Student Blog: Audition Season: The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

Last week, my college concluded their auditions for our next semester plays. Just a refresher-I attend the Dobbins Conservatory of Theatre and Dance at Southeast Missouri State University. This years auditions were unlike any other auditions we’ve had previously. Audition season can be so stressful, and since my college just was in the midst of it, I assume other colleges are too, so I wanted to touch on auditions a bit and what those looked like for me this year.

So, my school next semester is doing the World Premiere of the Lanford Wilson New American Play Festival Winner Our Play by Jessica Moss, The Wizard of Oz, the world premiere of Randi and Roxanne by Rachel Graf Evans, and Yeast Nation. Normally, we do auditions for all of the next semester’s shows on one day or over two days, and then callbacks are in the next following days. This year was a little different. Auditions occurred over three weekends this year. To start us off, since the playwrights of the world premieres also needed to be able to see our videos, for Our Play and Randi and Roxanne, we sent in 60 second videos to the directors for our first weekend of auditions. The following weekend was just Wizard of Oz. For Wizard of Oz, we had to sing a 60 second golden age or jazz song and do a 30 second monologue. I sang Boy Next Door from Meet Me in St. Louis and then I did a monologue from the play Sabrina Faire by Samuel Taylor. I had fun at this audition. I loved the material I went in with, and I just performed. I felt pretty good about it. I then got a callback for the ensemble and had callbacks the following day on Sunday. It was a dance callback where we learned a small dance combination and then performed it. The combo was really cute and fun and gave us the opportunity to add our own style into it, which I really enjoyed. That concluded the second weekend of auditions!

The following weekend was time for Yeast Nation and we were given the opportunity to audition for Randi and Roxanne in person. For the Yeast Nation auditions, we were asked to prepare a 60 second pop/rock or musical theatre pop/rock song and a 30 second monologue. So, I sang Tonight Tonight by Hot Chelle Rae and I did a monologue from Gilmore Girls. I was so excited for this audition. I love Tonight Tonight. It sounds so silly, but I used to listen to that song every Friday on my way to school in high school which sounds incredibly dorky, but it just made me happy and put me in a good mood. I also love Gilmore Girls and the writing for Gilmore Girls, so overall I was excited to get to go in and perform material that I love. I did get a callback for Yeast Nation which I was very excited about. I was called back for two roles. The callbacks were the next day and they were good. We started with a dance call and then later that day, they had all of us go in and sing first, and then we got to read sides for the characters we were called back for. A bunch of us had another rehearsal for the Lanford Wilson One Acts that we had to go to, so they were really great about letting the people who had to leave go in first and do their callbacks so we could leave in time. I walked away feeling good. This concluded auditions for the year!

This year's auditions were unlike previous years, but I kind of liked it. My brain moves very fast and I like to overthink things. A lot. But, these auditions forced me to slow down and focus on each show’s audition individually and I couldn’t overthink it as much as normal. I had to take one thing at a time. And that was really nice.

Audition season has always been scary for me. I just want to be a part of something and experience it so bad, that the fear of not getting cast creeps in, I get in my head, and then I don’t do as well as I want. I’ve tried to get rid of it, but it rears its head every once in a while. I’ve come to realize that the fear I’m feeling just means that I care. And at least I still care. Because if I don’t, there's no point in continuing on anymore. Auditions can be intense, but they can also be so exciting if approached the right way. This year, I decided that I was gonna love getting to audition. Because all it is is a chance to perform and be exactly who I am. And I love to sing. I love to act. I love to dance. And I chose pieces that I love and that I get to add parts of me into. I loved this audition season. Because I finally let myself relax and have fun. Because whatever happens happens. And all I can do is go in that room and give it all I’ve got. It’s only 3 minutes of my life. And that is so exciting.

Find joy. Remember why you're in that room. As always, go do great things.