The scholarship auditions will consist of a preliminary round held virtually prior to the festival, with finals taking place in-person at the festival. One person from the Scholarship Award auditions will be selected to attend the national festival at the Kennedy Center. 

KCACTF has a partnership with Open Jar Institute. Students will receive coaching from an Open Jar rep who will award cash scholarships to winners. 

Some students who audition for the MTI Scholarship and do not advance to the finals will be chosen to perform in the late-night cabaret. They will rehearse with an accompanist prior to that event and perform a full song. (Be sure to bring your sheet music with you to the festival in case you are selected to perform in the cabaret!)

Students will have several opportunities to participate in dance workshops at the festival. One performer will be selected from these workshops to receive the Musical Theatre Intensive Dance Award for the region.

Students will have several opportunities to participate in dance workshops at the festival. One performer will be selected from these workshops to receive the Musical Theatre Intensive Dance Award for the region.

To participate in the MTI Scholarship Auditions, students will need to submit the form below by December 18. When filling out the form, you will also be asked to upload videos of your preliminary audition piece as an mp4, mov, avi, wmv file no larger then 50MB.

 Here are some tips on how to create the strongest video for your MTI Scholarship audition:

• Introduce your piece by including your name, the title of your song, and the title of the musical your song is from. If your piece is not from a musical, you might wish to include the composer or artist who created or performed that piece. Do notinclude the name of your school.
• It is recommended, but not required, that you utilize piano accompaniment for your audition. This may mean singing along to a pre-recorded track or may mean singing with a live accompanist. We realize that these resources are not available to everyone, so a cappella submissions will also be accepted. (This will not be held against you in your audition.) Please note that if you are passed on to the final round, you will need sheet music for your piece.
• Please utilize a stationary camera when filming your piece, just as you would for a traditional audition submission. This means no fancy camera work, video effects, or editing. Selectors will be responding to your performance, not your camera work.
• Think about your framing within the camera. Do you want to capture just your head and shoulders? More of your upper body? Your full body? How you frame your video is up to you, but don’t forget that your piece should be filmed from a fixed position with no pans, tilts, movements, or zooming. In terms of camera angle, place the camera at your eye-level.
• Think about lighting and how well your face and your eyes can be seen. Natural light or a ring light are both reliable choices, and additional light from the side or back may also be helpful. Avoid dramatic lighting choices, lighting changes, and other effects, as these will not be considered by the selectors. This audition is to focus solely on your performance, not technical elements; lighting is only important in your videos insomuch as it allows the selectors to better see your performance choices.
• Think about audio quality. In your videos, can your voice be heard above the accompaniment? Is the sound quality clear and undistorted?
• Limit prop usage. Remember that this is a taped audition, not a produced film, so technical choices will be disregarded by the selectors.

Those selected as finalists or cabaret performers will be selected from the preliminary round of the MTI Scholarship Auditions, and will be announced at the start of the festival. Since you will not know whether you were selected for the final round or the cabaret until you are already at the festival, be sure to bring any sheet music with you that you might need.

Finalists will perform their full song with a live accompanist provided by KCACTF; you may not use your own accompanist. Finalists will have a chance to work with the accompanist and receive coachings prior to the final round.

Finalists are responsible for providing clean copies of their sheet music to the accompanist. Music should be clearly marked and secured in a binder. Please ensure that none of the notes of your songs, including those in the accompaniment, have been cut off due to a crooked or improperly sized photocopy.

Register for the MTI Scholarship Auditions via the link by December 18. You will be asked to enter your name, contact information, and audition material, and will be asked to upload your video for the preliminary round of auditions.