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URTA
March 2009 
Phoenix I am..
Posted on Mar 27th, 2009
by 
Loric
Loric
"And god help you if you are a Phoenix and you dare to rise up from the ash. A thousand eyes will smolder with jealousy while you are just flying back."
I haven't posted to this blog in a while - well since before URTA. I'd like to post just because if anyone google-searches for URTA and the audition interview process then maybe they'll find my blog and just maybe they'll find out what happened to me and why it's a bit of a crock that undergraduate design programs over-hype.
I spent tons of money on making a perfect display and making myself ever-so-marketable. I'm not a bad theatrical scenic designer and for someone right out of undergrad I'm pretty darn spiffy.
A few months ago I didn't believe a word of that thanks to "mentors" and the guidelines of URTA suggesting i needed to have done a million shows as the primary designer to even be taken seriously for a graduate program. I went to URTA as I had been prepped and it was just a complete train wreck.
Many graduate schools didn't even send their scenic designer. Instead, they left a note or something from their costume designer saying that they wanted me to contact them. That sounds great, but isn't the purpose of the URTA process to do the speed-date interviews? To get quick answers and a feel for the programs? Obviously not according to many participating schools. Instead they want you to fly out to them and visit, sight unseen, and go through the whole portfolio demonstration process. So much for all the time spent on a display for URTA.
Many schools didn't even really begin recruiting seriously until the past few weeks from what I've learned. That means that they are entirely outside of the URTA time-period for making offers and recruiting. The idea was that URTA allowed offers to be made for a series of weeks and you had until that time period to choose a program that had the best offer. Nope, not how it happened for anyone that I've talked to.
Before URTA introduced the offer-period, schools would make offers and then try to get you to accept within days. Thus, not allowing you to visit other schools or comparison shop. With the new offer-period guideline, schools apparently said "to heck with that" and didn't offer much of anything until well after that period was gone and forgotten. In fact, many schools didn't even contact their top tier candidates until after that period was over. Seriously shady.
And the schools.. wow. Mud-slinging central. I met a good number of completely unprofessional people who had no qualms about saying every other program was a crock and that their show or design quality was subpar - in comparison to their own school of course. Even had a few "don't you know who i am?" divas.
In case anyone cares - I got into a pretty good graduate program and I actually turned down a few offers. So, this isn't the rant of an unhappy no-talent hack. I went after URTA and started contacting schools who were still accepting applications and which had what looked to be good programs. I seriously had no interest in any of the schools I met that day at URTA. Most I had never even heard of. I was beating myself up over having missed many December 1st deadlines for application to some of the really great programs.
I travel, i interviewed, and I kicked some butt. Apparently I don't suck, despite one school emailing me to say i was a "long shot" should I attempt to apply.
Why the Phoenix quote? Because i rose up from what looked like a complete failure on my part and comitted to making the best of it. I thought it was me. I thought I was untalented and everything I wanted to do in theater was absurd and that everyone else was on the right track. I thought I had been naive and ignornt of the world. I wasn't. I actually know more about what i want and how to get there then many stuffed suits and egos at various institutions I encountered.
So, yes, for those who found this via google - I say to you: to heck with URTA. Apply for schools at their fall deadlines and be flying around and checking them out. Goto URTA as a way of weeding out a whole bunch of bad places. Even my good URTA interviews turned out to be places that were po-dunk and full of yuckey people (who curses like a sailor on the phone during an professional interview? seriously?)
I'm working on writing a short play based on my experiences. It's going to be biting and quite funny. I hope to perhaps post bits of it. In the meantime, I need to pack for my summer abroad in France and Italy.
I'm living the life :) I'm going to grad school for scenic design on the west coast at a nice theater/film school and I'm spending my summer in Europe. Those that tried to break me down can look on with jealousy all they want.
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