UM School of Music, Theatre & Dance - Department of Theatre & Drama

AUDITIONS & INTERVIEWS

Theatre 08 How do I apply for the Bachelor in Theatre Arts?

Each applicant submits:

A UM application form, test scores, transcripts, and your academic teacher and counselor letters of recommendation;
A narrative based upon a given poem (see below);
Your application fee payment.

Writing Requirements
When applying for the Bachelor of Theatre Arts,

you’re asked to explain your educational and professional goals through the submission of two writing samples:

1. Write an essay explaining your personal and professional goals and how a multidisciplinary theatre degree like the BTA would aid you in achieving them.

2. Choose one of the three poems listed below. Submit a two-page, single-spaced narrative based on the poem serving as a creative catalyst and featuring yourself as the “main character”.

Museum
Wislawa Szymborska

Here are plates but no appetite.
And wedding rings, but the requited love
has been gone now for some three hundred years.

Here’s a fan---where is the maiden’s blush?
Here are swords---where is the ire?
Not will the lute sound at the twilight hour.

Since eternity was out of stock,
ten thousand aging things have been amassed instead.
The moss-grown guard in golden slumber
props his mustache on Exhibit Number...

Eight. Metals, clay and feathers celebrate
their silent triumphs over dates.
Only some Egyptian flapper’s silly hairpin giggles.

The crown has outlasted the head.
The hand has lost out to the glove.
The right shoe has defeated the foot.

As for me, I am still alive, you see.
The battle with my dress still rages on.
It struggles, foolish thing, so stubbornly!
Determined to keep living when I’m gone!

Exposed on the Cliffs of the Heart

Rainer Maria Rilke

Exposed on the cliffs of the heart. Look, how tiny down

there,

look: the last village of words and, higher,

(but how tiny) still one last

farmhouse of feeling. Can you see it?

Exposed on the cliffs of the heart. Stoneground

under your hands. Even here, though,

something can bloom; on a silent cliff-edge

an unknowing plant blooms, singing, into the air.

But the one who knows? Ah, he began to know

and is quiet now, exposed on the cliffs of the heart.

While, with their full awareness,

many sure-footed mountain animals pass

or linger. And the great sheltered birds flies, slowly

Circling, around the peak’s pure denial.—But

without a shelter, here on the cliffs of the heart.

Expect Nothing
Alice Walker

Expect nothing. Live frugally
on surprise.
Become a stranger
To need of pity
Or, if compassion be freely
given out
Take only enough
Stop short of urge to plead
Then purge away the need.

Wish for nothing larger
Than your own small heart
Or greater than a star;
Tame wild disappointment
With caress
Unmoved and cold
Make of it a parka
For your soul.

Discover the reason why
So tiny human giant
Exists at all.
So scared unwise
But expect nothing. Live frugally
on surprise.

The application review is a three-step process:

The Admissions Office will screen your application for academic eligibility (including grade point average and ACT or SAT scores).
If your application passes the initial academic screening, the BTA advisor will read your writing samples and make a recommendation for admission or denial of the application.
The School of Music, Theatre & Dance Admissions Office will make the final determination regarding admission. A letter will be sent to you as soon as that decision has been made.

Is an audition required for the BTA program?
No. The BTA is not a performance or technical training program. It’s designed for students who want to pursue careers such as theatre management or teaching.

School of Music, Theatre & Dance Undergraduate Admissions

UM Undergraduate Admissions

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