Office of Admissions Blog

By: Julianne Just, Assistant Manager of the Drama Division

Hello! I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving. My name is Julianne Just and I am the Assistant Manager of the Drama Division. In regards to admissions, I help Kathy Hood and Jerry Shafnisky process the acting applications and schedule auditions, as well as coordinate all the current Drama Division students who take part in working the auditions here in New York. One of my main duties is to make sure everything runs smoothly during the audition days.

At the beginning of your audition day you will participate in a group orientation and warm-up session. This is a chance for you to ask questions and to prepare yourself physically and mentally. You will then be assigned a specific audition time. Auditions are held before a faculty panel at which time you will present both a classical and contemporary monologue. These monologues should be approximately 2 minutes in length – however you will not be timed. I know auditioning can be a really nerve-racking experience, but the division strives to make it as pleasant and friendly as possible. Remember that everyone is rooting for you. So give it your all!

Another one of my duties is to help coordinate and run our weekly Community Events. These events are designed to bring together the entire Drama Division student body and provide an opportunity for them to meet various artists and hear about their life and work. Just this week we had alumna Laura Linney come in to speak to the students and the week before that we hosted playwright Charles Mee. Other guests have included clown/actor Bill Irwin, director Michael Attenborough, playwright Horton Foote, actress Lisa Harrow, and poet Patricia Smith. Besides guest speakers, the weekly Community Events also serve as a place for the Lila Acheson Wallace American Playwright Fellows to hear their plays read aloud by the acting students.

I also manage work-study students for the Drama Division. There are a number of work-study opportunities available specifically for drama students – for example ushering for our 3rd and 4th year productions, room monitoring, assisting in the office, and working the New York City auditions. These jobs are flexible and designed to work with our students’ busy class schedules.

One of my favorite things about Juilliard is the people that you will meet here. Everyone – students, faculty and staff – is intelligent, interesting, kind and giving. I believe that it is the people you find here that fill the school with a unique and vibrant energy.

I know that the December 1st application deadline for the Actor Training Program is fast approaching, and I would like to encourage you to get those applications in! We schedule auditions on first-come, first-served basis, so if you have any questions or concerns please feel free to contact the Drama Division at 212-799-5000 ext. 251.

This entry was posted on Monday, November 26th, 2007 at 5:56 pm and is filed under Admissions, Applying @ Juilliard, Auditioning @ Juilliard, Drama @ Juilliard. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.