A Quick Glossary of College Theatre Audition Terms

GENERAL

MT:
Musical Theatre

BA:
Bachelors of Arts. A theatre degree typically offered through a university’s liberal arts college. BA programs often allow more flexibility to double major or explore other academic interests.

BFA:
Bachelors of Fine Arts. A highly focused professional theatre training degree with intensive coursework in performance or design.

BM:
Bachelors of Music. A music-focused degree, sometimes offered for musical theatre or vocal performance programs, usually housed within a music school.

BS:
Bachelors of Science. A degree that may focus more on technical, production, or management aspects of theatre depending on the program.

VP:
Vocal Performance. A music program focused on classical or contemporary vocal training, sometimes pursued by students interested in opera or advanced vocal study.

Conservatory Training:
An intensive training model where most coursework focuses on performance or theatre skills.

Liberal Arts Training:
A program structure that combines theatre study with broader academic coursework in other subjects.

Studio System:
A training model where students are placed into smaller acting studios that focus on specific acting techniques. For example, NYU.

FAFSA:
The official federal form students complete to determine eligibility for grants, loans, and work-study. Many colleges also use FAFSA information when awarding their own financial aid.

CSS:
A financial aid application used by many private colleges to determine eligibility for institutional grants and scholarships. It collects more detailed financial information than the FAFSA.

COLLEGE PROCESS

Artistic Acceptance:
Acceptance into the theatre or performing arts program itself, separate from general university admission. A student must receive both academic acceptance and artistic acceptance in order to attend the school. Most theatre programs will not see the applicant's academic application.

Artistic Denial:
When a student is academically accepted to a university but not admitted to the specific theatre or musical theatre program

Academic Acceptance:
Acceptance into the university based on academic qualifications. Often has nothing to do with the artistic acceptance, depending on the school. A student must receive both academic acceptance and artistic acceptance in order to attend the school. Most theatre programs will not see the applicant's academic application.

Redirect:
When a student initially prescreens or auditions for one program and gets sent over to another program. Commonly happens with musical theatre applicants being redirected to acting programs.

Prescreen:
A recorded audition students submit before being invited to a live audition. Schools review prescreens to decide which applicants advance to the final audition round.

Prescreen Pass:
When a student’s prescreen is approved by the school and they are invited to participate in a live audition (aka callback).

Rolling Admissions:
When schools review applications and make decisions continuously instead of waiting for a single decision date.

Common App (Common Application):
A widely used college application platform that allows students to apply to many colleges using one application. A student is limited to 20 schools on Common App. It's generally suggested that students leave a couple of slots open in case they need to apply to schools they walked-in for. Use the school's direct application or Coalition app for those that don't fit on Common App,.

Acceptd:
A digital platform many performing arts programs use to collect prescreens, auditions, portfolios, and application materials.

SlideRoom:
A digital platform many performing arts programs use to collect prescreens, auditions, portfolios, and application materials.

Waitlist:
A status where the program has not offered admission yet but may admit the student later if spots open. Some schools are not allowed to keep a waitlist and will admit students as a BA. That BA then acts as a waitlist for the school.

DESIGN & TECHNICAL THEATRE

Portfolio:
A collection of a student’s design or production work (such as set, lighting, costume, or sound design) submitted for technical theatre admissions.

Rendering:
A detailed visual drawing or digital image showing what a design (such as costumes or scenery) will look like in production.

Prompt Book:
The stage manager’s master script containing blocking, cues, and technical notes.

Production Season:
The collection of shows a theatre department produces during an academic year.

AUDITION MATERIALS

Monologue
An excerpt of text usually from a published play. School requirements vary in length between 60 seconds and 2 minutes.

Contemporary Monologue
A monologue from a play written roughly after 1950. Certain schools like Pace and Syracuse prefer monologues from 2000-present.

Classical Monologue
A monologue from older plays, often Shakespeare or other classical playwrights. Most schools require the classical monologue to be from before 1950, others prefer before 1900.

Repertoire (Rep):
The songs and monologues a performer has prepared and ready to perform.

Up-Tempo Song:
A faster-paced musical theatre song that typically shows energy, personality, and possibly comic timing.

Ballad:
A slower musical theatre song that focuses on storytelling and emotional connection. Longer legato notes.

Headshot:
A professional photograph of the actor’s face used for auditions, casting submissions, and applications. Headshots are typically tightly framed (face and shoulders), well-lit, and reflect the actor’s natural look and personality. A professional headshot is NOT required for college auditions and will not have any effect on acceptance.

Resume:
A one-page summary of an actor’s experience and training, usually attached to the back of the headshot. It lists performance credits, education, special skills, and sometimes physical characteristics such as height and vocal range. There is a specific professional format that can be found here. Stay away from Canva resume templates.

Song:
Typically a 32 bar cut, although some schools request a full short song. Some acting programs will ask for 16-32 bars acapella.

Slate:
A short introduction at the beginning of an audition where the student states their name and the pieces they will be working on.

16-Bar Cut:
A shortened section of a song (usually about 20–30 seconds) used in auditions to quickly demonstrate vocal ability.

32-Bar Cut:
A longer excerpt of a musical theatre song (usually about 45–60 seconds) commonly requested for auditions.

Audition Book (Rep Book):
A binder of sheet music containing songs a performer is prepared to sing at auditions.

Dance Call:
A portion of the audition where students learn and perform choreography for the faculty.

Callback:
A second round of auditions where a smaller group of students is invited to perform additional material or work with faculty.

Cold Read:
When an actor is asked to perform a scene or monologue they have not prepared ahead of time. This happens at a few callbacks including Pace BFA Acting, Pace Acting for Film & Media and DePaul BFA Acting.

Sides:
Short excerpts from a script used during acting auditions or callbacks.

AUDITIONS

Live Virtual:
A real-time audition conducted over video (usually Zoom). Students perform their audition material live for the faculty instead of traveling to campus.

Medium Shot:
A framing that shows the performer roughly from the waist up. This is a common framing for song or monologue prescreen recordings. However, some schools call a medium shot a 3/4 shot and a 3/4 shot a medium shot. Unless the school specifically says they want knees to top of head, you can send them waist-up.

3/4 Shot:
A framing that shows the performer from about the knees or mid-thigh up. This allows auditors to see more of the body while still keeping facial expression visible. However, some schools call a medium shot a 3/4 shot and a 3/4 shot a medium shot. Unless the school specifically says they want knees to top of head, you can send them waist-up.

Full Body Shot:
A framing where the entire body is visible from head to toe. Often required for dance prescreens or physical theatre pieces.

Close-Up Shot:
A tight framing of the face and shoulders. Some schools request close-ups to clearly see facial expression and emotional detail.

Unifieds:
Typically refers to National Unified Auditions. A large audition event where dozens of college theatre programs hold auditions in one city over a few days. National Unified Auditions take place in Chicago, New York, and Los Angeles. Some schools are officially part of Unifieds, which organizes where those auditions take place. Other schools tag along and schedule their auditions for those same days in the same city. You cannot "register for Unifieds". All scheduling is done through each individual school.

PUA:
Pittsburgh Unifieds. A large audition event held in Pittsburgh where multiple college theatre programs audition students in one location, all at the same time.

Drewnifieds:
An early college theatre audition event run by College Audition Pros. Students audition for many participating acting and musical theatre programs in one weekend, earlier in the audition cycle than National Unifieds.

Moonifieds:
A private in-person college audition event in Dallas run by College Audition Coach for its own students. It is not a consortium-style public unified event; students do individual official auditions with participating colleges.

CAP United:
A unified-style audition event organized by the College Audition Project where participating theatre programs audition prospective students together in one location. These events are typically smaller and more curated than National Unified Auditions and involve schools connected through the College Audition Project network.

MARCAS:
The Midwest and Regional College Audition Symposium (MARCAS) is a college theatre audition event where multiple performing arts programs audition prospective students in one location. It provides students an opportunity to be seen by several colleges during the same event, similar to other unified-style auditions. At $35, it is the most affordable of all private unified auditions.

Mock Audition:
A practice audition designed to simulate a real college audition. Students perform their prepared material for coaches, teachers, or a panel and receive feedback to help them refine their pieces, presentation, and audition technique before actual auditions. Mock auditions with companies such as MTCA (Musical Theatre College Auditions) cost upwards of $800 and require students to have a certain number of paid sessions with the company under their belt in order to attend.

Walk-In:
An audition opportunity offered on-site when a program has extra audition slots available. Students can sometimes sign up for a walk-in audition during events like Unifieds.

Yield:
The percentage of admitted students who actually choose to enroll in a program. Schools monitor yield when deciding how many offers to make. Therefore the class size is not