How to Audition for Musical Theater

Musical theater is a great way for singers to up their game, expand their horizons and gain valuable performance skills.

But whether you’ve played the lead in every major production that’s rolled through your town or you’ve only just started thinking about hitting the theatrical stage, it all starts with the audition.

You can generally find everything you need to know about musical theater audition opportunities in your area online.   Just google ‘your city’ ‘musical theater auditions’ and you should have a few links that will get you started.  Late winter/early spring is a popular time to cast shows for the summer season so February is a good time to begin your audition planning.

There are basically three types of musical theater opportunities:

1. Fee based (usually children’s theater organizations who charge you a fee to participate and receive some theater training)
2. Volunteer (generally community theater organizations for older kids through adults) and,
3. Paid (for Equity actors, which are basically union members)  Some theaters may also offer paid parts to non-equity actors.

Every theater organization has their own rules for the audition process, but here’s a basic breakdown of the two most common:

• Casual Audition: May allow you to sing with a karaoke track or acapella.  Doesn’t require a bio or headshots.  May ask you to recite a prepared monologue (solo act).
• Standard Audition: Will require a bio and headshot (more on that in a bit).  Will also require you to bring marked sheet music for an accompanist to play 16 bars for you to sing along to.  Will generally require you to learn a dance step and perform it as well as reading from a selection provided for you.

So what is the best way to prepare?  Here are a few tips to make sure you’re ready for any audition;

Always have two pieces of music prepared: a ballad and an uptempo song. You never want to audition with a song from the production you’re auditioning for so it’s good to build your song list as time allows.  Depending on the types of auditions you’ll be taking on, buy sheet music and mark 16 bars of the chorus (or another part if it highlights your ability better) or buy the karaoke track to have on hand.   Why do you need both types of songs?  You may choose a ballad and be asked to sing something more upbeat or visa versa.  Either way, you’re prepared!

Prepare a bio. Even if it’s not required, it will help to sell your talent to the decision makers.  A bio should include at least your name, age, height and weight at the top.  Below, it should list ANYthing you’ve done that has made you a better actor/singer.  Generally this would be names of productions you’ve been in, the organization that put it on and the part you played.  If you’re slim on experience, expand on the bottom section, which should include other public singing/speaking experience and special education like voice instruction and dance classes you’ve taken.  Why all the extras?  It may just be your mad karate skills that tip the scales in your favorite for the new Karate Kid Musical (no… that doesn’t really exist.)

Include a picture/headshot. This can be as simple as a nice snapshot of you in the upper right hand of your bio sheet or a full 8×10, if you happen to have one.  Actors who pursue paid roles generally have an 8×10 or a photo card, which is usually a postcard sized photo sheet showing them as different characters.  It’s not necessary to have either of these for most volunteer auditions, but if you’re competing in a large market (LA, NY, Chicago, San Fran, etc.) for equity roles you’ll want to have one.

BEST ONLINE RESOURCES FOR AUDITIONING FOR MUSICAL THEATER

Get Your Music:

Musical Theatre Audition: Invaluable for it’s searchable database of audition songs by gender, age, style and more. (click the ‘songs’ button) LOVE that it tells you which songs are overused in auditions.  Avoid those like the plague.  Directors are so tired of hearing them that it really works against you.

Music Notes: Purchase and download sheet music to audition with.  This is the only site I’ve found that includes a ‘Hear It’ button so you can actually listen to the arrangement and double check that it’s in a good key for you and let’s you transpose it if it’s not!  That’s HUGE.

Total Sheet Music: Also allows you to listen and download sheet music.  No transposing, but a great library of stuff to choose from.

The Karaoke Channel: Claims to be the worlds largest karaoke library.  They do have a ton of good stuff.  Click the link and get six free songs when you purchase six.

iTunes Store: They must have the worlds 2nd largest library of karaoke tracks.  Easy to search and download.

Get Audition Info:

BackStage: Good resource for union and equity actors to see who’s auditioning for what.  Requires registration.

Stage Agent: Also geared toward union and equity auditions, but some community theaters are listed.  Requires registration.

Auditions Theater: Not a very well organized site, but includes both non-equity and equity auditions and an email list.

Other Resources:

Google Directory of Musical Resources: A long list of organizations that provide related resources for auditioning.

DMOZ Directory of Audition Resources: Much shorter list, some repeats, but good stuff.

Have a question?  An audition story?  A resource to add?  Leave it in the comments section below.

Now, get out there and audition!