How to Prepare for a BFA or Drama School Audition

You have a list of eight schools, a spreadsheet of deadlines that don’t line up, and one monologue you did in a class two years ago. Every program wants something slightly different: two pieces here, a classical one there, a video by December at one school and an in-person audition in February at another.

Much of the advice that ranks today is written for drama schools in the UK and Australia, where the application process works differently. This guide is for US BFA acting programs: what the schools actually ask for, how to plan the season backward from the deadlines, and what happens in the room once a prescreen gets you a callback.

The short version: build a requirements table before you choose a single piece. Pick two monologues from published plays that fit every school on your list where you can, and learn them early enough to live in them, not just recite them. Film your prescreens well before the priority deadlines. Then prepare for what a callback adds: a redirect, an interview, and a panel that expects you to know the whole play.

Build a requirements table first

The rules vary from school to school in ways that can knock a piece out. A few real examples from current school pages:

• Fredonia’s BFA acting prescreen asks for two contrasting 60 to 90 second monologues, one written after 1900 and one before, from published plays only, with no pieces from musicals, TV, or movies. The 90 seconds includes your slate.
• DePaul’s Theatre School asks for two monologues of about a minute each, with at least one written after 2000, and suggests speeches where the character talks directly to one other person.
• Texas Tech asks for each monologue as a separate video file, with a slate at the start of each one naming you, the play, and the playwright.

Notice what that means. Fredonia’s modern piece only has to be written after 1900, but DePaul needs at least one piece written after 2000, so a 1950s play works as Fredonia’s modern piece but can’t be the post-2000 piece DePaul asks for. Make a table with one row per school and columns for piece count, time limit, period rules, source rules, slate rules, file format, and deadline. Then choose pieces that pass every row, or plan a third piece for the school that’s different.

Choose two pieces you can live in

Pick monologues that sound like you could say them today, at an age you could play, about something you understand. A panel is watching a young actor, not judging a finished performance, and a speech you’re straining to reach hides what they’re looking for.

Read the whole play for each piece, not just the speech. The University of North Carolina School of the Arts says applicants are expected to have read the entire play and to understand the circumstances the character speaks from. You can’t answer “What just happened before this speech?” from a monologue book.

For the pairing itself, our guide to choosing contrasting monologues goes deeper on making two pieces show two different people. If you need a classical piece, browse our monologue library of public-domain speeches.

Prep raises questions you can’t always take to a coach: what a character wants, what is under a line. If you rehearse with Offbook, Genie answers from the script you uploaded, so you can ask about a character’s motivation, the scene’s context, or how to read a line. Use it to check your understanding, then make the choices yourself.

A season plan, working backward

At least two programs cited here use December 1: Texas Tech as its priority scholarship deadline, and DePaul as the date your photo and prescreen video are due. Work backward from your earliest date:

• Late spring or summer before senior year, build your requirements table and choose pieces. Read every play in full.
• Early fall, learn both monologues cold, then work them with a teacher or coach if you can. The words should be automatic before you start making acting choices.
• In October, film test takes of each piece, watch them back, and adjust. Get your headshot and resume ready if a school asks for them.
• In November, film the final prescreens and upload them with time to spare.
• From January, prepare for callbacks and unified auditions: keep both pieces fresh, rehearse the interview, and practice taking a redirect.

Check each school’s page again before you upload, since dates and rules change from one cycle to the next. Our free audition tracker can log each audition and its status in one place, with no account needed.

Film a prescreen that follows the rules

A prescreen is the first cut. Make yours easy to say yes to. Follow the framing rules to the letter: Fredonia, for example, wants the contemporary piece in a close-up, top of the head to the chest, and the classical piece full body, head to feet.

Keep the slate short and plain, with exactly what the school asks for: your name, and the play and playwright where they want them. Time your slate as part of the piece if the school counts it, as Fredonia does, so a 90 second limit doesn’t catch you at 94.

Light your face from the front with a window or a lamp, use a plain wall behind you, and record sound close enough that a quiet line still lands. Place your imagined listener just beside the lens, not in it, unless the school says otherwise. Our guide to self-taping a monologue walks through the setup step by step.

Unified auditions and callbacks

Some programs also see students at the National Unified Auditions, where a group of schools hold auditions in the same city over a few days. For auditions in early 2026, Northern Illinois University listed Unified dates in New York in late January, Chicago in early February, and Los Angeles a few days after Chicago. Check this year’s dates, and check whether each school needs a passed prescreen before it will see you there.

A callback, in person or online, is where the panel gets to work with you. Come with both pieces fresh, a printed headshot and resume if asked, and enough energy left over to try something new.

Take the redirect

If the panel asks you to do the piece again differently, they’re not telling you that you did it wrong. UK schools describe what panels want the same way. Drama school Italia Conti says panels want students who are open to learning, adaptable and passionate, and a redirect is the simplest way to see that. A Guildford School of Acting panelist put it more bluntly to Spotlight: “We’re looking for people who can be trained.” The goal is a clear, committed change, not a better version of the same thing.

Practice this at home. Take a classical speech you know, like Juliet on the balcony:

JULIET. Thou knowest the mask of night is on my face,
Else would a maiden blush bepaint my cheek
For that which thou hast heard me speak tonight.
Fain would I dwell on form, fain, fain deny
What I have spoke; but farewell compliment.
Dost thou love me?

William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet, Act 2, Scene 2 (public domain). Read the full scene in our Romeo and Juliet library.

Play it once as embarrassment: she’s mortified he overheard her. Then play it as a decision: she’s done pretending, and “farewell compliment” is her throwing out the rules. Same words, different person. Give yourself three or four redirects like that for each piece, so that a new note in the room feels familiar instead of frightening.

The interview

Some programs talk with you as well as watching you act; UNCSA’s audition, for example, includes an interview with faculty. Expect “Why do you want to train here?” and, as Cours Florent notes, questions about why you chose each piece and what it means to you. Answer honestly and skip the clichés. Know something specific about each program: its training approach, a production you saw, a teacher you’d like to work with. Have a question of your own ready, because the panel may end by asking if you have questions.

The week of the audition

Don’t learn anything new. Run each piece from memory once or twice a day, out loud and at full voice, and run the first line of each one until you could say it on a cold stage with no warm-up. Test yourself rather than rereading: say the speech with the page covered, then check every word.

Pack the night before: headshots and resumes if asked, a printout of the schedule, water, and clothes you can move in that look like you. Then sleep. You’ll be more use to the panel rested and a little nervous than tired and word-perfect.

Questions actors ask

How many monologues do I need for BFA auditions?

Every school cited here asks for two, usually contrasting, about a minute to 90 seconds each. Check whether any school on your list asks for more, or wants one piece in heightened or classical language. Build a requirements table for your list and prepare whatever covers every school, plus a spare if one school’s rules don’t fit.

What do drama schools look for in an audition?

Potential more than polish. Panels want to see a real person making clear choices, someone who can take a note and change, and a student who seems ready to train. A simple, truthful piece done with commitment tells them more than an impressive one you can’t fully inhabit.

Can I use the same monologues for every school?

Often, if you choose with the strictest rules in mind. Check period definitions, source rules (Fredonia, for example, accepts published plays only), and time limits. A piece that fits Fredonia’s after-1900 rule may not meet a rule like DePaul’s, which asks for at least one piece written after 2000.

Should I get an audition coach?

A good teacher or coach can help, especially with classical text and with practicing redirects, but it isn’t required. What matters most is that you know the plays, own the words early, and have rehearsed being redirected. A drama teacher at school or a local theater artist can give you much of the same help.