Dear College Auditionees: Stop Wasting Your Energy On What You Can't Control

Auditioning for musical theatre college audition programs this year?

Writing this for all you talented people who are feeling less than during the this process.

First of all: you👏🏻 are👏🏻 enough👏🏻.

Period.

Your voice *chefs kiss*. Your acting?? Move aside Meryl. Your dancing?? Hello Dance 10 Looks 10.

You’re literally flipping perfectly perfect.

If colleges can’t see that then they don’t deserve you and it’s as simple as that.

There’s no clear path to success in this field (and in life in general). You don’t need to go to a “top 10” school to get into an audition room. Heck, there are people that don’t go to college and are absolute legends.

You are so strong for going through this because I’m letting you know right now: most of it is out of your control. Which is scary. But for that same exact reason you can’t be hard on yourself for not passing a prescreen or for not getting a triple pirouette before submitting your dance prescreen.

If Wicked is holding an open call for Glinda and the perfect Elphaba walks in they’re not gonna cast that person because they just weren’t looking for an Elphaba. Does that mean that person wasn’t talented? Heck no.

Don’t be so hard on yourself.

Please please please, I know it’s so easy to say and much harder to do but you are going to make it out of this I promise. I will admit that when I went through this process last year my mindset was a bit effed up to say the least. I had this notion in my train of thought (which I’m sad to admit) that if I didn’t go to some big name school then other people would judge me and not think I’m talented.

Girl WHAT.

It was so toxic that I genuinely didn’t care what school I went to but cared about what everyone else thought. The people that matter should not give a shit about how many Broadway stars went to your school, all that matters is that you will be happy.

And also....a little secret...if you don’t like a school after a year....you can leave. You can transfer. You can change your major. Nothing is set in stone and I know it feels like it is and that this process is leading to such an ultimate decision but every decision ever made is temporary or at least can be if you so choose. If you want to sing defying gravity the day of an audition and you didn’t plan on it in the first place...DO IT.

This fine arts defines itself as having no rules so why do we feel the need to follow these boundaries when it comes to performance. The whole overdone song/monologue thing is such BS because no two people will ever ever ever perform a piece the exact same way even if they tried to.

You are special and you are you.

So don’t stress about your material being from some underground musical or play that only 10 people have ever heard of. Perform what sparks joy and makes you excited to sing/act/dance to it.

And lastly just know that you’re never alone. Ever. Someone will always be there for you and if you feel like you have no one I am here for you and I’m sure there are so many other people in this group who would also love to lend a helping hand or just be a shoulder to lean on. I’ve seen a lot of people being so hard on themselves about prescreens and rejections and just know that it’s not the end all be all.

There’s so much more to come for you ♥️

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Courtney Ruebens is currently on a gap year after deciding to audition again because of COVID-19! She is very passionate about guiding others through this crazy process and is all about inspiring others through the fine arts (whether that be on the stage or off). When she isn’t performing she is teaching herself how to play a new instrument, doing crazy makeup, or binge watching a new Netflix series! 

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