Student Blog: My Last Auditions as a BFA Musical Theatre Student

Hey friends! It is that lovely time of year, time for auditions for my school’s spring season. I don’t know about you all, but at my school audition time can be pretty chaotic. You can feel it in the air. Everyone is rushing around to get their sheet music printed, their headshots freshly stapled to their resumes, and running to and from practice rooms left and right. Since it is my last time auditioning for conservatory, The Dobbins Conservatory at Southeast Missouri State University, I wanted to write about my experience, how my school runs auditions, and how it all went!

Our auditions are always done a little differently each year depending on the shows and what we are doing. This year, our spring shows are the world premiere of Girlhood by Ida Esmaeli: the winner of the 2024 Lanford Wilson New American Play Festival, Into the Woods, and Godspell. This year, first we had to send in video auditions for Girlhood, that way the playwright could also view our auditions. Along with our self-tape, we also sent in an audition form with our headshots and resumes and such. Those were due a week before our in-person auditions. Then, it was time for our in-person auditions for the two musicals. We sign up for a 3-minute time slot. During our time slot, we had to sing a 16-bar cut of a post-golden song and also do a 30-second contemporary monologue. And that’s our audition!

For my self-tape, I did a monologue from the TV show Gilmore Girls. It is one of my favorite tv shows ever and I use a lot of their monologues for auditions and work in class. It was Rory’s monologue when she climbs a tree and apologizes to Dean. I love this monologue. It’s one of my go-to’s, I think it fits my type super well, and it also just brings me joy. I sent the video in, and I felt good about it! A few days later, we got the callback list for Girlhood and I was called back for one of the roles! They then gave us sides to look at and read through that we would then read at the callback which took place that following Saturday morning. So, Saturday morning I did my callback and I felt good about it! I always love getting the chance to interact with new work. After that, it was time to head to my audition!

For my audition, I sang I Guess I’ll Miss the Man from Pippin and I did a monologue from Sabrina Faire by Samuel Taylor. The audition went by very quickly, and I honestly blacked out a bit. I can never fully remember everything that happens in my audition, but I remember leaving feeling pretty decent about it. I did my best and that is all I could do. Afterwards, I got my post-audition treat which was an apple-flavored iced chai latte which was oh so yummy from our local coffee shop. Later that night, the second round of callbacks went out and I got called back for Godspell, so then I headed off to a practice room to learn the callback song for the next day. Once I had learned it and felt good, I went home and went to sleep to rest up for the morning!

The next morning I got up and got ready! I stretched out in my living room with my roommate Jaley, who was also called back for Godspell, then headed back to River campus to head to a practice room to warm up. Then it was time for the callback! It started with a dance call, so we all gathered in our dance studio to learn the combo, and then we were sent out to the hallway. We were then called in by groups of 5 to do the combo twice, and then go from there. The dance combo was super fun, I had a blast doing it, it was very upbeat and contemporary. I messed up the steps, but I had fun doing it! After that it was time for the singing portion, so how this part works is that everyone called back for a role would go in the room in front of the piano in a line, we would sing through the side twice, and then go one by one down the line and perform it. The song I did was By My Side, so we all went in, sang it through, and then we were done! My last ever round of auditions at the conservatory was completed!

Audition weekend is always so crazy and hectic but I loved it. I always loved being in the middle of the chaos. Overall, I feel really proud of the work I did. I felt more sure of myself and who I was as a person and as a performer. I just had to go in there and be exactly who I am. That’s all that mattered and that’s what I did. I was the least nervous I had ever been for these auditions. I really tried to focus on the fact that these were the last ones I was going to do here at this place. I wanted to enjoy it. I wanted to enjoy every opportunity I had and everything I did. And being in that mindset gave me a really great sense of peace, that I had never felt before when going into an audition. I was so much more relaxed and a lot more sure of myself. Granted, I am a senior and this was my 8th time around doing this, but still, I think that is something I want to carry with me from now on when I audition for things. The idea that this is the one and only chance I have to go in that room and have fun and be who I am. And no matter what happened, I had a good time getting to do the thing I love to do. 

The cast lists have indeed been sent out and I am super excited to be an understudy in Girlhood! I love new plays and I’m excited to get to dive in on this one. These last set of auditions were really bittersweet. I’m gonna miss the chaos I must say. Enjoy it all while you can friends, it goes by way too fast. Enjoy your auditions. Enjoy the rooms you get to walk into. And just play. As always, go do great things.

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