Auditions at SM East Theatre

• 5 audition opportunities per year

  • Musical Revue - Vocal audition, prepared in style of show

    • This is a no-cut show!

  • Fall Play - Spoken audition, prepared monologue based off the show's genre, commonly Dramatic

  • Winter Musical - Vocal audition, prepared in style of show in 16 bars; Dance audition also required to participate which is a group event

  • Spring Play - Spoken audition, prepared monologue based off the show's genre or improv activities, commonly Comedy

  • Frequent Friday’s - Cold read auditions, you do not need to prepare anything for these auditions - the materials will be given to you at the time of auditioning

• Materials needed for auditions are posted in advance to the audition date

• All vocal auditions take place in the choir room, all dance auditions take place in the auditorium, and spoken auditions vary depending on space availability

• Auditions take around 5 minutes, and the cast list is posted within the week

• Musical auditions require a Callback with a certain amount of students to do Cold Read/Sing.

  • If you don't receive a callback, it doesn't mean you weren't cast!!

Auditions in East Theatre can be one of the most exciting events of the year. With four opportunities to audition, it can be overwhelming to know what to prepare and how to go about auditioning, so let me break it down for you. We always kick the year off with our Musical Revue, which is a no-cut cabaret of songs from a specific genre of music. The Revue requires a singing audition to participate, but you can not be cut from this show. Generally, the directors will send out a list of songs that match the style of the show, then you can choose which one you like best and go from there.

Then, we have our two mainstage shows per year that do not involve singing - the Fall and Spring Play. For those auditions, you will be asked to memorize a monologue (usually of your choice) that matches the genre of the show. Depending on the show and how involved it can be, Cappy may ask you to do some improv exercises as well.

The Winter Musical requires a singing and dancing audition to participate - no exceptions. The dance audition takes place on stage in the auditorium with our choreographer, Bubba. There, she will teach you a 30 second dance combination from the show. After learning this dance, you will be split into groups based off numbers, and will be asked to perform the combination for Bubba. The dance audition takes around 30 minutes overall. For the vocal audition, the directors ask that you prepare about 20-30 seconds of a song that matches the genre and time period of the show, but it must be a song from a musical! After the dance and singing auditions take place, the callback list will be posted. Callbacks are when the directors would like to see a select few individuals read and sing for specific parts in the show to make final casting decisions. The cast list is always posted the same week as auditions.

If mainstages aren’t for you, we also have many opportunities throughout the year to audition for Advance Repertory Theatre’s Frequent Friday’s! These are small, one-act plays that are completely done by seniors who have moved through all 4 years of the theatre classes. They’re perfect for freshman trying to get involved in theatre, and they’re a lot of fun to be in! Any audition can be stressful, but hopefully this gave you a quick idea as to what goes on behind the scenes.