Creating Your Prescreen Audition

College prescreen auditions (usually just called “prescreens”) are like an audition before the audition. They are recorded auditions you are often required to submit in order for a college to decide if they want to assign you an in-person audition slot.

Because of the overwhelming amount of submissions college musical theatre programs receive every year, prescreens are used to reduce each school’s pool of applicants. Not all colleges use prescreens, but most of the larger and most popular programs do.

Prescreens auditions are now requested as early as August between your Junior and Senior years of high school. It is a good idea to submit your prescreen early as many schools view them on a rolling basis.

Because not all schools have the same audition requirements, you need to read each school’s video submission guidelines carefully. In 2019, Paper Mill Playhouse and Acceptd announced a partnership to create a common prescreen criteria for colleges called “The College Musical Theater Common Prescreen Criteria”. This means that now you are able to use the same prescreen materials for multiple schools. To date, over 60 schools are participating.

Even when you are able to use the same audition material for multiple schools, you may need to shoot multiple prescreens. This is because each school will ask you to present your material in a slightly different way. For example, some schools may ask for videos to be shot a certain way (full body versus close up) or want you to introduce your material differently, or ask you to answer a question in your prescreen. Pay close attention to these requirements because schools are looking to see that you can follow directions.

Terminology

• Adjudicator: The person(s) evaluating your audition. In the context of college auditions, these people are typically faculty.
• Prescreen: A video audition submitted in consideration for a live audition for a musical theatre program.
• Self-tape: A video audition you shoot yourself on your smartphone or other device.
• Slate: An introduction of yourself and your material at the beginning of your audition.

Related Expenses

Purchasing scripts and sheet music, purchasing accompaniment tracks for songs, smart phone or camera.