Hey Friends! Sorry I haven’t written in so long, but I’ve been mad busy with the end of the semester wrap ups. One of the major things eating my time is (uh ohhhh!) JURIES!

 

It occurs to me that many of you interested in the BFA performance program may not know what exactly goes on in the jury process. So I think this would be a good chance to explain all that jazz from a student’s point of view. Let’s start with a few basic points:

 

  1. Juries occur at the end of EVERY semester except your final semester, at which time you will devote every second of your life pulling together a recital. (It’s a big undertaking… trust me, I’m working on that now.)
  2. BFA Acting only performs an acting jury. Musical Theatre performs an acting jury AND a voice jury. These take place at different times with different people. (I will elaborate later).
  3. Your fourth semester = the BARRIER jury! If you are not making suitable progress or are constantly conducting inappropriate behavior, this is generally the time the department will ask you to leave the BFA program. However, you can be asked to leave anytime before your barrier jury. Don’t worry though!!! The department will always give you fair warning if you are in danger. You will almost definitely be put on a probation period in which you can get your act together and make everything okay. After your barrier, you’re in! Then the jury process is solely for feedback purposes.

 

ACTING JURIES

 

   2 monologues of contrasting nature, approximately a minute long should be prepared for the acting jury. If you need help finding said material, professors and upper classmen are very generous in sharing knowledge. Narrative monologues (like telling a story you did the other day) should be avoided Pick something that lets you live in the moment and keep the stakes high!

   You will be taken one at a time (or on rare occasion, a small group) into an acting studio or theatre. All of the acting faculty will be present. At which time you will announce your name and piece and then begin. It’s very short and painless. Later that week you will attend a feedback session. Here each faculty member will give you constructive feedback. Bring a notebook and take lots of notes to help you in the future! Also, feel free to ask any questions you may have about their comments, your classes, the meaning of life… anything! That’s YOUR time to milk your education! Don’t be cocky but don’t be intimidated.

 

VOICE JURIES

 

   The requirements for voice juries get more difficult as you progress through school.

Your voice teacher will let you know of these requirements at the beginning of the semester as you pick your repertoire. You’ll spend the entire semester perfecting these songs for your juries. For the jury itself you will get to pick one song in which you’d like to perform for the entire voice and acting faculty. (This is quite a few more people). After said song (haha! Not literally!), they will pick one or two more pieces in which they’d like to hear. They may ask you for a translation of your foreign language pieces.

   After your jury, you will meet with your voice teacher sometime later in the week to review the sheets each faculty member has filled out with information about your performance. In my opinion, acting juries are more intimidating during feedback sessions but much less scary during the performance than voice juries.

 

 

That’s all! Any questions can be posted at the bottom of my blog and I’ll be happy to answer them from an honest, student’s perspective.

 

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