Senior Olivia Dudenhoffer Shares Experience Auditioning for Performing Arts Programs.

By the end of high school, many students may feel an enormous amount of pressure to decide what they want to do with the rest of their lives. Incoming college freshmen may have an idea of their interests, may select a major and change it multiple times, or may be dead set on how they want to spend the rest of their lives. One senior, Olivia Dudenhoffer, has shown a profound interest in the performing arts and has auditioned for various schools in hopes of pursuing a career in that area.

“This February, my mom and I went to Chicago for about two weeks to audition for [various schools]. The first school [that I auditioned for] was The Juilliard School of Drama, followed by Roosevelt Conservatory, Ball State University, and Missouri State University. I chose these schools[ because they had] strong musical theatre programs,” said Dudenhoffer.

Though she has an idea of what field she wanted to pursue as a career, like many high school seniors, Dudenhoffer has a few doubts about what she wants to do for the rest of her life, and ultimately feels a new sense of awareness upon auditioning for these several schools.

“Originally, I was going to audition for Musical Theatre at each school and had signed up for them, but about two weeks before we left for Chicago, I had a moment of realization and decided that I only wanted to [pursue] acting. I think it’s always been what I wanted to do, but I didn’t realize that until then,” said Dudenhoffer.

Dudenhoffer, who has had a profound amount of experience in theatre in her high school career, felt confident in her abilities to perform, even when auditioning for a school as selective as The Juilliard School of Drama.

“I had to perform two monologues for each school aside from Juilliard. Juilliard wanted me to have four monologues prepared, but I only performed two. I felt very scared, but I was confident. Being prepared was the best thing. If [my pieces weren’t] memorized and ready, my nerves would have taken over and I would have bombed it,” said Dudenhoffer.

Though she was sure of her interests and had decided what she wanted to pursue as her career, it wasn’t until recently that Dudenhoffer was sure of where she wanted to go to school.

“When I heard that Missouri State had accepted me into their acting program, I knew that was where I wanted to be and where I think I can prosper the most. What’s funny, though, is that I wasn’t even going to audition for Missouri State’s program. It was a last minute [decision] to audition because I was pretty set on going to Columbia in Chicago. The day before the audition, I made my decision. My dad and I woke up at 3 a.m. the next morning to drive to a hotel in Kansas City, and mind you, I was sick. It was, to me, the worst audition out of all of the colleges I had auditioned for. But hey, dedication pays off,” also said Dudenhoffer.

Dudenhoffer plans to major in Bachelor of Fine Arts in acting.

by Kyle Wolfe, side dish czar