SCHEDULING
The Direct Audition application deadline is January 9th.
Once we have received your completed online application, and your fee of $135 for U.S. Citizens and lawful U.S. Permanent Residents (and $155 for all other applicants), the Drama Office will contact you to confirm receipt of your application and set up a personal audition time.
Sometime after that audition, you will be notified if you have been invited to callbacks.
These callbacks will be held in Irvine on Saturday February 14th and Sunday February 15th, 2026. Should you be called back, and if you are seriously interested in attending the graduate acting program at UC Irvine, please hold these dates.
REQUIREMENTS
Remember that the combined total length of your two contrasting audition monologues should be no more than three minutes, and that one should be classical, preferably in verse.
If you wish to sing a short song (no more than 30 seconds in length), you must provide your own pre-recorded accompaniment.
It would be wise, both for live and prerecorded auditions, to invest time and care in production values such as lighting and audio, so we can see and hear you well.
LOCATIONS
Deadline: Applications for the program will be accepted through January 9th.
Auditions for the next incoming MFA Acting class will be held live. If you cannot make the in-person audition dates and locations, you may submit a prerecorded video audition. We ask for two monologues of your choice.
This year's Direct Auditions will be held:
New York → Monday, January 12
Chicago → Saturday, January 24
UC Irvine → Saturday, January 31
Specific locations and times of auditions will be shared with you upon receipt of your application.
Approximately 25 actors will be invited to in-person callbacks at UC Irvine on the weekend of February 14th & 15th.
VIDEOS
A live audition is vastly preferable to a video audition for reasons that are probably clear to you. However, a video submission can often be a useful supplement as we work through our deliberations. For that reason, Please be ready to submit a video should we ask for one.
URTAs
In addition to our private UCI auditions for direct applicant listed above, we will also be in virtual attendance at all of the regularly scheduled URTA auditions. At the URTA auditions, our acting representatives may invite candidates to apply directly to UCI at that time.
Direct applicants to UCI are not required to audition through URTA. Nor does participation in URTA make it possible for UCI to waive its application fee.