in a beautiful suburban campus where we run our own theater company, the Post Theater Company, and we have a conservatory-style training program that is repeatable, reliable, trauma-conscious, and identity-conscious training that is applicable for a variety of genres and media.

[33:00] Valerie Clayman-Pye: So, yeah.

[33:01] David Dean-Bottrell: I will just tell you, Susan here, just the last panel, she was like talking some crap about you.

[33:05] David Dean-Bottrell: She said like your campus isn't very safe.

[33:07] David Dean-Bottrell: You heard what she said, right?

[33:08] Valerie Clayman-Pye: That wasn't me. That was Susan who said that.

[33:12] David Dean-Bottrell: Hi, I'm David Dean-Bottrell, and I'm with the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York City.

[33:17] David Dean-Bottrell: We are the oldest acting school in the English-speaking world.

[33:23] David Dean-Bottrell: We've been around for 142 years, and anybody who studies the sort of history of American acting, we have the most prestigious alumni imaginable.

[33:32] David Dean-Bottrell: It goes all the way back to silent film stars, up to people like Paul Rudd and Anne Hathaway, who've studied at our school.

[33:38] David Dean-Bottrell: We are a conservatory program, but also we are offering our first-ever BFA program, but it's only three years instead of four.

[33:47] David Dean-Bottrell: Yes, how about that?

[33:50] David Dean-Bottrell: We have a wonderful, wonderful faculty, very compassionate, very dedicated, and they include a lot of people like myself who are teaching artists,

[33:58] David Dean-Bottrell: meaning I am still a working actor.

[34:00] David Dean-Bottrell: I do a lot of television work, and I also really, really love teaching.

[34:04] David Dean-Bottrell: And as I said, we're in New York City, which is, you know, the cultural center of the world.

[34:08] David Dean-Bottrell: Our students, the dormitory is right next door.

[34:10] David Dean-Bottrell: They literally have to walk like about 12 feet to enter into the school.

[34:14] David Dean-Bottrell: Everybody's safe, and we always have a great time, and we take great care of them.

[34:17] Charlie Murphy: Thank you. As I said, okay, please.

[34:20] Tammy Mader: Hi, there.

[34:21] Tammy Mader: I'm Tammy Mader.

[34:22] Tammy Mader: I'm from the Chicago College of Performing Arts.

[34:25] Tammy Mader: We are housed in a social justice institution, Roosevelt University, founded on protest.

[34:31] Tammy Mader: So we train artist citizens.

[34:33] Tammy Mader: It's very important to us.

[34:35] Tammy Mader: We encourage the voices and creators that are going to revolutionize the form and move it forward.

[34:39] Tammy Mader: That's part of our mission.

[34:41] Tammy Mader: Also, on a more practical level, we focus on process, not product.

[34:46] Tammy Mader: So we empower our students by teaching them how to do the work that they will need to be able to do on their own,

[34:54] Tammy Mader: in the world, as artist citizens, so that they can be successful in this field.

[34:58] Charlie Murphy: Beautifully said.

[34:59] Unknown speaker: Yes.

[35:01] Tim: Hi, everybody.

[35:02] Tim: I'm Tim McGarrigle.

[35:03] Tim: I'm the head of musical theater at Ohio Northern University.

[35:06] Tim: We are a liberal arts college, a small program, and a small university, only 3,000 undergrads,

[35:13] Tim: and then the only post-grad is law school.

[35:15] Tim: Our program offers a flexible curriculum, which means that a lot of our students take advantage of getting to double major,

[35:20] Tim: triple minor, study abroad, participate in Greek life.

[35:23] Tim: We really look for people who want to be well-rounded and individual students,

[35:28] Tim: so no two students are on the same exact path through their four years.

[35:32] Charlie Murphy: Yeah. Great.

[35:33] Charlie Murphy: Okay. Those are great elevator pitches.

[35:36] Charlie Murphy: Now we're going to stick with you, Tim, and we're going to come backward.

[35:38] Charlie Murphy: I'd love to give me one sentence, if you can, one sentence that places you on the academic spectrum.

[35:42] Charlie Murphy: So are we 80-20 artistic and academic?

[35:45] Charlie Murphy: Are we 60-40? What is that number?

[35:47] Charlie Murphy: And then if you have a sense, you already mentioned the triple minors, but if the rest of you didn't,

[35:49] Charlie Murphy: how possible it is to minor versus double major there.

[35:51] Tim: Yeah, super possible, super individual.

[35:54] Tim: We keep our cohorts to 10 to 15 students per class so that we can really individualize your experience.

[35:59] Tim: 60-40 is our 60-40.

[36:01] Charlie Murphy: Love it.

[36:02] Charlie Murphy: Yeah.

[36:03] Charlie Murphy: Am I still supposed to stand up?

[36:04] Tim: If you don't mind.

[36:05] Tim: Especially people in the back, if you're struggling, you can reach out.

[36:07] Tim: Our students generally have one Gen Ed course every semester, and we choose recommended Gen Eds for them.

[36:13] Tim: For example, I'm the program director of the Music Leader Dance Concentration,

[36:16] Tim: and our recommended Gen Eds are anatomy and physiology and kinesiology,

[36:20] Tim: so you end up getting things that are applicable to your major in your Gen Eds.

[36:24] Charlie Murphy: I love it.

[36:25] Charlie Murphy: Yes, please, David.

[36:26] David: Hi.

[36:27] David: Ours is 75-25.

[36:28] David: We, again, have a BFA for acting in television, film, and theater.

[36:33] David: We also have a two-year program for musical theater.

[36:36] David: And at present, we are only able to offer the BFA to the acting program.

[36:41] David: We're going to add a musical theater BFA very shortly, but that's not in place yet.

[36:45] Charlie Murphy: I love it.

[36:46] Charlie Murphy: Yeah, Valerie.

[36:47] Valerie: Hi.

[36:48] Valerie: We are 87 credits in the major out of 130, and so it's about one core class a semester,

[36:56] Valerie: although in the sophomore year, it is almost entirely contemplatory style.

[37:01] Charlie Murphy: I love it.

[37:02] Charlie Murphy: When you said 87, I thought you were going to say 87%.

[37:04] Charlie Murphy: That is the first time I've ever heard 87%.

[37:06] Charlie Murphy: 87 credits.

[37:07] Charlie Murphy: That's very specific.

[37:08] Charlie Murphy: A little less than three quarters.

[37:11] Charlie Murphy: I got it. Okay, great.

[37:13] Charlie Murphy: Now we're going to try it with one word.

[37:14] Charlie Murphy: We'll see how you do.

[37:15] Charlie Murphy: One word to speak toward the artistic focus of your school.

[37:18] Charlie Murphy: So it could be as simple as acting, singing, dancing, triple threat,

[37:21] Charlie Murphy: or if there's some other word, some magical, fantastic word you want to use,

[37:24] Charlie Murphy: one word to describe the artistic focus, Valerie.

[37:34] Valerie: Cohesive.

[37:35] Charlie Murphy: Cohesive.

[37:36] Charlie Murphy: Well, how dramatic was that?

[37:37] Charlie Murphy: That was beautiful.

[37:38] Charlie Murphy: Yeah, go for it, David.

[37:39] David: Wow.

[37:40] David: Oh, sorry.

[37:41] David: I have to give you the mic.

[37:42] David: It might be slightly more than one word.

[37:43] David: We'll see.

[37:44] David: Instilling curiosity into our students.

[37:46] Charlie Murphy: Instilling curiosity.

[37:47] Charlie Murphy: Okay, great.

[37:49] Charlie Murphy: Agency.

[37:50] Unknown speaker: Agency.

[37:51] Charlie Murphy: Ooh.

[37:52] Unknown speaker: Multi-hyphenate.

[37:53] Charlie Murphy: Multi-hyphenate.

[37:54] Charlie Murphy: Good hyphenated word.

[37:55] Charlie Murphy: Okay, very good.

[37:56] Charlie Murphy: All right, now you're going to get one fun fact, so something that you have not yet mentioned

[38:00] Charlie Murphy: if you haven't mentioned costs yet and ways that you bring down costs.

[38:03] Charlie Murphy: You can tell me that.

[38:04] Charlie Murphy: Something about campus life.

[38:05] Charlie Murphy: Something about opportunities.

[38:06] Charlie Murphy: You can tell me about something with your showcase.

[38:07] Charlie Murphy: Anything that you want to talk about that wouldn't be evident on your website,

[38:09] Charlie Murphy: that might be a good fun fact for all of these people to know.

[38:12] Tim: One thing that I think is really cool and unique about us is that we do a holiday spectacular every year.

[38:19] Tim: This will be the 31st annual, and we tour that.

[38:23] Tim: We do like a mini tour, so you get to have the experience of taking a show on the road

[38:28] Tim: into a 4,000-seat amphitheater in Lima, which is about 30 minutes away.

[38:32] Tim: So you get to, you know, do a show that's been running for a while,

[38:36] Tim: kind of have the experience of stepping into a track that's existed before

[38:39] Tim: and being a part of this legacy that's been going on for 30 years.

[38:42] Charlie Murphy: I love it.

[38:43] Charlie Murphy: Okay, yeah.

[38:44] Charlie Murphy: What was the question again?

[38:45] Charlie Murphy: Fun fact.

[38:46] Charlie Murphy: Fun fact.

[38:47] Tammy Mader: Hey, I'm good at fun facts.

[38:48] Tammy Mader: My fun fact is that we live in Chicago, which is a cultural hub.

[38:51] Tammy Mader: We have a jillion theaters, from regional theaters to houses that bring in touring companies and things

[38:59] Tammy Mader: to what we call in Chicago Storefront Theater, which is more experimental.

[39:02] Tammy Mader: And our faculty are all working the field.

[39:05] Tammy Mader: And one of the things that this allows us to do is to curricularize your gigs that you book outside of school

[39:10] Tammy Mader: so you can work while you're at our school still maintaining your student status.

[39:15] Charlie Murphy: I love it.

[39:16] Charlie Murphy: How much is a jillion?

[39:17] Tammy Mader: It's more than 87%.

[39:19] Charlie Murphy: More than 87%.

[39:20] David: Yeah, David.

[39:24] David: The Academy is located in New York City, which is one of the cultural hubs of the entire planet.

[39:30] David: We are in an unbelievable building, a beautiful, beautiful building that was constructed in 1904

[39:36] David: that we may or may not be sharing with a ghost.

[39:41] David: Fun fact.

[39:44] David: We run our own nonprofit theater company, and we bring in artists and designers from New York

[39:51] David: to work with our students along with a faculty member who is assigned to every production

[39:57] David: to help you bridge the gap between what you're learning pedagogically in the classroom

[40:01] David: and the demands of our guest directors.

[40:04] David: And some of those directors are casting students before they graduate in other projects.

[40:10] David: So you're showcasing before you get to your actual showcase of senior year.

[40:15] Charlie Murphy: Beautiful.

[40:16] Charlie Murphy: Okay, let's open it up to questions.

[40:17] Charlie Murphy: Specific questions first.

[40:18] Charlie Murphy: Any specific questions for one of these four wonderful panelists?

[40:21] Unknown speaker: I see a hand in the back in the green.

[40:23] Unknown speaker: The question is about LIU posts and commuting.

[40:25] Valerie Clayman-Pye: Yes.

[40:26] Valerie Clayman-Pye: The majority of our students come from all across the United States as well as abroad.

[40:32] Valerie Clayman-Pye: There's probably about a 10% ratio of students who are actually from Long Island and some commute,

[40:38] Valerie Clayman-Pye: and many live on campus also.

[40:40] Valerie Clayman-Pye: So it's a big mix.

[40:42] Valerie Clayman-Pye: And I'll give you my card afterwards.

[40:44] Valerie Clayman-Pye: If you want to talk to any of them, I'd be happy to put you in touch with them.

[40:47] Charlie Murphy: Yeah. I love it.

[40:49] Charlie Murphy: Yeah, go for it.

[40:50] Unknown speaker: The question is the example for social justice for Roosevelt.

[40:52] Tammy Mader: I'll do a broad scope here.

[40:55] Tammy Mader: We did a showcase a while back that was about water, about how we use water and how we need water

[41:05] Tammy Mader: and what we're doing to the planet with the way that we are using water.

[41:09] Tammy Mader: And it was an entire review-style production based on water, and it was gorgeous.

[41:14] Charlie Murphy: I love it.

[41:15] Charlie Murphy: Yeah, more questions.

[41:16] Unknown speaker: Yes, go for it.

[41:17] Unknown speaker: How does Ohio Northern connect students to major performance cities?

[41:19] Tim: Yes, we bring in 30 to 40 guest artists every year from New York, L.A., Chicago.

[41:24] Tim: And depending on our specific cohort, again, we keep it really small so that we can figure out what your interests are

[41:30] Tim: and what are the best opportunities for you.

[41:32] Tim: We bring companies to campus from Michigan, cruise lines, theme parks to audition you there to give you that opportunity.

[41:39] Unknown speaker: You brought in my wife.

[41:40] Tim: I know.

[41:41] Tim: It's fine.

[41:42] Tim: Yeah, it's fine.

[41:43] Unknown speaker: Yeah, good.

[41:46] Tim: Yeah, and we bring everybody to New York typically.

[41:47] Tim: But again, if we have a cohort that's more specifically aligned with L.A. or Chicago, then we'll pivot to that.

[41:51] Charlie Murphy: I love it.

[41:52] Charlie Murphy: Did I see one over there?

[41:53] Unknown speaker: No, go for it.

[41:54] Charlie Murphy: How do you balance academics with artistic Ohio Northern?

[41:56] Tim: Yeah, so again, that's why we really have a small cohort of 10 to 15 students.

[42:01] Tim: You have an advisor in each one of your two majors, for example.

[42:04] Tim: You'll have an advisor for each one.

[42:06] Tim: And we are in constant communication to make sure that you're getting all the things you need.

[42:10] Tim: And we're always looking for anything that would cross-pollinate.

[42:13] Tim: So a theater history course also counts as a history course.

[42:16] Tim: So making sure that you check all those boxes and we get all your prereqs that you might have from high school.

[42:21] Tim: So we make sure everybody graduates in four years.

[42:23] Charlie Murphy: Let's do one more.

[42:24] Unknown speaker: Yeah, go for it.

[42:25] Unknown speaker: L.A. you post freshman performance opportunities.

[42:26] Valerie Clayman-Pye: Yes.

[42:27] Valerie Clayman-Pye: So in your first semester of freshman year, you are not eligible for casting on the main stage,

[42:33] Valerie Clayman-Pye: but you are eligible to perform with our student club productions.

[42:38] Valerie Clayman-Pye: We have a couple of those, and they do full seasons.

[42:41] Valerie Clayman-Pye: And so the students have an opportunity to begin to integrate then.

[42:45] Valerie Clayman-Pye: I can talk more later about some of the pedagogical reasons behind that.

[42:49] Valerie Clayman-Pye: But in the spring semester, we have a first-year showcase.

[42:52] Valerie Clayman-Pye: And so all of the first-year students are introduced to the rest of the company in their own bespoke showcase,

[43:00] Valerie Clayman-Pye: which is a really special event in our community.

[43:03] Valerie Clayman-Pye: And then at the end of freshman spring semester, you're eligible for casting for fall of sophomore year.

[43:10] Charlie Murphy: I love it.

[43:11] Charlie Murphy: I want to give all of you now a chance to either, if there's a fun fact or grab bag, something you missed that you go,

[43:15] Charlie Murphy: I wanted to talk about that from scholarship or some other thing from before, feel free to do that.

[43:18] Charlie Murphy: Otherwise, you choose your own adventure.

[43:19] Charlie Murphy: You pick one of these.

[43:20] Charlie Murphy: You could talk about what you look for in a student or give any kind of general advice or basically anything.

[43:25] Charlie Murphy: You got 30 more seconds, Valerie.

[43:27] Valerie Clayman-Pye: Great.

[43:28] Valerie Clayman-Pye: What we look for in a student is curiosity, a sense of play, wanting to grow and learn and be part of a supportive community.

[43:38] Valerie Clayman-Pye: And everything that we do is about how the physical training meets psychological training.

[43:43] Valerie Clayman-Pye: So it's a synthesis between body, voice and text across dance, acting and singing.

[43:50] Valerie Clayman-Pye: Our program is very vigorous.

[43:53] Valerie Clayman-Pye: Our students are very busy.

[43:55] Valerie Clayman-Pye: They're either in rehearsal or they're in class or they're in performance.

[43:58] Valerie Clayman-Pye: And when we're meeting people, we obviously want to see if you love what you do, you know,

[44:03] Valerie Clayman-Pye: if that's evident in when you're up there performing or doing a monologue for us.

[44:06] Valerie Clayman-Pye: But we also want to know if you are really, really interested in, I don't know, the vigor of this program.

[44:14] Valerie Clayman-Pye: I don't really use the word discipline because I don't think discipline applies too much to artists.

[44:18] Valerie Clayman-Pye: I think instead it's enthusiasm.

[44:21] Valerie Clayman-Pye: It's do you love this enough to get up and make that nine o'clock class every morning?

[44:26] Valerie Clayman-Pye: Do you love it?

[44:27] Valerie Clayman-Pye: And that's what we're, I think, looking for most of all because we have a lot to offer.

[44:30] Valerie Clayman-Pye: Again, we have such a skilled faculty and I'm so proud to be part of it.

[44:34] Charlie Murphy: Beautifully said.

[44:36] Unknown speaker: Hey, we have an awesome faculty and we are in that awesome town that I told you about.

[44:42] Tammy Mater: And so you're... And the effect of this is not only a fantastic network within the city, nobody calls me Professor Mater, they call me Tammy. So I think this answers two of the questions. I highly would recommend visiting as many campuses as you can to get a sense of the students, the faculty, the facilities, the productions. And on that note, we have a visit grant. So if you visit us before December 1st, since we know that it might not be super easy to get to rural Ohio and where we are located, you're eligible for a $2,000 grant that's renewable per year. So that adds up to $8,000 that would be off your tuition, in addition to all the other talent and merit awards that we offer. We always love ending with money. Fantastic. Okay. Thank you to the third panel. Big round of applause.

[45:56] Charlie Murphy: All right. Let's do a quick introduction of who you are. You can go first. A quick introduction of who you are and give me a 30-second slate elevator pitch for your school itself.

[46:08] Mark Williams: Sure. Hi, I'm Mark Williams. I teach at the University of Mary Washington. We are a four-year public co-ed institution in Virginia. We're halfway between Richmond and Washington D.C. We are a production-focused department. We want our students to be fueled on experience. We believe the best way to learn about theater is to make theater and share it with an audience. And so the production program is really the front and center of what we do.

[46:38] Bridget Brady: Hello. My name is Bridget Brady, and I am on faculty at AMDA. We are a college conservatory in New York City and Los Angeles with several paths. There is a two-year conservatory certificate. There is a BFA, which you can do bicoastally or 50% in class and 50% online. We have a partnership with Fordham, so you can get a B.A. from Fordham and do all your three years of performance at AMDA. We are in the heart of – I teach in New York City. We are at 61st Street and 54th Street, and we are a training-based university, so you are in classes five days a week. And when you leave AMDA, the doors are always open to you – the studios, the pianists, and the self-tape room.

[47:34] Charlie Murphy: I love it. Okay, we'll go backward, and now let's just give me about a sentence talking about the academics of your school. So is it 80% artistic, 20% academic, 60-40? Is it possible to minor, double major? Just place us on the academic spectrum, starting with you, Bridget.

[47:48] Bridget Brady: I would say we're 80-20, because if you go for the BFA, again, you get above 90 credits in your major before you need to do gen eds. Our gen eds tend to be – I'm sorry for the people in the back. I'm not really helpful at 5'4", right? But the gen eds will be things that relate to your craft. So in the first two years, you're going to take things like musical theater history and the history of film and things that relate to that. After those, you start to do more of your English classes and screenwriting, things like that. So I think if we're looking at the BFA in musical theater, we are 60-40 thereabouts. It's a 120-credit degree, and the BFA in musical theater is about 72 of those credits. So a lot of our students will choose to take on a minor, and we also have BFA programs in acting, which is a little bit less. It may be closer to 40-60.

[48:51] Charlie Murphy: I love it. Okay. Give me one word or very close to one word to describe the artistic focus of your program. So you can tell me acting, especially with a musical theater program, acting, singing, dancing, or if you want to come up with a different creative word, you're welcome to.

[49:04] Mark Williams: Production experience.

[49:05] Bridget Brady: Production experience, yes.

[49:07] Charlie Murphy: Craft.

[49:08] Mark Williams: Craft.

[49:09] Charlie Murphy: Notice how few people are saying acting, singing, or dancing. Those are the cues I gave them, and almost nobody actually said that. Okay, great. Or acting, singing, and dancing.

[49:17] Bridget Brady: Hey, now, there you go. See? Takes an adjustment well, Bridget.

[49:22] Charlie Murphy: Which is what I meant to say. All right, now give me a fun fact. So give me something that we wouldn't necessarily know immediately when we look on your website. You can talk to me about your campus life. You can talk to me about geography. You can talk to me about cost, if there's anything you want to tell me about how you bring the cost down from the sticker price. You can tell me about showcase opportunities, any partnerships, any kind of fun fact about your school, Bridget.

[49:42] Bridget Brady: We had a really fun fact this spring. Two of our AMDA alumni won Tony Awards. I know. So Casey Levy is a grad, and she won for Ragtime. And then Zalon Livingston, who created Jellicle Ball, is also a graduate of our program. Very fun fact.

[50:00] Charlie Murphy: That's a fun fact. A fun fact about us is one of the reasons why I came to Mary Washington as a faculty member was because it is a place where the arts are prioritized. And proof of concept here is in April we broke ground on a new $180 million facility that students in this room would help us open. So we're very excited about that. So we're a place where the arts are valued and resourced, and that's one of the reasons why I came to Mary Washington myself.

[50:32] Charlie Murphy: I love it. Let's open it up for questions. If you have specific questions, we'll start with those, but I'll even allow general questions because there's only two of them. Very good. Yes, go for it.

[50:39] Audience Member: The question is, what does AMDA do with Lincoln Center?

[50:42] Bridget Brady: We don't partner with Lincoln Center, but your student ID will get you a $40 ticket to their shows. So you can walk right up to their box office and go, I go to school around the corner, and they will sell you a student ticket. Pretty good partnership.

[50:55] Charlie Murphy: Yes, questions. Go for it.

[50:56] Audience Member: Talk about buy Coastal AMDA.

[50:58] Bridget Brady: So you can do it many ways. You can start in New York and do four semesters with us in the conservatory and then transfer out to L.A. and finish your BFA there. You can also go to L.A. directly and come and do a semester abroad and come to New York for a semester. So I will teach L.A. people who come in and then sometimes they stay because they have been in L.A. and then they go, I really feel the vibe of New York. So that's how that works. Great question.

[51:32] Audience Member: Yes, go for it. How present is dance in these two programs?

[51:35] Bridget Brady: Yeah, in the musical theater program, we're pretty evenly balanced in terms of the curriculum between acting courses, courses that will develop your musicianship and dance. In the musical theater program, you'll take a total of 11 courses that are dance, studio dance over the eight semesters. So that's how present dance is. Dance is really present at AMDA. So they will start you in week one. They do a placement so that if you are concerned because you didn't get dance at all or you're concerned because you had a lot of dance and you're like, please don't put me in a group that can't shift their weight. Sorry, sorry, sorry. For those at home, never mind. No, they're watching the video. They saw how beautifully you shifted your weight.

We all could tell. So the class, you are leveled within the first week. That doesn't mean that you can't raise your game if you're a person who stays until 11 o'clock at night and tap dances, which some people do. And if you're a four in tap and a one in ballet, that is fine. But there is dance in every semester and there is dance every single day of the week.

[52:47] Charlie Murphy: I love it. Go for it, yeah.

[52:49] Audience Member: Let's talk about vocal health and wellness.

[52:51] Bridget Brady: We have a wonderful voice faculty. Every musical theater student has a private voice teacher that they see once a week. And they do a workshop on vocal health. And the teachers are great. And I am in constant contact with your voice teacher. So I'm teaching the musical theater class. And I have a student who says, I really want to do Gethsemane. And I think, I don't want you to do Gethsemane because I think we're going to have blood on the walls. So I will then reach out to their teacher and say, can we talk together about waiting a semester for the rock ballad. So we work together with them. They're all on speed dial.

[53:37] Mark Williams: Yes, Mark. Vocal health and wellness.

[53:39] Mark Williams: Yeah, so I'm the primary voice and speech teacher in terms of voice for the actor. I'm not a singing teacher. So a student in either the acting program or in the musical theater program will take voice and body movement, which is a course that I teach. And so we're working on vocal health every single day in that class. That's the primary focus of it. And then, of course, you'll also have a singing teacher who's part of the music faculty. So you'll have that support if you're acting in a musical. You'll have a music director. And you'll have your voice teacher. And you'll have me as your coach. So you'll have a lot of vocal support that way. Excellent.

[54:14] Charlie Murphy: More questions. Go for it.

[54:16] Audience Member: The question is for AMDA about the connection to Fordham.

[54:18] Bridget Brady: Okay. If you choose to do you want the B.A. in staying in New York, you can do six semesters with us on the campus. And then you go over to Fordham for a year, three semesters. And you start taking things like psychology, things related to the business that might help you be a multi-hyphenate and also walk away with your bachelor's.

[54:50] Charlie Murphy: I love it. A couple more questions. Yeah, go for it.

[54:52] Audience Member: Mary Washington, how big are the classes?

[54:54] Mark Williams: Yeah. So the largest class I have personally taught at Mary Washington is 18 students. I've never had more than 18 in a classroom ever. As students progress toward upper levels, they tend to get smaller. And that's one of the things that I think is a strength of our program is we want to make sure we are growing. We want to make sure that we grow in a way where we can maintain that. We want to make sure that no students are slipping through the cracks. One of the things that we pride ourselves on is that our faculty really know our students personally. And so that's really important to us.

[55:25] Charlie Murphy: Who has got a great final question? Who feels like they have a final question? Oh, I saw a hand shoot up. Go for it.

[55:31] Audience Member: The last question from Mary Washington is how many productions do you stage and can freshmen be in them?

[55:36] Mark Williams: Yeah. So the first question, how many productions? We do two in the fall, two in the spring. But I mentioned earlier we are opening a new facility. Right. So that will have an additional venue in it, which means that we can increase the number. I think what's underneath that question, though, is are there opportunities available for the student. Right. And so because our size is – because we are not an enormous program, we have ample opportunities already. So to answer your second question, we expect first-year students to audition. And students who are in the BFA programs, we expect you to be able to make a good case for yourself in the first semester.

[56:14] Charlie Murphy: I love it. Okay. We're going to end with your choose-your-own-adventure. You certainly can go back and grab-bag any of the other fun facts or stuff that you missed if you said, I forgot to talk about this. But otherwise, could you tell me either what you look for in a student, so like what you look for in auditions, or what you look for in your students, or you could give general advice to the process. We'll start with you, Mark.

[56:31] Mark Williams: Yeah, I think what I look for and, you know, as I've had conversations with students here today, I am struck by the students who have a strong relationship to learning, right, who don't view themselves as a finished product, who are looking for critique. I had a very small number of students today who asked for feedback on their, you know, on their audition. And so that, you know, it always stands out to me when someone wants critique, not necessarily praise. We're not a place that's going to break you down. But I think it's important that you seek critique and use that to fuel your growth. So that stands out to me.

[57:10] Bridget Brady: I love it. Bridget, take us home. This is the end of nine panels. Is your answer ready to end nine panels with this answer? Great, great. No pressure.

[57:20] Bridget Brady: Yeah, exactly. She's got it. I love it. One thing that excites me is the student that is curious and supportive of themselves and their peers. The business is about there are fewer people in the actual industry than are in this room. And they all know each other. That says more about this room than the industry. No. I understand. It is very packed. But good news travels fast and bad news travels faster. Being a good community member who is curious, who is helpful, who wants to, can I listen to your monologue? Can you just sit and listen to this and make sure I'm DLP, dead letter perfect? That kind of community member because that community member transfers really well into the business because work creates work. And people want to work with people who want to be in the room.

[58:07] Charlie Murphy: I love it. A huge thank you to our last two panelists. Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you.

[58:13] Charlie Murphy: All right. I hope you enjoyed that panel, both of the panels, really. I know we talked fast on both of them. I mean, I always talk pretty fast. I know. But really trying to keep everything on time and on target with trying to keep some of the fun in there and trying to keep it equitable between the schools. It's a bit of a challenge, you know, where students and faculty alike are desperate for their beds at the end of the long PUA. I'm trying to try to get them there. Right. And try to do our best to keep the whole podcast episode manageable. I'm just going to hit you with a few cheeky takeaways for this one. You heard me say a version of this of sort of listening to the things that repeat again and again and noting them.

I think I did almost the exact same thing as a takeaway last year to this very podcast. So I guess I'm going to stay on theme by repeating the things about repeating. Right. I'm going to keep keep repeating that. Which is just to say when you hear something five times, don't dismiss it. Take it in. Right. I had a mom at PUA grab me. You know, I was walking in the hotel. Very good nature. I know she was joking, but she said, you know, my son is going to seek out the school where they say they want mean people. Right. It was kind of a joke because she's heard so many times how many colleges talk about one in kind people. Right. And of course, I totally understand that instinct that you sort of you want to eye roll when you hear things again.

[59:35] Charlie Murphy: Again and again, like is it really about kindness? Isn't it about talent too, right? And I myself can eye roll when I hear a certain phrase get repeated, right, or it starts to feel trite when you've heard it enough different times. But I would just advise you, lean in the other direction if I were you, right? If a school says we're looking for authenticity over perfection, believe them, right? I mean, that's the kind of thing, that very statement was a bit more novel 15 years ago, you know, where people really were under the impression that perfection, or not necessarily perfection, people were under the impression that impressiveness was the goal, I think 10, 15 years ago. They were worried that it was about being slick and shellacked and how high I can kick my leg and how I can sing and all those kinds of things, right?

But I really think at this point in 2026, that cat is out of the bag, and now students really do know that the goal is to be your authentic, organic self. There are very few students who are like, what, when they hear that, right? But still, that is easier said than done, as we've said many times on the podcast, right? To be genuine, to be a truthful, real version of you, that's not something you can just snap your fingers and do. It is hard and vulnerable work, right? But just because it starts sounding trite as advice doesn't mean you should ignore it. It is the whole game. That's what you're trying to do, right? It's what we do at MTCA. We're trying to help you figure out how to present the most authentic version of yourself in the room through the requested material.

It's not easy, but it is so important, right? And I feel the same way. You know, I used to feel this way, especially when people would say like, have fun, you know, as audition advice before someone walks into an audition room, right? I used to kind of roll my eyes and be like, but man, now when you really think about just the phrase, have fun, that's half the battle, right? Like how hard it is to have fun in a high stakes audition. That takes skill, that takes rigor, that takes practice. It's hard to do, right? It's like saying, have fun on a date with someone that you've been nervous about going on a date with for a year, right? Because you just liked them so much. That's hard. Your instinct is to be self-conscious, but if you can genuinely have fun over the course of the date, it will go better than if you're like trying to do a good job, right?

So yes, my instinct would just be pause before you roll your eyes at that kind of trite advice that you've heard a million times, whether it's have fun, be yourself, or looking for kind people, whatever the thing that you heard 15 times over 40 schools, right? Just see if there's a deeper truth, both in the advice and then also, here's the real challenge, is there a reason you might be rolling your eyes and avoiding digging into it, right? Is there a part of you that sort of is going, oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. When you're like, but maybe that's the advice that you actually should be listening to. Okay, let's do this one next. I'm gonna save the other one for last, which is just to say, as you've now listened to something like, I don't know, 39 schools over two podcasts, I'm not sure with our exact numbers.

We were over 40 at one point, with a couple of schools that dropped out, but basically I just want to say with this many schools that you've listened to in two short episodes, if you start feeling like some schools are for you and some aren't, that's okay, right? In fact, I think it's a good thing, right? It's part of the reason for this podcast in general, both these two kinds of episodes, but also just the hundreds of episodes that we've done over the course of these six years, right? Not every school is for every person the same way that not every person is for every person. And I think there is real power in the closing of one door to open another. We often talk about, we use that analogy when something goes wrong, right?

Every door that closes on you means an opportunity for a window to open or whatever, right? But that's also true with your time and energy in a conscious way as well, right? The power of thin slicing and time to focus on the strategic swath of schools that you are really interested in, right? I mean, if you're looking at 200 schools and there are 200 programs out there if you want to look at all of them, right? If you're looking at them too deeply, it's going to end up feeling like you're looking at none, right? So my advice to all, and especially juniors and younger students who are starting this process, how do you have some key factors you're looking for so that you have a rubric, and it's helpful to have some version of a rubric, but also don't be afraid of thin slicing some vibes in those early days, right?

Especially, I'm even more comfortable with that kind of thin slicing, which if you don't know what thin slicing is, it just means making a decision in a short amount of time, right, taking some information and trusting, it's like the blink test of it all, like trusting your blink and be like, just doesn't feel right for me, right? I'm especially cool with that idea if you're the kind of person who's going to stay open to the possibility that whatever you just encountered was just a quick data point, right? It wouldn't be smart if you're like, I'm writing that school off forever based on five minutes of a podcast, right? But if you're open to the idea that right now as a junior while I listen, just the fact that I'm swiping right, swiping right the bad one or the good one, whichever, swiping no, whatever that one is, that doesn't mean that you might not change your mind later and for instance, here's some good information, add them to your list or hear about a school and do a walk in later, right?

But that's all to say, you've got to move with integrity and grace through this process, trying to be thorough, but also trying to stay sane for yourself. So if you leave an episode like this where you just heard 20 some schools and there are eight schools that you're really curious to learn more about and you want to potentially double click and spend more than five minutes with them, maybe add them to your list, I like that. If there are six schools that are kind of meh and you just kind of leave them alone and maybe you'll come back later, but you're not going to do more research because they didn't grab you, great. And then maybe there's a few, whatever that number is, four, five, six left that are like dead cross-offs because based on your non-negotiables, you go absolutely not, not an academic school, I know I want academics, it's off my list, right?

To dive a bit more into those eight and see if a few of them might actually make their way into their actual list, that's a good use of time, right? Maybe you'll start off and you'll listen to their whole episode, if you're someone who likes the podcast, right? Or maybe you're going to spend some time on their website, you know, though, if you got this deep into this specific episode of the podcast, you probably do like the podcast, right? But maybe not every school is at an episode, many of them are, right? But also recognizing that many of you already have a pretty big list of schools that you're already interested in and that you want to do more research on those too, right? That may a list that may exist before you ever encountered PUA.

So just find that balance, right? You get to decide which schools go on your list and not, and you want that opinion to be informed, but that doesn't mean you have to agonize over every school when there are literally hundreds of BFA programs out there that you could potentially audition for, right? And as you actually walk in the rooms, you're going to want to have real knowledge of these programs. I mean, not every school and every walk-in are you going to have deep, deep knowledge on, but for a school that you've applied to, you would want to be ready when they say, hey, why are you interested in my program? And have a real reason. It shouldn't just be like, oh, it's one of the many, many on my list, right?

It wants to feel like, oh no, I know something about the school. There's a reason it's right for me. And to get to that point with those schools means you probably can't get too, too deep with too many schools. You got to find that balance before you double-click and really dive in, right? And again, the point of this takeaway is really just direct your energy consciously and conscientiously, and don't drive yourself too crazy. Okay, last but not least is, this is one of my favorite sort of, this is kind of an organic takeaway. If I'd done an end of podcast takeaway, I had it noted down when I was doing it on my little notepad. I'm like, this is the takeaway I would do if I was going to do it in the last 30 seconds, right?

It's why at the top I said, I'm giving you some cheeky takeaways because it's a cheeky one in particular, which is just, did you notice how some of the faculty tried to cheat my timing? I'll just say, in my opinion, my humble opinion here, the instinct to cheat is generally great. This is where it's so tricky to give this advice as a takeaway. So please, like all takeaways, take it with a grain of salt, right? Because the truth is that nothing is truly black and white in this art form. And it's where I really think it can be helpful to have a bit of expertise and experience in terms of helping you use your judgment where the places, the pushing the boundaries is really good and fun, and where maybe it may be inappropriate and less so, right?

Even though, of course, there's no one place to draw that line. It's always gonna be a matter of opinion. It's always gonna be a matter of taste and different schools and different people are gonna have different opinions of where exactly you draw that line. But what I think is helpful, what would be the helpful actionable instinct to get curious about, especially for a 17 year old who has spent a life in high school, mostly following the rules. Like I'm watching with my daughter in kindergarten, like most of kindergarten is about obedience, about my daughter is a very good listener. And she likes to tell you she's a very good listener. But you can tell some of the other kids are not very good listeners.

And most of class is about making them listen to what the teacher says, right? I will say as you become more of an adult and you tend to move toward an artistic life and going to school for an artistic pursuit, it's just, it's not always better to color inside the lines, right? And that sometimes the person who does color outside the lines a bit, you know, in a fun way can find real success. Now, again, be careful, be cautious with this advice. Does this mean if they tell you to do a 90 second pre-screen you should do a three minute pre-screen? No, it distinctly does not mean that, right? If they ask for two monologues and you say, I'm gonna do five monologues because that's just who I am. Is that a good thing?

Of course not, right? Or at least I would say no, right? But when it comes to an instinct to take up space rather than shrink, that's how I would label those faculty who are going, I'm gonna take up the maximal amount of space and it's not really about the rules, I'm gonna try to take my moment. When it comes to that specific instinct of trying to take up space, I would generally lean into that instinct, right? And again, that's what I think many of the schools are doing. They each had about four to five minutes of total time to talk about their programs and they were trying to make it their own as best as they possibly could, right? Many of them being performers and already having those good instincts to take up space, right?

And especially important in this case, they were both taking up space and also doing the thing I always recommend, which is if you ever feel a rushed, anxious audition room, your general audition instinct should be swim in the other direction, right? Again, finding the balance, right? If they say, okay, let's dive right in and then you were to take 30 seconds of prep before you started, that's probably too far, right? But what I find far too often in audition rooms, especially audition rooms in this process, is it's their responsibility to try to keep the day moving, try to keep their day on time and they're often running late, right? Especially like the monitors may be giving you like, okay, here we go, let's go, right?

And they're often gonna be kind of chiding you along, let's go in here, do this, stand and deliver, right? And the auditor is often highly energized, charming, moving at a fast pace, right? Here you go, jump in whenever you're ready. Okay, can't wait to see what you got, right? And as a young actor, you can kind of just get caught up in the stream of it all and out of politeness, then you like jump right in maybe faster than you were expecting, than you were ready to do and you just get swept up in the audition experience alongside your own nerves and then all of a sudden the audition's over, right? Whereas I would say, if you feel an anxious monitor and then that quick talking person behind the table or in this case for all of them, if they've got the podcast host being like, okay, let's keep this thing moving, trying to get people to bed, right?

My instinct would always just be to remind myself to just take one more breath, maybe one more breath than I think I need, right? To really make the decision to start my piece when I'm ready, to take up space when the world is rushing you along, right? Because again, it's my job to keep the podcast to an hour but it's the school's job to tell you about their school as best as they can, right? And none of them were obnoxious, I don't think you find any of them obnoxious in terms of pushing the boundaries, right? But they're constantly doing their job, they're pitching their schools, right? Sorry if it runs over, Charlie, but that's not really on me, I'm doing my thing, right? And boy, is that true for all of you on auditions.

The more you think this is about me taking my time, which I have earned to take the amount of time that I need to prep myself and jump into my audition to show my best work in January and February after a year of prepping this or whatever it is, right? The more I think it's like about me owning this room, that is the young artist who's gonna tend to do well in this process. And then let all the other kids rush along and keep the day moving, right? I promise you, nobody's going back at the end of a live audition day and saying, oh man, that kid was amazing, but you know, I think their audition, that was 10 seconds longer than the other kids, so let's get the faster kid in school, we're looking for fast kids, right?

Again, what I'm talking about in this case of leaning against the grain is normally a matter of seconds, right? It doesn't mean having way longer audition material, I'm not talking about that, right? But even more than just the time or the seconds of it all, it is a matter of energy, right? You don't need to pick up someone else's pace and you don't need to pick up their anxiety. You bring your good energy into the room and then that becomes a gift to the auditors, right? Because they're looking for people to add to their class and now you're just giving them one more, so that saved them time and that was a great thing. They're not anxious about moving the day along, they just found someone, right?

And even if that does add another 10, 15, 20 seconds to their lunch break, it's okay, right? It's worth it, right? And again, with where that line is exactly, with when I think it's kind of cheeky fun to push against the grain and when it might seem a bit more annoying, you wanna keep your head up and you wanna keep your instincts attuned to that, right? You can go too far with stuff like that. And again, there isn't a single black and white answer. I like making good trouble in an audition room generally. I like pushing the boundaries a little bit, right? It kind of impish way, but of course, at some point, good trouble could just become trouble, right? You hear all these hilarious stories of Juilliard auditions that like push the boundaries to ridiculous extents and lead to success, right?

But those can also be the other side of horror stories and terrible auditions, right? But again, to the theme that you've heard probably too many times on this pod if you're a regular listener, I think this generation is a bit too prone to too much meekness as opposed to cockiness in general. So just examine those instincts to potentially be bold and fearless in how that could be genuine and authentic to you, right? I'll bet if you look back at those 39 schools, it wasn't necessarily the quietest personalities who took up the least time that are gonna stand out to you, right? Again, that doesn't mean you have to be flashy or do anything more than what feels organic to you, right? But again, the audition that apologizes for taking up 10 minutes of my time and then walks back out the door meekly and quickly, that is the easiest option to dismiss.

That's the one that schools can go, okay, great, that person never kind of entered and so that's not one I have to consider at all, right? And you don't wanna be easy to dismiss. You want it to be hard for them to say no to you, right? You wanna lean against that gravitational instinct to just get through it and not do anything too extraordinary so that you don't make a huge mistake and you don't have egg on your face. And you wanna dare to leave the room smelling like all kinds of you. All right, that will do it for another episode of Mapping the College Edition, produced at a rapid pace by Kelly Prendergast. Like and subscribe wherever you watch or listen, whether that's right here on the Broadway Podcast Network, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, wherever it is.

Comment, share those social media posts. If you got stuff to say, we can take it, good, bad, all of it, we want it, right? You can follow us at Mapping the College Edition on Instagram and check us out at mtca.com for help with your individual college process. To my young artists out there mapping their journeys, please trust that you're enough for the right program, whether or not it's one of these 39, exactly as you are right now. Now keep striving. We'll catch you next week.

[1:14:12] ♪ Mapping the college edition ♪