DELICIA HOLDER
Special to The Leader
Should high schoolers have to audition to get into their desired arts major?
Most high schoolers that audition for the arts programs in high school don’t get in and end up having to come in under a different major and re-audition in the spring.
So is it all worth it?
All the time and energy to set up the auditions and having these prospective students come from all over the country to audition, just for them to not get accepted because they lacked confidence or cracked under pressure?
Imagine having a dream to perform and working your whole life at it and being told how good you are. Imagine getting casted in high school plays and community theatres in the town you grew up in, all to be told that you aren’t good enough to get into that program at the college of your dreams.
It creates a new level of self doubt. Self doubt that will make one consider giving up on one’s dreams all together. These potential Fredonians are only in high school and up until now auditions have only been a formality, but suddenly the rest of their lives depend on it.
Olivia Soto, a sophomore BFA dance and musical theatre double major, is one of the many students that went through the audition process to get into college and wasn’t accepted.
Just like many other students, Soto had been a part of high school performances and a few other community groups, and although that motivated her to audition, it didn’t make the pressure and the fear of auditioning for Fredonia any easier.
“I got really discouraged, seeing as I had made it into other collegiate programs but not this one. I was saddened about not making it in. It made [me] work harder to make it in when I got to Fred[onia]. I worked on my skill sets all through my first year and went through a full year of singing lessons to enhance that,” said Soto. “Waiting for the audition my second time around was less stressful because I knew how the department ran and the people who were helping out before going in. I felt very welcomed by everyone at the audition and I believe it attributed to my success.”
Other Fredonia arts students affected by the uncertainty of having to audition include Jake Allen from Adirondack High School who is auditioning for the Musical Theatre department and Hunter Dearing from Chautauqua Lake High School who is auditioning for the music education program. Both of whom have made alternative plans for if they aren’t accepted into their preferred program.
They know what major they will come as until they can audition again.
Why not have these students come in as the major of their choice knowing that their first semester is their trial run, and make them all audition at the end of their first semester to stay in the program?
This way they have learned some skills and have a good idea whether or not they think they can keep up with the program. They also have a higher confidence because they have had time to adjust to the way things are done here at Fredonia and they know what is expected of them.
Walking through the audition wait room I could see all the nerves and on the kids faces as they waited for their turn. Some were rehearsing and stretching, some were talking to their parents and some were sitting there trying to calm down. The anxiety in the room was high.
This was some of their first real auditions outside of high school productions and those were low-stakes auditions. They are still kids and except for the few that have worked in professional companies this is whole new ballgame for them. They are so terrified of failing that they end up messing it up anyway.
Once they mess this up, then they have to come in under a different major and then audition again next spring. If we allowed them to come in as the major they choose, just like all the other majors in the school, and then audition after their first semester to stay in the major, it would be less stressful.
Their confidence would be a lot higher and they would have already began to interacted with the people in the major currently and see what it takes to be a part of it.
Wouldn’t that be a better option, to have students that are confident in themselves and in their work rather than scared high schoolers who aren’t sure that they are good enough? This is students’ first step to the adult world of the arts where they need to audition for everything, but they are still children.