For actors facing every kind of audition, from drama school to Equity calls, in the room or on camera, and for directors, from a first show to a directing program application. Online or in person.
Each of these auditions asks for something different, and each is worth preparing for on its own terms. Below is what to expect, what to bring, and how a session with Kimberly can help. Whatever you’re facing, and however it reaches you, whether it’s a set of sides or a monologue, the work is the same at heart: specific, playable choices that come from who you are, and the freedom to take a redirect.
Choosing the material is half the challenge. Kimberly knows the repertoire, classic and new, inside out. Come with a shortlist or nothing at all, and leave with pieces that fit you now, show your range, and aren’t the overdone monologues a panel has heard all day.
Most MFA acting programs ask for two short, contrasting monologues, often one classical and one contemporary, and sometimes a song. Many add an interview, and callbacks often bring sides and a class with faculty. Requirements vary, so check each program.
“I’m a firm believer in actors bringing themselves to the role. Acting is about personal risk and cost. You have to share a part of who you are.”
Beyond the MFA, graduate acting training includes MA programs and drama schools abroad, including in the UK. Many of these begin with a recorded first round of prepared speeches, with recall auditions, scene work, workshops or interviews after that. Each school sets its own speeches, lengths and deadlines.
“It’s also about mastering your craft, and that also takes time.”
BFA acting and musical theater programs often start with a video prescreen in the fall, followed by in-person or Zoom auditions in the winter, sometimes at a combined audition event where many schools see students in one place. Expect contrasting contemporary monologues, a song cut for musical theater, sides at some schools, and sometimes a dance call or interview.
“You have to enter the stage full. You have to enter a process full. We have to draw from the world around us. That’s our number one source material.”
Equity Principal Auditions are held for productions under Actors’ Equity contracts. Equity members sign up for a slot, and non-members may be seen as time allows. Some calls now take video submissions instead of, or as well as, in-person slots. The notice tells you what to prepare: increasingly sides from the play itself, sometimes a short monologue, and a brief song cut for musicals, and you may have only a minute or two to make an impression.
“No two plays are the same and no two circumstances are the same. There are no tricks or formulas you can apply.”
A self-tape due tomorrow, a Zoom audition, a callback, a season general, a showcase or a meeting with an agent: professional auditions move fast and rarely come with much notice. Preparation means understanding the whole story the scene belongs to, then making choices that only you would make.
“I always go back to the word… It’s our job to have the text sing.”
First time directing a play? Directors need coaching too, whether it’s a first show, a production about to start or an application to college and MFA directing programs. Those programs don’t ask for monologues. They want to know how you think: a statement, a portfolio or production concept, and an interview, sometimes with a directing exercise. Kimberly teaches in Yale’s MFA Directing program and recently ran Brooklyn College’s, so she knows what a panel is looking for.
Ask before you book, or arrange a time that isn’t on the calendar.
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