What I Learned From Taking a Gap Year For Musical Theatre College Auditions

This year will be my second time auditioning for college programs.

It took a lot of time to accept that my first go at the season didn’t work out in my favor because it wasn’t me auditioning: it was what people told me I had to be to audition.

During my time on a gap year, in which I’ve spent training and honing my craft in the comfort of my home, I’ve learned a lot about what is most important to factor into one’s auditions for these schools.

Seeing that so many young artists are falling into the same trap I did just last year, the one thing that I have and will always encourage performers to do when auditioning for college musical theatre and/or acting programs is to be unapologetically and authentically yourself. So many people go into this process thinking that these schools are searching for a specific type of student with a certain personality or skill set, when the fact of the matter is, they don’t even know what they’re looking for.

I think primarily last year I became so fixated on selling myself as this conditioned and faultless actress; however, that in and of itself took more energy out of me than the actual audition process ever did. Directly because of that mindset, I felt like nothing was ever valid and that I was wasting mine and the faculty’s time with material that was not completely perfect.

This was never the case for any program.

As a matter of fact, almost all of them had told me in some way that material is sometimes the last thing on their mind, they want to see if they want to work with you, both as an artist and a person, for the next few years. They aren’t looking for kids who are fully trained and ready to book in the industry, because at that point what is their job as instructors?

You could be the missing piece to their puzzle, you could not be — whatever that outcome may be is okay. 

There will never be a concrete set of steps that lead someone to succeed in this industry; what you can take away from that is accepting to focus your energy you would be otherwise spending on worrying about your worth, and rather redirecting it to enjoying your time auditioning and finding ways to show off your individuality. These faculty members want to see people who don’t willingly fit inside the cookie cutter of applicants and aren’t afraid to be different from anything this industry is telling them to be. If you show that to them, you’ve done your job.

I’m auditioning this season well aware that I am opening myself to the vulnerability of mistakes and that they’ll see a need for further training, but that’s the authentic me that I’m bringing into that room and I know that alone will make it a productive experience.  

The truth will always be that you are enough for this career, sometimes you just have to find an alternative route to get there.

So long as you continue to be genuine and enjoy yourself in your auditions, you will stand out to these schools. I know firsthand how much it hurts to have a rejection from a school that meant a lot to you, but it’s important to have these setbacks to best prepare for the reality of the industry.

I know without a doubt that having to reauditon after almost every school turned me down has unequivocally made me the performer I’m proud to say I am now, and that I wouldn’t have wanted my audition season(s) to go any other way.

Wishing you all the best of luck, and remember, as cliche as it is, BE YOURSELF!

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Haiden Pederson is a musical theatre actress based out in Bismarck, North Dakota. She has been acting for the past five years both at her high school, local state college, and her community theatres. Her most notable acheivements, specifically done with the restrictions of the COVID-19 pandemic, has been competing in Broadway World’s second season of Next on Stage. To learn more about Haiden and her upcoming projects, visit www.haidenpederson.com

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