Frequently Asked Questions - by Prospective Students
High School seniors and transfer students seeking acceptance into the Millikin B.F.A. programs in Acting or Musical Theatre must audition for consideration on one of the dates listed below. All performance auditions (Musical Theatre and Acting) must be completed on or before April 11, 2008. Consideration for talent awards will not be extended beyond the final audition date.
High school seniors and transfer students seeking acceptance into the Millikin B.F.A. programs in Design/Technical, Stage Management or Theatre Administration must interview for consideration. Contact the Department of Theatre and Dance Office for an appointment. Interviews should be completed before the end of the spring semester, May 6, 2008
The B.A. Theatre degree does not require an audition.
Faculty attend the Illinois Theatre Association Festival in January and the Kentucky College and Career Day in Louisville, KY in October. At these auditions students may be accepted into the Acting and/or Design/Technical programs. If you are considering auditioning for Millikin at either of these auditions, please contact our secretary beforehand.
If you wish to be considered for the Musical Theatre program you may need to come to Millikin to complete the singing and dance portion of the audition. Prospective students for the Stage Management or Theatre Administration programs must come to Millikin to interview.
The auditioners are listening for the qualities of your singing voice, rather than to the song. These short selections give them ample time to evaluate your singing potential as well as your ability to act the song. Also, 16 bars is the basic guideline for professional auditions.
You can go to the website called Musicals101.com Choose the link that will take you to the Chronology page. There you can see what musicals opened in what year. Click on a decade either prior or post 1960 and you'll find lists of musicals that were written in that era.
Once you find show titles you are familiar with, you can then start looking for songs. Amazon.com is also a good place to help you search because they have short sound files of many Broadway recordings. Type the name of the show in the Amazon search box, click on the link to the original cast recording, then click on the sound bite of the song you'd like to hear. They don't play the the entire song, just about a 20 second section, but you should find it helpful in getting the basic idea of what a song sounds like.
Your library or local music store should have books that have the sheet music for the songs.
Besides picking one in your age range without a dialect, pick one where your character is fighting to get something from a specific person, i.e. no dreams, no talking to the audience, no soliloquy or self-reflective types of monologues. Do not choose monologues that are cited as "original" or written by "anonymous." As with the song, a monologue of 30 seconds is plenty for the auditioners to evaluate your acting potential.
Read plays. Avoid the monologues published in the many audition monologue books because those monologues are overdone. You might use those books as references to find interesting characters perhaps, but always find and read the full play and then choose a monologue that is not in the published monologue book. Especially, choose monologues that are solo interp pieces that are not part of a complete play.
The auditioners need to hear and to evaluate your real speaking voice without added regionalizations.
The Department of Theatre and Dance recommends awards based on talent and potential. Awards are computed as a part of the student's overall aid package. The recommendation is transmitted to the Financial Aid office within a week of the audition.
There are no Talent Awards given for Theatre minor or Dance minor programs.
Talent awards are only valid for the academic year of the audition or interview, i.e. auditions held in 2007-2008 are valid only for the 2008-2009 academic year.
Yes, there are many work-study positions available in the department and across the university for students.
It's possible, but only encouraged for students with exceptional academic skills, time management abilities, and discipline. Other issues are time and expense. Adding a minor such as business may require an additional semester and/or overload fees.
We do very little touring due to the constraints of the classroom and on-campus production schedules.
Yes, any touring dance company that comes to Millikin as a road show does master classes for our students. This happens on a regular basis. Other artists are brought in as well. For example, Alice Ripley and Michael Moschen have both led student workshops and master classes at Millikin.
map of Decatur and Millikin's
campus (Shilling Hall is #1 on Campus Map)
Department of Theatre and Dance Office is at 211 Shilling Hall (2nd
floor, West Wing)
Millikin alumni are working in many different venues: professionally on Broadway, on international and national tours, in regional theatre companies, dinner theatres, cruise lines, tv and film. They also perform and teach with children's theatre companies.
Current students work during the summer in many different venues gaining important experiences as well as important networking contacts for their future careers.