Performing arts students at Point Park University display their talents in front of a public audience through venues like the Pittsburgh Playhouse, but one audience is sought after unlike any other – the professional audience in the big city.Networking and opportunity for employment are the biggest draws, but not everybody gets to go to New York or Los Angeles for the theatre or cinema showcases. This year, the theatre showcase will no longer take students to both New York City and Los Angeles as it has done in the past. Instead of taking 12 students to both locations, it will take 17 to New York City.Theatre Showcase Director John Shepard said this is because of the lack of industry interest and price of traveling to the Los Angeles location.“We really have done a tremendous job in New York,” said Shepard over the phone Friday. “We have a reputation among the industry professionals of just doing one of the best showcases they see every year.”Shepard created the program 10 years ago with Jack Allison, the head of the musical theater department. For the past five years, the department has sent students to New York and Los Angeles for five days to perform at theaters. The main focus is to have agents come to the show, become interested in the graduating students and potentially represent them and land them auditions in the future.“Many of our students have gotten agents and work out of our showcase in the past; however, in New York there is a stronger culture for attending these showcases,” Shepard said. “We also have a much better alumni presence in New York.”For musical theater and jazz alumna, Sarah Meahl, it was disheartening to know she was part of the last class to enjoy both cities, but she realized that her priorities, as well as many of the other students, lay in New York City. That was where she wanted to live and work in the future.“It’s unfortunate that we can’t do both, but honestly if it gets to send more kids to New York, I think that’s where so many of us actually really want to be,” said Meahl over the phone Friday.Plans for possibly expanding the program are still in the works, Shepard said, but if the university sent all 44 theatre students who auditioned to the showcase, the industry agents would walk out because they do not have the time. Shepard said the showcase is therefore limited to an hour or less.“We are hoping that at some point in the future it becomes less competitive because it’s heartbreaking to have to reject certain students for the showcase,” Shepard said. “It’s my firm belief that all of our students deserve to go.”Ten outside theatre and industry professionals judge each student’s audition as 60 percent of his or her overall score. Faculty determines 30 percent by scoring work ethic and 10 percent is cumulative grade point average.The students chosen prepare for the showcase by taking a class in the spring.Each year the performance is different for the theatre showcase. This year, there will be 20 minutes of acting and 40 minutes of musical theater. Four of the 17 students participating are acting majors and the rest are musical theater. Each student will get about three-and-a-half minutes to showcase his or her own talent whether it is singing a song, dancing or performing a monologue or scene.“We hold the students who are in the showcase to a very high standard because they are getting an opportunity that a lot of our students aren’t getting,” Shepard said. “We also emphasize that this is just an opportunity and don’t guarantee anything. We’ve had a lot of students who have gone through our showcase who are no longer acting – who aren’t getting work.”Meahl remembered high tensions in Five Angels Theatre in New York City during her first showcase. New York City was where she wanted to live and work in the future. She knew agents who would be watching as well as peers from pervious grades and she even knew some casting directors who would be in attendance. They would all be watching – judging.“My whole career seemed to be hanging on this one thing – this one day in New York City. It’s crazy,” Meahl said.Sure enough, after singing, dancing and acting, she had seven people from the industry looking at her as a potential employee.Meahl and the other 11 students headed to Los Angeles to perform again, but her heart was set on New York.After a few more auditions, she decided to work for Bloc Agency, a prominent agency in New York City focused heavily on dance.Immediately, she booked “One for My Baby,” a Broadway workshop. Just recently, she returned from living in Philadelphia for four months playing Zaneeta Shinn in “The Music Man” for Walnut Street Theater.Meahl’s advice to students preparing for the theatre showcase is to have fun and be ready for anything. “Have the mentality of always saying yes, and everyone wants to work with someone with a happy, cheery disposition,” Meahl said. “No laziness. No one has time for that – not in New York City.”