Ryan’s/MTSA

Irene Ryan / Musical Theater
Auditions

Irene Ryan Acting Scholarship Auditions

The Irene Ryan Acting Scholarships provide recognition, honor, and financial assistance to outstanding student performers wishing to pursue further education. The Irene Ryan Foundation awards sixteen regional and two national scholarships annually. One nominee and partner from every region will be invited to the national festival and the nominee will receive a $500 scholarship. The runner-up in each region will receive a $500 scholarship, but will not attend the national festival to audition for the national scholarship.

Students and coaches are encouraged to consult their regional chair or regional Irene Ryan Acting Scholarship Auditions Coordinator for information on other regional awards. The Irene Ryan Acting Scholarships are, indeed, scholarships; so the Foundation disburses the award through a school designated by the winner, to pay tuition and fees for further education, not necessarily limited to theatre arts.

Irene Ryan Acting Auditions

Preliminary Round

  • Students will record themselves performing TWO contrasting monologues (time limit of three minutes, total) and submit via a private YouTube link.
  • Students (auditionee and partner) must have a paid registration to participate.
  • The deadline for preliminary round entries will be before the Regional Festival. Preliminary round entries will be due no later than February 9th at 11:59 pm.
  • Selectors will review the preliminary round submissions and make their selections before the festival.

Semi-Final Round

  • Semi-finalists will be announced at the in-person Regional Festival.
  • Those not advancing to the semi-final round are encouraged to take advantage of the many festival activities including many workshops and performances.
  • Semi-finalists will perform live at the Regional Festival, with one monologue (from the prelim round, student’s choice) and one scene (time limit of five minutes, total). This will take place on Tuesday February 20th.
  • Semi-finalists will receive feedback from the Semi-Final Round Selectors after the semi-final round is complete.
  • In addition to the auditions, the festival will feature workshops on auditioning/acting, etc.
  • Students who do not advance to the semi-finals and are interested can participate with NPP in the Ten-Minute Play Festival, and a featured workshop track will be highlighted at the festival for these students.

Final Round

  • Finalists will be announced at the Regional Festival and perform their two contrasting monologues (from the preliminary round) as well as their scene live. The time limit is six minutes, total. This will take place on Thursday February 22nd.
  • Finalists will receive feedback from the Final Round selectors after the final round performance.

Other Items

  • Irene Ryan Nominees can serve as a partner for up to two other Irene Ryan Nominees.
  • Singing will not be allowed, it is recommended that those interested in singing explore the musical theatre programs.
  • Rules regarding Rights, Royalties, Slating, Timekeeping, and use of Props and Furniture will remain from previous years and can be found on the Additional Information page.

 

Irene Ryan Audition Tips and Suggestions

 

Eligibility

All scene partners must have been a bona fide student at the time of the initial KCACTF response or during the term in which the regional festival occurs (confirmed in writing as outlined above). Nominees and their partners need not be students at the same institution.

KCACTF Diversity and Inclusion Statement

The Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival affirms its commitment to policies and practices of promoting inclusion and diversity in its leadership, both regional and national, as well as in its programming. We pledge to nurture talent in all areas of the theater based solely on merit and achievement. We encourage production respondents to avoid discriminatory comments and embrace the variety of artistic choices generated by the diversity of perspective that exists on college campuses across the country. We promote collegial exploration of new ideas, supported by a clear understanding of long-held artistic practices, fully respecting the communicated intentions of the playwright.

We encourage discourse that affects positive change in the ways that under-represented groups are portrayed onstage, and we oppose acts of cultural appropriation and character depictions that deepen existing cultural divides. We embrace the idea that diversity in experience and perspective makes our organization stronger and more relevant and is therefore essential to our educational mission of training the future artistic leadership in American theater.

The Irene Ryan signups for the 2024 festival are now closed. If you have any questions, contact Shea King at sking@tmcc.edu.

 

Musical Theatre Initiative (MTI) – National & Regional

NATIONAL—The National KCACTF Musical Theatre Initiative is designed to celebrate, recognize, and foster outstanding musical theatre students from colleges and universities throughout the nation. The National Musical Theatre Fellowship cohort will be comprised of at least one student selected from each of the eight Regional festivals.  Selected students will receive an all-expenses paid trip to the KCACTF National Festival at the Kennedy Center to participate in the Musical Theatre Intensive Fellowship. The curriculum is designed and led by KCACTF representatives and D.C. Theatre professionals.

REGIONAL—All KCACTF Region 7 Round-One MTI participants must be registered for the 2024 Festival in Spokane, WA (Feb. 18 – 23) and students must be at the Festival.  The details of your audition are listed below. If you have questions, contact any member of the MTI Coordinator Team:

  • Tracy Martin – MartinT@arc.losrios.edu
  • Noah Racey – Noah.Racey@colostate.edu
  • Corey Winfield – WinfieC@arc.losrios.edu

FIRST ROUND (Region 7)

Audition will take place live on Monday, Feb. 19, 2024 at the Festival. You must register online in advance for a time slot. If all slots are taken, a waitlist will be started.  Please check the Region 7 Festival website after December 15 for slot sign-ups. Slots are limited.

Please prepare an audition cut that is 90 seconds or less. An audition with two contrasting pieces within the 90 seconds is recommended, but one piece is also fine and will not jeopardize your chances of advancing to the final round.  Timing of the cut(s) will begin when you begin the first (or only) song, and end when you and the accompanist stop.

Music may be from the musical theater canon or may be musical theater adjacent. (ie, You may select music of a style that appears in musical theater but is not from an actual musical).

Your audition must include a slate with the following information: Your full name, the name of your song, the musical it is from (if is from a musical), and the composer of the song.  Please do not included the name of your school in your slate. The slate will not count as part of your 90 seconds.

You will be provided live, piano accompaniment for your audition.*  The accompanist will be provided by the MTI team.  You must prepare sheet music to give the accompanist as you are called to the stage.  You will have a moment to communicate with the accompanist before beginning your slate and song.  (Directions on music preparation appear below, and a video will also be available by December demonstrating the preparation process). 

Following your audition you will receive brief feedback from one of the respondents in an area just outside the audition hall.

*PLEASE NOTE: The MTI Team may request scans of participants’ music the week before the festival begins to help our accompanists prepare.  Participants will be notified by the email you use when signing up for a slot. In the event that your music changes between that date and February 19, you will have the opportunity to re-submit that music.  Wait-listed students will have the option of submitting music, but it will not be a requirement. (Accompanists will NOT be using scanned music at the Festival audition. Participants must still have physical sheet music for the accompanist).

FINAL ROUND (Region 7) 

Students advancing to the final round will perform live at Festival Wednesday, February 21, 2024.  The list of students advancing will be posted by noon Tuesday, February 20.  If there are any special instructions they will be provided by email and will also be posted with the Final Round list.

You should prepare an audition cut that is 3 minutes or less and may use the time to present one or two pieces, whatever you prefer.  The audition may be a longer version of your Round One audition or may new material.  Timing of the cut(s) will begin when you begin the first (or only) song, and end when you and the accompanist stop.

Music may be from the musical theater canon or may be musical theater adjacent. (ie, You may select music of a style that appears in musical theater but is not from an actual musical).

Your audition must include a slate with the following information: Your full name, the name of your song, the musical it is from (if is from a musical), and the composer of the song.  Please do not included the name of your school in your slate. The slate will not count as part of your 3 minutes.

You will be provided live, piano accompaniment for your audition. The accompanist will be provided by the MTI team.  You must prepare sheet music to give the accompanist as you are called to the stage.  You will have a moment to communicate with the accompanist before beginning your slate and song. 

Following your performance you will remain on stage for a brief ‘master class’ with one of the respondents.  This is part of the audition. You may be asked to perform parts of the song(s) again after receiving feedback or coaching and/or to discuss the song(s) with your respondent.

Final Round performers should be prepared to perform at the Region 7 Award Ceremony (being held before 1pm Friday, February 23).  At that ceremony an MTI winner and runner up will be announced. Both will perform their 3-minute audition after the announcement. The winner will go on to be part of the National Musical Theater Fellowship cohort.

CRITERIA FOR BOTH ROUNDS

Student artists participating in the Musical Theatre Initiative auditions are encouraged to make material and artistic choices with consideration of the following criteria:

  • Choosing material suited for the actor that reflects self-awareness, expressive emotional range, wide vocal range, and physical connectedness.
  • Engaging in active objectives and tactics to affect how they are speaking to their imaginary scene partner. (acting is action, what is your objective? what/who is your obstacle?)
  • Living truthfully in the moment of their given circumstances. (who, what, where, when, why, how) 
  • Expressing a compelling story with a clear arc from beginning to middle to end.
  • Demonstrating a connection with an imaginary scene partner (who you are speaking to?), projected imagery, and specific fourth wall focal points. 
  • Making a Body/Voice Connection. – (Are you filling the space vocally, energetically, and in connection with your body? Can we understand you?)
  • Displaying Musical Technique – Effective use of breath, appropriate phrasing, clear vocal tone, correct notes/rhythms/lyrics.

PREPARING THE MUSIC FOR AN ACCOMPANIST

The MTI Team recommends you prepare your physical sheet music one or both of the following ways:

Version 1 – If your sheet music is 6 or more pages long

  • Photocopy the music back-to-back on regular (bond) white paper
  • Hole-punch the music and place it in a binder
  • Double-check that the pages are in order
  • Be sure to mark your music clearly with the beginning and ending of your cut. If there are other things in the music you need your accompanist to notice (tempo changes, places you need them to “hold” for a moment, etc.), mark them clearly as well.

 Version 2 – If your sheet music is 5 or fewer pages long

(The goal of this approach is to have pages that will “accordion” out from your binder so that the accompanist may see all the pages at once.  This approach eliminates any need for page turns.)

  • Photocopy the music onto white cardstock, one page per sheet. Copies should be one-sided.
  • Lay the five (or fewer) pages out in front of you in order, left to right
  • Lightly trim the left and right margins of pages 1, 2 & 5 to make those pages somewhat narrower. Be very careful not to trim off any part of the music your accompanist will need to read.
  • Tape pages 1 and 2 together. (Connecting the right side of 1 to the left side of 2)
  • Hole-punch this pair of pages on the far-right margin
  • Tape pages 3, 4 & 5 together in the same fashion
  • Hole-punch this trio of pages on the far-left margin
  • Now put the music into your binder so that all the pages, fanned out, are in order
  • Since you trimmed some of the pages a bit, it should fold up into the binder for easy travel.
  • Be sure to mark your music clearly with the beginning and ending of your cut. If there are other things in the music you need your accompanist to notice (tempo changes, places you need them to “hold” for a moment, etc.), mark them clearly as well.

If feasible, it is recommended you prepare music BOTH of these ways and have them both in your binder for your accompanist to use whichever they prefer.

 Tips that will make your music as readable as possible

  • Never have loose sheet music that could easily fall or fall out of order
  • If your music is in a book, do not present the book to the accompanist. It may not stay open well. Please copy the music and prepare as recommended above.
  • Do not have your music in sheet protectors. Some accompanists prefer to write notes on the music, and sheet protectors also make it hard to turn pages.
  • Avoid taping music back-to-back. It can complicate page turns and visibility. (If doing Version 1 above, copy the pages back-to-back instead)
  • Always include the first page of the song… even if only performing the end. Some of the info at the beginning may not occur elsewhere in the sheet music.
  • Be very careful when copying the music to capture everything on the page. You need to make sure you do not cut off any notes at the bottom, key signatures, etc. — even page numbers are helpful sometimes. If your music is larger than 8.5 x 11, reduce it slightly so it fits well on a normal piece of paper.
  • If you are ‘jumping over measures’ in your cut, draw a very clear line or “X” with a pencil through those measures. Do not black them out or scribble them out.
  • If you are jumping over entire pages in your cut, have the full sheet music available somewhere in your binder just in case your accompanist needs to see them for clarity.
  • If at all possible, show your music to a musician before the audition. There will also be an opportunity on the Sunday of the Festival to show your music to a member of the MTI team. The time and place for this opportunity will be in the schedule and will also be emailed to all signed-up participants.

FEBRUARY 12 DEADLINE FOR ALL CONFIRMED MTI COMPETITORS

The deadline to submit your music scans is midnight, Monday, February 12, 2024 (Pacific Standard Time). Students who do not submit their music by this time may be moved to the waiting list and lose their current slot in the MTI Auditions.

For full instructions, please be sure you read the email sent Feb. 4, 2024 (Subject: Time Sensitive Message for Region 7 MTI Competitors!) Once you have read that email, you may use the emailed link or this link below to submit your scanned, marked music as one file.

 

Submit Music Here

 

The MTI signups for the 2024 festival are now closed. If you are interested in being on the waitlist, please attend the MTI Orientation at 7pm Sunday, Feb. 18. If you have any questions, contact Tracy Martin at: MartinT@arc.losrios.edu.