Every year here at URTA, we get to meet the thousands of candidates that journey to New York, Chicago, and San Francisco for our National Unified Auditions and Interviews, hoping to find a graduate training program that will put them on the path to their desired career.  The energy, dedication, and perseverance of these students never fails to inspire us.

In that regard, there is one special story, sent to us from a candidate at last year’s auditions, that we’d like to share with you.  

Not only does it provide some truly great advice and insight into what can be gained through the URTA auditions, but we hope this student’s intrepidity may serve as inspiration to some of this year’s candidates as they begin their journey through the process of auditions, interviews, and the start of something new.

“I would also like to share with you what I feel is a success story. Technically, I didn’t do well at URTAs. I was passed on to the final audition, but didn’t get any interviews. On my call sheet I had just two “Contact Laters”.  And that was it.

Of course, I felt horrible. I felt like I’d been stood up on a date. I went back to my hotel room, contemplated getting a pint of Ben and Jerry’s ice cream and eating the whole thing in front of the TV. But after just a few minutes I got up, put away my pride, gathered my headshots and my courage and went back to the Hilton. I contacted only those programs that I had researched and was keenly interested in. I gave them my headshot and wrote them a little note telling them very briefly, who I was, why I was interested in their program and my contact info and availability for interviews.

Of the four that I handed these out to – three of them contacted me and asked me in for an interview. One of them, I could tell immediately when I started talking to them that I was no longer interested in them. The other two thanked me graciously for contacting them, told me that they had enjoyed my work and that I had been on their list.

I got another interview simply because I smiled at the recruiter in the elevator and told him I was planning on visiting him in London. This gentleman was gracious enough to tell me in a very democratic way that he felt that I had given a bad audition, but that I wasn’t a bad actor. In the end, I gave out every single one of the thirteen headshots and resumes I had brought and was able to interview/audition privately with twelve separate programs (two of them I had scheduled separately from URTA and two of them were not with URTA, but had advertised open calls at URTA–so a total of ten that were directly linked to URTA in some way, if you’re interested in the math). Through the auditions, I got coaching on my monologues from some of the industry’s top professionals, which in itself is a gift.

I don’t know what will happen, but even if I don’t get into a program this year, I don’t for a second regret going to NYC and attending URTAs and the other private auditions I scheduled. I know that what I learned has helped me better know what kind of actor I want to be, what kind of people I would like to work with, what kind of work I want to do, what kind of training I need and what steps I need to take next in order to pursue those things. Thank you so much to everyone at URTA for this opportunity.

–Acting Candidate ‘13.”

Bravo to you!  And “Bon Courage!” to this year’s candidates. Remember: Life is what you make it!