Student Blog: AUDITIONS - Learning from Losses and Celebrating Wins

Auditioning can be one of the most brutal parts of an actor's career. You can go in so prepared and confident and still not book the show. I'd like to share some of my audition wins and losses from this spring audition season at my university, what I've learned, and how I've celebrated.

The weekend before spring classes began this January, the University of Colorado Boulder Department of Theatre and Dance held auditions for the semester's main stage productions. The productions that we are putting on this semester are Antigone, Presented by the Girls of St. Catherine's and Stephen Sondheim's Company.

I fell in love with Company when I saw the revival in March of 2022 on a trip to New York, so when CU announced we would be putting on the show this spring I knew I had to be a part of it. I put everything I had into that audition, and I was overjoyed when I received a callback. Again, I put everything I had into it and I was proud of the work I had done.

I was so anxious the entire night that the cast list for Company was supposed to come out. Unfortunately, when it did, I was not cast in the show. I was devastated, and I let myself have a good cry over it. There were so many talented people at callbacks and I'm just bummed that I don't get to act alongside them.

But the next day I had two more auditions to do for other productions the school is putting on this semester. So I picked myself up and auditioned for our Student Sandbox Series as well as a CU Community Outreach performance of The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane that will be touring local elementary schools and libraries.

As a result of these two auditions I am so excited to announce that I will be part of the CU Community Outreach performance of The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane this semester. I've had some experience with touring children's theatre in high school, and I'm so excited to be touring again. I think this show brings out my favorite element of theatre, storytelling. We are quite literally telling a story from a children's book, adapted into a play, and what better audience to tell the story to than children? I'm so excited to bring this story to kids all over the Boulder area and inspire the future storytellers of our world.

Auditioning is hard, and after so many rejections it can seem impossible to try again, but I refuse to give up. An idea that I am trying to implement in my auditions is that my audition is my opportunity to perform. Sure, I may not be cast in the show, but this is my chance to perform for the people in the room and give them my best show while also getting to do what I love. Another thing that I always try to remind myself of is that the people behind the table are rooting for you and want you to be the right person for the role just as much as you do. It can be hard to remember this when you don't end up getting cast, but you must remember that your time will come, and when it does it will be perfect.

It's really hard to know what to do and how to feel when something you really want doesn't come to fruition, but I am grateful for the experiences that I've had this audition season. I know there are many more rejections to come in the future, but I know there are also so many more yeses.