“Over the three years you will grow immensely as a performer, completely rethink the way you look at the industry, and explore topics and shows you’d never even thought about.”Joe Best, Class of 2018 Vocal Performer, Thomas Cook. Seussical Thesatre Royal Winchester, 2022
Congratulations on being selected for an audition for the Musical Theatre Programme in the Department of Performing Arts at the University of Winchester.
Due to the high level of demand for our courses, we take great care in the selection of students who we believe can meet the standards required, and who will make a positive contribution to their year group and the wider University.
Your Audition/Interview is an opportunity for you to introduce yourself, demonstrate your potential, and discuss your passion for the subject. It is also your chance to see if the Department and the University provide the environment you are looking for to support your aspirations.
The exact timings of the interviews will depend on the number of applicants attending. They will be confirmed during the student led Q&A and before the dance audition commences.
Please note that the workshops and interviews are for candidates only. Accompanying guests
are welcome to talk to staff, use the cafes on the university campus and take the campus tour with current students. (Due to the ongoing impact of Covid-19 Audtions/Interviews may take place live online via a link provided to Microsoft Teams). It is important that you get a sense of how we work so that you are able to make an informed choice about your future programme of study, rather than simply audition with little interaction with the Musical Theatre team.
The University will hold Applicant Open Days in February and March which offer the opportunity to meet staff and students, and include guided tours of the outstanding facilities and award-winning accommodation. Alternatively, Campus Tours are held throughout the year, guided by a current student who is able to answer any questions you may have about student life at the University of Winchester. These are available on many days during the year and are booked in advance on the University of Winchester website.
We hope you have a great day with us!
The Department of Performing Arts does not charge applicants a fee for interview/audition as we wish the experience to be as stress-free and rewarding as possible.
We regret we are unable to offer parking on campus. You are advised to park in the Park & Ride or city centre car parks. www.winchester.gov.uk/parking/park-and-ride
The following pages contain some information on what to prepare for your audition, what to expect on the day, as well as as answers to a few frequently asked questions.
Represented by TakeOne Agency
Working Theatre Royal Winchester, 2019
‘Studying at the University of Winchester teaches you a wide range of aspects of musical theatre, from theoretical perspectives to becoming more confident with your craft as a performer’.
Emilia Gee, Class of 2019-20
This group audition and interview is a chance for you to demonstrate your vocal, movement, acting and performance skills, as well as for us to find out more about your interests and aspirations in the field of Musical Theatre.
A short sequence of choreography will be taught in the room. We are really looking for your ability to interpret the material as an actor. We are interested in technique, but we are mostly interested in your ability to tell story and convey character through movement.
Please wear dance wear or non-restricting sportswear.
Please prepare a contemporary monologue, post 1960, of no more than one minute in length, of your choosing. This could either be comedic or serious in tone depending on what you’d like to demonstrate to us about you as an actor/ performer. You will perform this monologue in front of your group. We will not offer direction or adjustments following this performance as we’re interesting in seeing what you bring to the table and the choices you make.
Please prepare one-minute cuts of two contrasting songs drawn from the musical theatre repertoire (not opera). Candidates will be asked to sing one of these two cuts in front of their group. However, please be prepared to sing both songs depending on what the panel might be looking to hear in your voice. Similarly, you may receive direction or adjustments to give you a sense of how we might work with you as a student but also for us to gauge how you might process feedback. Please see the FAQs below regarding how to cut your songs and what we might mean by contrasting.
This will take the form of a seminar-style discussion with a lecturer. You will have the opportunity to tell us more about yourself, your career goals, before a group discussion of a Musical Theatre related topic. This should feel informal and similar to a conversation had in a classroom setting.
The audition and interview process for Musical Theatre is designed to give you the opportunity to demonstrate your suitability for the programme. We will be looking for candidates who can demonstrate the following:
• Passion for Musical Theatre as a form and the art of storytelling
• Demonstration of performance ability
• Enthusiasm for Musical Theatre across styles
• An ability to reflect on your own performance practices
• A willingness to experiment creatively
• An ability to work as a part of an ensemble
Working Theatre Royal Winchester, 2019
This means that we would like you to choose two songs that are different to each other in some way to enable you to potentially demonstrate the full range of your vocal abilities and potential, as well as to give us an indication of who you think you are as a performer. ‘Contrasting’ could refer to two songs from different periods (e.g. Jason Robert Brown and Cole Porter) or it could refer to style of song (e.g. up-tempo, ballad, patter-song).
Your two pieces could therefore be contrasting in tempo, style, require different qualities (e.g. legit, belt) etc. Choose songs that you feel best show off your performance ability and that you are really confident singing. We suggest that you choose a character driven song, to show off your acting through song abilities and a lyrical ballad to demonstrate your vocal line. Be prepared to address questions surrounding character interpretation, dramatic context etc.
Essentially, we want to hear your voice so you should sing us the climax of the song - this is generally near the end of the song. Therefore, one of the easiest and most effective ways is to work backwards from the end of the song for you to find your approximate one minute. We use the phrase ‘one-minute cut’ loosely here to give you the most opportunity to demonstrate your abilities. For example, if the song ends on a sustained note and instrumental playout, your minute-cut can be one minute of material leading to the sustained note. Of course we will allow you to sing the sustained note through to its end. Sometimes the climax can be in what is called ‘the bridge’, ‘the release’ or ‘the middle-eight’. Identify the part of the song that shows off your voice to really sing; this is not usually the first 16 bars of a song which are often quite conversational in pitch and tone.
Also, contemporary songs can be harder to cut neatly, than a song from the 1930s or 1940s (e.g. Rodgers and Hammerstein, Cole Porter). So, it is acceptable if you start from a convenient phrase to pick the song up – we are not counting the bars, but we are conscious of time and of everyone having a similar experience.
Please note it is also advisable that you prepare the whole song in case we decide we want to hear more from one of them. The better you know the whole song, the more easily you will slip straight into the one-minute cut.
No. This is a programme of study dedicated to the study of Musical Theatre genres. While some might argue that Opera is part of this, we do not study Opera on this programme.
Of course, you may sing songs from musicals written in or that reference an operatic style, such as The Phantom of the Opera or Sweeney Todd
We provide a professional musical theatre pianist/ repetiteur to accompany all candidates in order to reflect the working practices of the wider profession. This is the reason we ask you to bring sheet music with you on the day.
Thank you for applying. If you have any questions about the interview day or about the university, please contact: performingartsadmin@winchester.ac.uk
design for our 2020 production of Stop the World – I Want to Get Off
Poster
