JOHN COFFELTEditor

Coffee County Central High School senior Alyssa Freeze has accepted an offer to enter Lipscomb University’s Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) Musical Theatre program.

Freeze has secured academic acceptance at 21 universities, but to get into a prestigious collegiate theater program, grades are just the start.

Freeze said she has been in the process for pretty much her entire senior year. Colleges admit between eight and 20 students into the BFA programs, weeding through about 500 applicant auditions, all of them very talented.

“We’ve travelled to Chicago for auditions,” Freeze said. “We’ve travelled to Ohio for auditions, we’ve done a lot of virtual.”

BFA Theater program auditions are a multi-stage affair. Prospective actors, singers and dancers (Freeze is accomplished at all) must first send in short audition videos to be then chosen be the school to come audition.

Quite literally, an actor’s future academic path can come down to 90-second prescreen audition tapes.

“They want you to send in a video of two songs, two dance videos… and a 90-second monologue.”

Freeze said that she thought long and hard about what numbers to do for her videos. It required a realistic look at her strengths and weaknesses.

“I decided what showcases my voice the best,” she said. “A lot of times you really want to have two songs that contrast each other well. I had one song that was upbeat and fast, and a slow ballad.”

“Choosing a monologue is insane because you only get one monologue,” Freeze added. “Do I want to be dramatic, do I want to show comedic?”

Freeze did “Crazier for You,” from her recent Millennium Reparatory Company production of “Addams Family and “Fly, Fly Away,” from “Catch Me if You Can.” Her monologue was “Fire the Boy.”

Those chosen are given a time and place for the audition. It’s up to them to make that work.

The actual audition is usually the same material, but for the dance call, the dance master teaches a quick routine that the actor must memorize.

Her dance call at Lipscomb was “Give me, Give me” from “Momma Mia.”

“It was so much fun,” she said.

In a dance class or even a dance rehearsal there’s time for questions – to really flush out what the chorographer is looking for. At a dance call, the hardest part is learning fast, unless you count the three eight-counts of improv.

“It’s a lot more high stakes, high pressure, but I have to say that’s my favorite part,” Freeze said. “What I love about a dance call – I love being able to showcase my skill and showcase being able to learn fast. I think that is what sets me apart from the other people auditioning.”

Freeze’s accomplishments in theater are impressive, and while her goals are impressive as well, her career outlook is refreshingly modest.

“Honestly, I just want to be able to work in the theater industry,” she said. “I don’t want to do theater for reasons of fame or people to know who I am. I want to do it for the art form. That is the important part to me.”

“I would be so lucky to be able to say, I do what I love for a job. I feel there is no better feeling in the world,” Freeze said.

Freeze is an accomplished actor, growing up in the local community theaters. She has played

Wednesday in the “Addams Family,” the title character as a child in “Annie” and worked on the professional stage at Cumberland County Playhouse. She fell in love with the stage as a two-year-old watching MRC’s production of “Seuss-ical.”

“I so enjoy being and telling stories on stage and being a part of something that make people so many emotions. It’s an incredible experience. I couldn’t imagine not being a part of that or doing anything else,” Freeze said.

John has been with the Manchester Times since May 2011. John has won Tennessee Press Association awards for Best News Photo and placed in numerous other categories. John is a 1994 graduate of Tullahoma High School, a graduate of Motlow State Community College and earned a Bachelor of Arts in English from Middle Tennessee State University. He lives in Tullahoma, enjoys painting, dancing and exploring the outdoors.