Auditions

Preparing for Auditions

We will be going over each step of preparing for auditions. Your main areas to concentrate on are:

Collecting all the information you need from actors and making it accessible to the director
Creating an efficient system for getting everyone on and offstage to audition quickly
Communicating all of this to the actors and your team

As always, YOU CAN DO THIS HOWEVER YOU WANT! This handbook just provides a "cheat sheet" for people who have no idea where to start.

The first thing you need to do is talk to the director (that's probably starting to sound familiar). You need to know:

How they want auditions to run, person to person
What information they want in front of them at auditions
What information they want to have on archive
How we are doing vocal tracks
The day breakdown of auditions
Anything else they have in mind

Public & Private Audition Plan

Your personal audition plan should detail all the personnel you need (these people can come from ASMs and 7th period), what everyone will be doing during auditions, and what you need to set up for each day. Consider things like:

How tracks will be playing
If you will be using comms
If you are using audition numbers
What supplies to have at each audition station (pens, safety pins, computer, etc)
How you are transitioning between people
How many actors in the wings? Are you holding them in the classroom?
What is your sign-in process?

Here are some examples of private audition plans.

Audition Plan - Mamma Mia

SM: Alejandra Rivera-Campo

Mamma Mia (2021)

SM Audition Plan- Kiss Me Kate

SM: Zane Tesfazghi

Kiss Me Kate (2020)

The public audition packet is completely different. That is all the information you send out to the actors. It will tell them how auditions will run to keep them from being stressed out and to make sure they complete everything.

You should have links to:

Audition registration form
Vocal tracks
1139 contact database, which they need to fill out
Timeslot signup
Conflict calendar and resume (although these will be in the registration form)

You can package all the information however you want. Keep in mind that this is the actors' first glimpse of your style and organization as an SM. Below are some examples.

Audition Information

SM: Alejandra Rivera-Campo

Mamma Mia (2021)

Kiss Me, Kate Audition Info

SM: Zane Tesfazghi

Kiss Me Kate (2020)

Conflict Calendar

You will create a calendar of the entire show process with blocked off dates for performances, cue to cue, tech, and other days that everyone will be called. Specify that they need to put the date, time, and nature of conflict. The calendar should have dates, days of the week, and each month.

Actors can make a copy or print and fill it out with during their audition registration. You need to make sure you have this document from everyone because you will need it for the master conflict calendar if they get cast.

Examples (click on them to see more info)

Conflict Calendar

SM: Alejandra Rivera-Campo

Mamma Mia (2021)

Conflict Calendar- Kiss Me Kate

SM: Zane Tesfazghi

Kiss Me Kate (2020)

Conflict Calendar - Catch Me If You Can

SM: Bridget Doherty

Catch Me If You Can (2019)

Conflict Calendar Template

SM: Bella Fatigati

Little Shop of Horrors (2018)

Actors' Resume

If the director wants a resume, this will include things like theatre experience, height, performing arts classes, and other little information like that. Actors can submit their own resume if they have one.

Actors will make a copy or print & fill it out as part of their audition registration so the director can have it in front of them.

To the right is an example.

Audition Form - Mamma Mia

Vocal Tracks

Dimino and Pollard will record vocal tracks that they want people to sing in their audition. You need to get the links to these and put them in a Google Drive folder, labeled, and then link them in the public audition packet.

Alternatively, if this is Districts and people are singing their own tracks, make sure to get a link in their audition registration and organize it so that you can have tracks all set up ready to play.

Airtable

In order to set up for auditions, you will need a working knowledge of Airtable. Create an account at airtable.com and set up your workspace for your show. Make sure to share the entire workspace with boonetheatre@gmail.com.

There are archives of auditions Airtables in the boonetheatre Airtable account so you can see how past stage managers did it. Here is the one from Guys and Dolls, which includes time slots and is more updated than the graphic below:

Guys and Dolls Audition Airtable

I think it's a great idea to learn the ways of Airtable so making it your own is always better, but the templates work just as well as a reference or if you want to follow it exactly.

The templates were designed under COVID, so you will need to adjust somewhat to make it organized by Days rather than by Face to Face or Virtual. Look in the Archives for more recent shows if that will help you.

Airtable Terminology

Workspace: A collection of bases organized for a specific purpose, such as "1139 Auditions" or "Archives"

Base: An individual "sheet", such as "Mamma Mia Auditions"

View: A different way of looking at the same information. A form view will deposit information into a grid view, but it's all the same spreadsheet, just visualized differently

Record: A row in Airtable (answers to a form)

Field: A column in Airtable (questions in a form)

Table: New sheets within a base, which can have different information (e.g. a table for time slots, a table for actors, etc.)

Link to another record: Can deposit information from one table into another table. Another way to think of it is that it presents records from one table as options to select in another table

Field types: Multiple select, single select, checkbox, dates, times, etc.

Airtable Tools

Group: will arrange records based on certain criteria in grid view. You can collapse and expand groups, such as when a time slot is over

Filter: will only show records that meet a certain criteria

Sort: will display records in a certain order

Share view: you can create a shareable link that will allow people to fill out a form or see a grid view

Registration Form (Actors Table)

For this, you will set up a form view, a grid view, and a gallery view. The form view will provide the link you send out to actors in the top left corner (make sure you close the form when the deadline passes). The grid view gives you all their information at once. The gallery view will give headshots of all the actors so the director can click and see all their info.

Form View

**Make all questions REQUIRED!!

Questions & Field Type

Name (single line text)
GPA (single line text)
Which track they are singing (link to Tracks)
Headshot (file upload)
Audition resume w/ link (file upload)
Conflict calendar w/ link (file upload)
Will they accept an understudy position? (checkbox)
Any show-specific questions, e.g. playing the guitar
Did they fill out contact database? (checkbox)

You can also add a conditional field, which will ask them a question only if they select a certain answer above.

**UPDATE: We now include time slots in this form to make things a little easier. Check out the Guys and Dolls Airtable to see how it works. You will need to list all your time slots in another table in the Airtable, then add another view with a filter so that it only shows empty time slots. Then have actors select a time slot in the audition registration form, select a record from the time slots table, and "limit record selection to a view" and choose your hidden view. That way time slots should disappear as they are filled.

Grid View

Add each of their audition numbers next to their name and sort by first to last name. You will also want to hide any columns that are not immediately helpful to look at.

Make sure everything works––their conflict calendar and headshot need to load, etc, because you will need that information later.

Gallery View

You can hide any items you don't want to see in the actor cards by clicking on "Customize Cards"––for example, maybe you just want to see headshots and names.

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