Part Three: Juilliard MFA Acting Audition Experience

To read about my first round, press here

I was recalled.

I don’t think it is possible to put into words how elated I was.

 I could not believe it.

It turns out they recalled 16 out of 200 they saw that morning and I was one of them! I went to register with Kathy then got into the lift to where they were holding the recalls. Upon leaving the lift, there was a raucous applause of current students clapping for us. We walked through the corridors in disbelief and I could not keep the smile off my face. We entered a room which I think was the same room I auditioned in and found our names that were laid out on a table. We then took a photo holding our names, the guy taking our photo was called Jerry who was the office manager. Jerry was such a great man, we had a long conversation about Rent and The Last Five Years later on in the day. Once we had our photo taken we sat down in chairs that were positioned in a semi-circle and Kathy came in told us how the afternoon would be going. I can’t really remember what she said exactly to be honest but after this brief introduction we were taken upstairs to a corridor with sofas and this would be wear we would be waiting for the day. Kathy gave us a pack which had various bits of information in as well as a piece of paper that had three questions. They were “What is your greatest strength as an actor?” “What is your greatest weakness as an actor?” “Describe an artistic event that was significant to you”. Kathy insisted that we shouldn’t worry too much about these questions and they were simply a means to get to know us better. The format of the day would go as follows

1. We would all head down to the room we were initially in and literally just introduce ourselves to the panel saying our name and where we were from, the panel would do this too.
2. We would go into the room one by one and perform our speech (the panel chose which speech they wanted you to do) and song. Kathy insisted that we should not judge how long each person spends in the room since every applicant was different.
3. The group would split in half with both halves playing different exercises and games in two different rooms.
4. Some of us would be called for an interview, Kathy insisted that this had no bearing on whether they were considering us. It was for if the panel thought they needed to see a bit more of someone to decide.

Exercise One – The Introduction

We all headed down to the room and stood in a semi-circle, upon entering the panel were cheering for us which was just amazing. There were like 20-25  faculty member all sitting and standing which was very daunting but they were all lovely. We went around saying where we were from. People seemed to be going into a lot of detail (i.e. I live in Michigan, but was born in L.A. and my parents are Italian) so I didn’t just tell them I was from London, I went on to say that I was born in South Africa and that I am Rwandan. I found it kind of crazy that this was considered the first test.

After this, we all filled in our sheets of paper with the questions while we went in one by one to see the panel. I found it really hard to think about how I wanted to phrase what I wanted to say on the paper. I am the type of person where if I’m tired, literally writes and sees things that isn’t there. It was around 5 pm which means it was like 10 pm in London and I was just feeling very overwhelmed. I think I could have definitely written more coherently if I wasn’t so tired. My points made no sense and were jumping all around the place. I was aware of this but I really didn’t know how to rectify it. I just hope a large emphasis isn’t put on these papers.

Exercise Two – The Panel

Before I went into the room, I had a great chat with Keishel (definitely incorrect spelling of his name) about life at Juilliard and I also met a current student who was form Nottingham called Tom! Oh and there was Emma who I met two who was lovely!!! Everyone was just so great and I was just super relaxed going in. I went in and performed Bitch Boxer which is what they requested to see (for more info about my monologues, click here). They seemed to really like it and had never heard it before. They then redirected it and asked me to perform it as if I was telling the story in hindsight. I then sung my song and after that they asked me to perform my Shakespeare. It was over before I knew it and I was out the room. I wanted to spend longer with them and play all day but it was over and I felt a sense of loss. Not because I thought I hadn’t done more best and needed more time but simply because it was loads of fun!

I forgot to mention that they bought loads of yummy food in for us. Everything form sandwiches, to wraps, to couscous, to salad, to ice tea, to lemonade, to biscuits, to rice. It was just a lovely spread. I ate a tiny bit of food before the exercises in case they had us running around and did a lot of chatting. I met some seriously great people. There was this guy called Ke’ne from The Bronx and we seriously hit it off immediately. There was also a current student called Jalen who was so awesome! We were both Hamilton fans so when he said that he can’t believe I came all the way from London, I had to do a quick Hamilton quote (“All the way from London? Damn!” I am so sorry if you are not a Hamilton fan, go and listen to it!!)

Just before we went into room for the exercises we handed in our sheets which I felt defeated about. I thought there was actually no way I could have salvaged it since everything I could come up with at that moment in time would be a pile of poop so I just let it go.

Exercise 3 – The Exercises

For each exercise, a different member of the faculty came up and lead it. The first one was a simple game which I had played before where the whole group had to keep a ball up by hitting it. You can’t let it touch the ground or hold it at any time. The next exercise was done with the movement teacher which was us walking in different patterns in the room. It was important to walk with intention the whole way through. The next exercise was with Richard Feldman, the Scene Study teacher and we had to run, freeze and jump when he said so. The we had to imagine what if ghosts had been let into the room. These ghosts would do all sorts of weird things to us which we had to react to. A different set of ghosts were then let into the room and they would sculpt us in all sorts of different ways with our partner (we had to get in twos). There were times when he would say freeze and I’d be in the most awkward position and I swear my leg was going to fall off. The whole time I just kept thinks “DO NOT THROW AWAY YOUR SHOT! DO NOT MOVE!”. Very painful. The final exercise I can remember was again with Richard and it was an imagination exercise. We had to feel water, explore a fish tank, walk through places made with our imagination. It was rather an amazing process. He kept on stressing that we shouldn’t feel that we had to be interesting and show anything so I tried to do this and zone everyone out. Once the exercises were concluded we all sat in a row and he asked us about our general thoughts of the day whether that was a discovery about ourselves our just a note on how the day worked/didn’t work and if there was anything they could do to make it better.

After the exercises, we chilled by the sofas ‘connecting’ and waiting to find out who they wanted to call for an interview. When the list came up I wasn’t on it so I panicked a bit but it turns out the current student, Jalen, hadn’t been interviewed at all when auditioning so Kathy was really telling the truth when she said it had no bearing on whether they were considering you. At the end of the day I said goodbye to everyone and arranged to have a drink with a few of the applicants that evening since it was my last night in NYC. Everyone was just so great and I can honestly say that this was a wonderful experience I will carry with me for the rest of my life- regardless of the outcome.

I lost my purse that night which meant all my cards and stuff but I didn’t let it get me down. I flew home content and managed to take a cute selfie on the airplane. I get the results on February 9^th! Just praying!

***Update: I was not invited to the final recalls.***